The history of modern Russian military intelligence begins on November 5, 1918, when by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the republic, the Registration Directorate of the Field Headquarters of the Red Army (RUPShKA) was established, the legal successor of which is now the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU GSh).
About the fate of the most famous military intelligence officers of our country. Richard Sorge

Certificate issued to Richard Sorge by the OGPU for the right to carry and store a Mauser pistol.

One of the outstanding scouts of the 20th century was born in 1895 near Baku into a large family of German engineer Gustav Wilhelm Richard Sorge and Russian citizen Nina Kobeleva. A few years after the birth of Richard, the family moved to Germany, where he grew up. Sorge took part in the First World War on both the western and eastern fronts, and was repeatedly wounded. The horrors of the war affected not only his health, but also contributed to a radical change in his worldview. From an enthusiastic German patriot, Sorge turned into a staunch Marxist. In the mid-1920s, after the ban of the German Communist Party, he moved to the USSR, where, after getting married and receiving Soviet citizenship, he began to work in the apparatus of the Comintern.
In 1929, Richard transferred to the Fourth Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters (military intelligence). In the 1930s, he was sent first to China (Shanghai) and then to Japan, where he arrives as a German correspondent.It was the Japanese period that made Sorge famous. It is generally accepted that in his numerous encryption programs he warned Moscow about an imminent German attack on the USSR, and then bestial Stalin that Japan would maintain neutrality towards our country. This allowed the Soviet Union, at a critical moment for it, to transfer new Siberian divisions to Moscow.
However, Sorge himself in October 1941 was exposed and captured by the Japanese police. The investigation into his case lasted almost three years. On November 7, 1944, a Soviet intelligence officer was hanged in Tokyo's Sugamo prison, and 20 years later, on November 5, 1964, Richard Sorge was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Nikolay Kuznetsov

Nikanor (original name) Kuznetsov was born in 1911 into a large peasant family in the Urals. After studying to be an agronomist in Tyumen, he returned home in the late 1920s. Kuznetsov early showed outstanding linguistic abilities, he almost independently learned six dialects of the German language. Then he worked in logging, was twice expelled from the Komsomol, then took an active part in collectivization, after which, apparently, he came to the attention of the state security bodies. Since 1938, after spending several months in a Sverdlovsk prison, Kuznetsov became an operative of the central apparatus of the NKVD. Disguised as a German engineer at one of the Moscow aircraft factories, he successfully tried to infiltrate the diplomatic environment of Moscow.

Nikolai Kuznetsov in the uniform of a German officer.

After the outbreak of World War II in January 1942, Kuznetsov was enrolled in the 4th NKVD Directorate, which, under the leadership of Pavel Sudoplatov, was engaged in reconnaissance and sabotage work behind the front line in the rear of the German troops. Since October 1942, Kuznetsov, under the name of German officer Paul Siebert, with documents of an employee of the secret German police, conducted intelligence activities in Western Ukraine, in particular, in the city of Rivne, the administrative center of the Reichskommissariat.

The feats of soldiers and commanders, soldiers and officers of the Red Army, committed by them during the Great Patriotic War, are known to many, but the combat pages of the NKVD, the People's Commissariat, turned by Russophobic propaganda into a bunch of executioners and sadists, nowadays often remain in the shadows.

Part 1. Lion Hunter

The fate of Pavel Sudoplatov, a scout and saboteur, may well form the basis of an excellent movie. Which one? Judge for yourself.

Born in 1907 into a poor and large family in Melitopol, inspired by Bukharin's book "The ABC of the Revolution", as a 12-year-old boy, Pavel dropped out of school and left his home, escaping with a horse detachment passing through the city. The Red Army soldiers in those places fought with Ukrainian nationalists - the detachments of Petliura and Konovalets (with whom life would later confront him again).

The pupil of the regiment took part in battles, was captured, fled, was homeless in Odessa, and after the capture of the city by the Reds, by 1921, he again found himself in the ranks of the Red Army. In the same 21st, as one of the few who can read and write, he falls into the detachment of the Special Department (previously ambushed and suffered heavy losses) as a ransomware. So the 14-year-old Pavel began serving in the state security bodies, and at 15 he went to the border troops. Further, Sudoplatov's career went up: from the 23rd year in the Komsomol work, from the 25th - in the Melitopol GPU, from the 28th - a member of the CPSU (b) and an employee of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR. In the same period of his life, Sudoplatov married a girl from Gomel, Emma Kaganova (in fact, her name was Sulamith Krimker).

In 1932, Pavel was transferred to Moscow, and the next year he was sent to work in the Foreign Department of the GPU, where the fluent Ukrainian Sudoplatov was assigned to work against Ukrainian nationalists. There, the courier and the illegal agent also quickly advanced in the service, the orders became more and more serious - the intelligence officer was instructed to prepare sabotage, intelligence operations, and the creation of agent networks. Pavel was classified, his reports were signed with the pseudonym "Andrey", and only his immediate supervisors and close relatives knew about him.

Regularly traveling abroad, in 1935 he was able to infiltrate the circle of the leaders of the OUN in Berlin. The head of the Ukrainian nationalists was already known to us Konovalets. His plans included the seizure of a number of regions of the Ukrainian SSR and the creation of an "independent" Ukraine, moreover, under the leadership of the Third Reich. Nationalists trained militant groups and terrorist groups.

Konovalets

Sudoplatov, who "made friends" with Konovalets, in 1938 received an order to eliminate the chief nationalist. For this, they made a bomb disguised as a box of Konovalets' favorite sweets. When the nationalist was finished, a split occurred in the ranks of the OUN - Bandera and Melnik (Konovalets' successor) fought between themselves, and Sudoplatov, disguised as a Polish volunteer, went to Spain. There, in the ranks of the international partisan detachment, he met Ramon Mercader del Rio.

Returning to Moscow, Pavel met with Beria, to whom he reported on the results of the liquidation of the leader of the OUN and continued to work in the NKVD.After Yezhov's arrest, however, hard days came in Sudoplatov's life, he was almost expelled from the party, but ... In March 1939 he came challenge to Stalin.

The leader instructed Sudoplatov to prepare an operation to eliminate Trotsky who settled in Mexico, Beria was to report personally, and Pavel himself was appointed deputy intelligence chief, giving the broadest powers to recruit a group of militants.

To help himself, Sudoplatov took an experienced saboteur Naum Eitingon. The nickname in the Cheka is Leonid. It was he who recruited people he knew from the war in Spain who could infiltrate Trotsky's entourage. Lev Davidovich, by the way, by that time had developed a vigorous activity: he tried with might and main to split and turn the world communist movement against Stalin, collaborated with the Abwehr and helped organize a rebellion against the republican government in Barcelona.

Taki Trotsky

The operation to eliminate Trotsky was called "The Duck", although Sudoplatov himself called it "The Lion Hunt". Eitingon created 2 groups - "Horse" and "Mother". The first was led by one of the founders of the Spanish Communist Party, the Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros, the second - by the former anarchist Caridad Mercader. Both groups were unaware of each other's existence.

The first attempt, led by Siqueiros, was unsuccessful - the fighters who recruited a guard named Hart (a US citizen), in military and police uniforms, broke into the courtyard of Trotsky's house and opened fire on the bedroom. They fired at the room for about 15 minutes, but neither Trotsky nor his wife were injured. The only result of the assassination attempt was a scratch on the leg of Trotsky's grandson who was sleeping in the next room, and the only victim was a recruited security guard who was killed for conspiracy. Trotsky himself never found out about Hart's role in the assassination attempt, so a memorial plaque appeared on the guard's house: "In memory of Robert Sheldon Hart, 1915-1940, killed by Stalin."

Siqueiros

Sudoplatov analyzed the operation: poor preparation was named as the reason for the failure. The members of the Siqueiros group, who fought in Spain, had neither the experience of special operations, nor the experience of searching and clearing buildings. In general, Beria was furious, Eitingon announced his readiness to be punished, and Stalin ordered the use of the second group. Trotsky wasted no time either, fortifying the house and strengthening the guards. The members of the "Horse" group were arrested, but Siqueiros, although he admitted guilt, said that the attack had one purpose: to exert psychological pressure and force Trotsky to leave Mexico.

In the second group, an important role was assigned to the son of its leader, already familiar to Sudoplatov, Ramon Mercader. Back in 1938, in Paris he met the sister of an employee of Trotsky's secretariat, a resident of New York, Sylvia Ageloff. A relationship began between them, the matter was close to marriage ... It is worth noting that Mercader posed as a Belgian Jacques Montrard, a wealthy heir, the son of the Belgian consul in Tehran. In 1939, under the name Frank Jackson, with a fake Canadian passport, he arrived in New York. He told Sylvia that in this way he "mows" the army. A little later, Ramon moved to Mexico, where he was waiting for his bride. She came to her beloved, thanks to her sister got a job in Trotsky's secretariat, and Mercader, playing the role of a convinced Trotskyist, gained access to the estate of the future victim ...

On August 20, 1940, Mercader remained in Trotsky's office, inviting him to read his article. Deep in reading, he did not notice how the saboteur pulled out an ice ax from under his cloak. The blow fell in the back of the head, but Trotsky not only did not die right away, but also managed to utter a cry ... Mercader was arrested and declared the motive for the murder of personal hostility. He managed to hide his name for 6 years, and Ramon was released only in 1960. Then, during a visit to the USSR, Mercader received the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sudoplatov, in addition to supervising the assassination of Trotsky, continued to engage in intelligence - he went under the guise of "adviser Molotov" to Latvia, participated in the operation to annex Western Ukraine ...

Part 2. Defending the Fatherland

Among the awards of Pavel Sudoplatov is the Order of Suvorov II degree. It was awarded to the commanders of corps, divisions and brigades, their deputies and chiefs of staff:

For organizing a battle to defeat an enemy corps or division, achieved with less forces, as a result of a sudden and decisive attack based on the full interaction of fire weapons, equipment and manpower;

For breaking through the enemy's modern defensive zone, developing the breakthrough and organizing the relentless pursuit, encirclement and destruction of the enemy;

For organizing a battle while being surrounded by numerically superior enemy forces, withdrawing from this encirclement and maintaining the combat effectiveness of its units, their weapons and equipment;

For a deep raid behind enemy lines made by an armored formation, as a result of which a sensitive blow was inflicted on the enemy, ensuring the successful implementation of an army operation.

General's award, so to speak. It seems that Sudoplatov was not a commander. Or?..

On June 16, 1941, Pavel Anatolyevich received a call: “Beria, summoning me to his office, gave the order to organize a special group of intelligence officers under his direct subordination. She was supposed to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage actions in case of war. At the moment, our first task was to create a strike group from among experienced saboteurs capable of resisting any attempt to use provocative incidents on the border as a pretext for starting a war, "Sudoplatov wrote in his book" Intelligence and the Kremlin ".

Naum Eitingon

Naum Eitingon became Sudoplatov's deputy, his task was to provide communication between the group's fighters and the military command. Both Chekists developed plans to destroy fuel depots that supplied German motorized tank units, which had already begun to concentrate on our borders, but a conversation with General Pavlov, commander of the Western Special Military District, which took place on June 20, showed terrible: the general was not interested in the situation on the border and he confidently declared that even if the Germans suddenly attacked, there would be no problem. On June 22, when equipment that was not even prepared for battle fell into the hands of the treacherously attacking Germans and their European allies, it turned out that Pavlov's assessments were very far from reality. By the way, on June 18, a directive was sent to the troops on bringing them to full combat readiness, which was simply ignored by this general, as well as by his subordinates. You already know the price of such arbitrariness ...

But the border guards subordinate to the NKVD, as you know, held out to the last. Like many commanders and soldiers of the Red Army, cut off from the command.

On the very first day of the War, the relevance of sabotage work in the German rear, into which the Soviet territory was rapidly turning, increased a thousandfold. Sudoplatov began to supervise this work, but the documentation appeared later - only on July 5, when the Special Group was officially created, on the basis of the First (intelligence) department of the NKVD. In addition to sabotage, the group had to deal with the opening of enemy intelligence networks, the extraction of intelligence, radio games and misinformation of the enemy.

“We needed a huge number of people, thousands and thousands. No NKGB staff could have withstood this. This is how the idea arose of creating a special military unit, which would have to deal exclusively with reconnaissance and sabotage work, "the intelligence officer recalled. Where to get shots? Experienced security officers recalled from retirement, from prisons, and a recruitment of volunteers began. More than 800 athletes were included in the group - without exaggeration, the whole color of Soviet sports: football players, runners, weightlifters, boxers, shooters ... Among them, for example, the Znamensky brothers runners or the famous boxer Nikolai Korolev. As a result, the group included ... 25 thousand people! This is how a separate motorized rifle brigade of special purpose (OMSBON) appeared - a real special forces of the NKVD.

From Sudoplatov's book "Special Operations": "We had more than twenty-five thousand soldiers and commanders under our command, including two thousand foreigners - Germans, Austrians, Spaniards, Americans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and Romanians."

Some statistics of the combat work of the Brigade:

derailed 1,415 enemy trains;

more than 120 garrisons, commandant's offices and headquarters were defeated;

more than 90 km of rail tracks were blown up;

about 700 km of cable for telephone and telegraph lines were destroyed;

335 railway and highway bridges were blown up and burned;

344 industrial enterprises and warehouses were destroyed;

87 high-ranking German officials were liquidated;

2045 enemy intelligence groups were exposed and rendered harmless;

in more than a thousand open battles with punishers, units of the Wehrmacht and the SS, more than 150 thousand fascists were destroyed;

27 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On the account of the brigade fighters legendary operations "Concert", "Rail War", "Citadel" ... Not a single Soviet military formation was as effective.

Partisan commander Dmitry Medvedev

It should be especially noted that Sudoplatov himself did not "sit out" in Moscow. So, in the summer of 42, the scout gathered a group of climbers in a day and went with them to the Caucasus: to defend the passes and conduct sabotage. The Germans never got the Caucasian oil, and when the group withdrew, Pavel Anatolyevich was in the cover detachment ...

But we will return to the Order of Suvorov.

Naturally, German intelligence did not sit still and, naturally, actively tried to obtain the most accurate and truthful information about the plans of the Soviet command. Naturally, there was a need to prevent this. Operation "Monastery" was developed, the main role in which belonged to the intelligence officer Alexander Demyanov, and the leadership - to Sudoplatov. Coming from the nobility, Demyanov already had contacts with the Germans, and he was taught radio business and encryption by none other than Abel himself ...

Alexander Demyanov on the right

In general, at the end of 1941, Demyanov crossed the front line and talked about the underground church-monarchist anti-Soviet organization Prestol, of which he was, and, moreover, was sent just to communicate with the German command. The scout withstood constant interrogations, checks, the Germans even decided to "shoot" him. German intelligence decided to use the "anti-Soviet" and sent him to study at the Abwehr school, assigned the pseudonym "Max", and already in March 1942 sent him to the territory of the USSR. After 2 weeks, the first "misinformation" went to Germany ... In addition to constantly misinforming the Germans, the operation had other, "side" effects - German agents, saboteurs and messengers were arrested - about 60 people. Several million Soviet rubles received from the Germans also "earned" on the "Monastyr"!

How important was Operation Monastery? Sudoplatov wrote: “On November 4, 1942,“ Heine ”(“ Max ”) reported to the Abwehr that the Red Army would strike on November 15 not near Stalingrad, but in the North Caucasus and near Rzhev. The Germans were expecting a blow near Rzhev and repelled it. The encirclement and capture of the group of German troops under the command of Field Marshal Paulus at Stalingrad came as a complete surprise to them, which ultimately opened the way for the Red Army to defeat Nazi Germany in May 1945. "

It was after Stalingrad that Sudoplatov, together with Eitingon, received the Order of Suvorov. Well, why not a commander?

And the Germans highly appreciated Demyanov and even awarded him the Iron Cross ... The Soviet command did not leave the intelligence officer without awards: for Stalingrad he was awarded the Order of the Red Star ...

Information from "Max" came to the Abwehr until the summer of 1944, when Demyanov was "transferred" from the General Staff to the railway troops, and operation "Borodino" began instead of "Monastyr". Both radio games were never revealed by German intelligence. The degree of secrecy was such that even Zhukov did not know about the radio game, and Churchill in 1943 warned Stalin about the "mole" working for the Germans in the Soviet General Staff.

Not only against the Germans ...

The amount of work shouldered by Sudoplatov was simply enormous. In 1944, he was assigned to extract information on the "Manhattan Project" - the development of an American atomic bomb. The work was organized so successfully that Stalin received test results almost before Roosevelt ...

RDS-1

The information obtained by Sudoplatov's agents made it possible to greatly accelerate the interrupted by the war work on the creation of our nuclear "club".

The contribution of Pavel Anatolyevich to our Victory, as well as to the further security of the USSR, cannot be overestimated, but Khrushchev managed to answer the intelligence officer with terrible ingratitude.

Part 3. "Gratitude"

Against the nationalists

It just so happened that the fate of Sudoplatov made such a noose and Pavel Anatolyevich was again instructed to fight Ukrainian nationalists, who were in short supply in Western Ukraine after the Great Patriotic War. Having gone through the war on the side of the enemy, they did not at all strive to become normal Soviet citizens. Anyway ...

Peaceful Ukrainians alone at the hands of nationalists killed about half a million. And more than 400 thousand Soviet prisoners of war, 220 thousand Poles and 850 thousand Jews. Well, their own, not enough Svidomo, about 5 thousand were killed. All this was done with the blessing of the Uniate Church, which forgave all the sins of the Banderaites and prayed in honor of the "invincible German army and its main leader, Adolf Hitler." It makes no sense to describe the "godly" deeds of these child-killers, rapists, who enthusiastically "fought" with civilians. Suffice it to mention that Khatyn is their handiwork. And the matter is far from the only one. By the way, some of the UPA units were led by Uniate priests.

Here is such a "fight" for "independence".

And after the war, the Bandera did not calm down: they robbed, raped, killed ... For example, in the village of Svatovo, near Lviv, 4 young teachers were tortured and killed. Only because they were from Donbass. I don't know what exactly they did to these girls, but the fate of another teacher, Raisa Borzilo, is well known. She was accused of propaganda of the Soviet regime, at first they were threatened, and then they moved from words to deeds: on December 1, 1945, a young Komsomol member (she was born in 1924) was captured. The last hours of her life passed in complete darkness: the girl's eyes were burned out, her tongue was cut off, a five-pointed star was cut out on her body, mockingly, then they threw a wire loop around her neck and, while still alive, tied to a horse, went to ride across the field.

Is there no fascism in Ukraine?

Now let's remember on May 2, 2014 in Odessa, the terror against the Russians in the Donbass, weddings and other celebrations in German uniform.

After the Great Patriotic War, Bandera killed about 80 thousand more civilians.

Naturally, it was necessary to fight these well-organized and armed non-humans. They were led by Roman Shukhevych, who is now heroized in Ukraine, aka "General Taras Chuprinka". Here are his words: “The OUN must act in such a way that all who recognized the Soviet power were destroyed. Do not intimidate, but physically destroy! There is no need to be afraid that people will curse us for our cruelty. Let half of the 40 million Ukrainian population remain - there is nothing wrong with that ... ”. This character, recruited very, very distinguished during the war for his atrocities, cruelty, love of torture. He was also one of the authors and executors of the "methodology" of mass murders: the population of the villages was herded into one place, after which a total extermination began. Then the dead fell into pits, covered with earth, and made fires on mass graves. In just two days, on August 29 and 30, 1943, Shukhevych's Bandera members killed 15 thousand women, old people and children ... By the way, Chuprinka was recruited by the Germans back in the 26th year ...

child killer and rapist, hero of ukraine, Shukhevych

The Chekists took up the fight against the nationalists who remained in the rear of the Red Army back in 44. The activity was aimed at finding the ringleaders and destroying the militants, but the forces were clearly not enough, and the number of caches and some kind of support from the locals helped Bandera continue to do black things. Uniate priests also helped them.

In 1949, Stalin instructed Sudoplatov to put an end to nationalist lawlessness: “Comrade Stalin, according to him, is extremely dissatisfied with the work of the security agencies in the fight against banditry in Western Ukraine. In this regard, I was ordered to focus on the search for the leaders of the Bandera underground and their elimination. It was said in an undeniable tone. " Sudoplatov went to Lvov.

good Bandera - dead Bandera

Undercover work began again, gathering information again. Developed by Uniate priests. They looked for ways out to Shukhevych's confidants, to his mistresses. As a result, we managed to detain “Chuprinka's” liaison, Darina Gusyak, who gave false information during interrogation and constantly complained of poor health. She was sent to the infirmary, where there was a "beaten" woman smeared with greenery. This woman turned out to be an agent "Rosa" - a former nationalist, caught and recruited by the Chekists. She was able to get into the confidence of Gusyak and she told where to look for Shukhevych.

By the way, Gusyak has survived to this day, she still talks about the terrible tortures that the "curses of the Muscovites" performed on her in order to get information. The new Ukrainian authorities do not forget about the old woman and even reward.

Prisoner # 8

Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953. On June 26, Beria was arrested on charges of treason. Perhaps they kill at the same time. On August 21, 1953, on charges of conspiracy, Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov was arrested in his own office. He was accused of wanting to overthrow the Soviet regime and "restore capitalism", accused of creating a special group to destroy the unwanted.

In fact, Khrushchev simply eliminated competitors and witnesses. According to the memoirs of Pavel Anatolyevich, a very curious episode took place: after the annexation of Western Ukraine, Nikita Sergeevich insisted on the relocation of young people to Siberia and the Far East. Sudoplatov opposed and Stalin listened to his opinion. There were also documents signed by Khrushchev and the head of state security of the Ukrainian SSR, Savchenko, talking about the need for massive repressions in Ukraine.

To avoid interrogations and interfere with the investigation, Sudoplatov decided to resort to a trick that his mentor Sergei Shpigelglas once taught him: he stopped answering questions and began to starve, eventually falling into prostration. The doctors were forced to declare him unfit for interrogation and put him in a hospital.

Sudoplatov's wife, Emma Kaganova, was able to figure out how to convey information to her husband. A nurse recruited by her brought books wrapped in newspapers or old letters. From the newspapers, the scout learned that Beria and six more of his associates had been shot, from a letter with the text "the old man was exposed at a general meeting of collective farmers, the accountants feel bad, the conditions at the firm are still the same, but there is enough money to go on and on." learned about the exposure of Stalin's personality cult.

When news came of the resignation of Molotov and Kaganovich (1957), Sudoplatov decided it was time to act and decided to stop simulating insanity. In 1958, a trial was held and the general was sentenced to 15 years, sent to the Vladimir Central. The scout was released on August 21, 1968, blind in one eye, crippled and survived several heart attacks.

While still in prison, he wrote letters, where he developed methods of countering sabotage groups of the enemy, after his imprisonment he worked as a translator, under his old operational pseudonym "Andrey", remaining faithful to the Motherland and not blaming the state for his troubles.

By the way, after the overthrow of Khrushchev, Brezhnev was asked to reconsider the case, but he refused.

Why exactly he managed to survive, Sudoplatov did not know himself. Being the eighth number in the list of those arrested under the "Beria conspiracy", he did not share the fate - execution - with the first family.

A child of his, harsh and cruel time, he turned out to be much nobler and more honest than those who were eager for power, who arrested and tortured him, did not change his oath and even tried to benefit the Motherland behind bars.

The intelligence officer was rehabilitated only in 1992, and he died in 1996. The awards and title were returned to Pavel Anatolyevich only a year later.

Liked? Press the up arrow, don't forget to go to

He lived only 38 years and gave the best of them to intelligence. During this short time, Stefan Lang managed to do so much that he was rightfully included in the classics of the world intelligence art. The part of his intelligence legacy that became known to the general public - the "Cambridge Five" - ​​is rightly recognized by professionals and historians of the world's intelligence services as "the best group of agents of the Second World War."

The First World War radically changed the outlook of Europeans. Colossal human sacrifices, hitherto unimaginable in the most terrible apocalyptic predictions, rudely and visibly invaded reality. The line of development of civilization, which had previously suited the population of Europe, has ceased to be perceived as natural and the only correct one. It was a time of confusion and social quest. Part of the military and post-war generation fell into depression.

But for the socially active and educated population of Europe, the ideas of socialism and communism turned out to be very attractive. Arnold Deutsch is one of those people. He devoted his entire life to the struggle for social equality and the ideals of justice. And he selected comrades-in-arms for his struggle from this category and according to the criteria of ideological closeness. It should be noted that none of his associates (and there were dozens of them) changed their views over time, and even more so did not take the path of betrayal.

I would not like to give an assessment of the hero's ideological position in a biographical sketch. Wrong place and wrong reason. But the presence in Europe and overseas of a huge number of people who sympathized with the young Soviet Republic is an established historical fact. For some of these people, the Soviet Union became their homeland, to which they gave all their strength, and often their lives. Such was also Arnold Deutsch, a legendary intelligence officer, whose life was amazing, and whose professional destiny was unique.

He was BORN on May 21, 1904 in the suburbs of the Austrian capital in the family of a small businessman, a former teacher from Slovakia. In 1928 he graduated from the University of Vienna and became a doctor of philosophy. Having an ability for languages, he perfectly knew, in addition to his native German, English, French, Italian, Dutch and Russian. In the future, this greatly helped Deutsch in his revolutionary and intelligence work.
Arnold's revolutionary activities began in the ranks of the youth movement - at the age of sixteen he became a member of the Union of Socialist Students, and at twenty he joined the Austrian Communist Party. After graduation, he was sent to one of the underground groups of the Comintern. Active and dynamic by nature, Deutsch is appointed as a liaison, works in the south of Europe and the Middle East.

This work, entrusted only to particularly reliable members of the Comintern, developed in Deutsch the qualities that were so necessary for the future profession of an intelligence officer. These are the basics of conspiracy, and the organization of secure communication schemes, and the skills of finding and attracting promising associates to work, orienting them towards obtaining the necessary information. In a word, he learned all the "technology" of intelligence activities in practice.

On the recommendation of the Comintern, Deutsch was sent to Moscow, where he was transferred from the Austrian Communist Party to the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and went to work in the Foreign Department of the NKVD - the external political intelligence of the USSR. This concludes the stage of his life associated with work in the Comintern. He becomes a career intelligence officer.

IN THE BEGINNING of 1933, Deutsch goes to work illegally in France as an assistant and deputy resident. Its task is to fulfill the special assignments of the Center in Belgium and Holland, and after Hitler came to power in Germany.

From this point on, fellow workers know Deutsch as Stefan Lang. In his cipher telegrams and letters to the Center, he signs himself with the pseudonym “Stefan”.

A year later, at the direction of the Center, Deutsch left France with the task of settling in the British Isles. It is here that he will have to accomplish his legendary professional feat.

In London, Deutsch became a student and then a teacher at the University of London, studying psychology. And one of the first Soviet intelligence officers widely and on a scientific basis uses the knowledge of psychology in intelligence work.

This greatly facilitates the process of targeted access to a promising contingent of people, their study and involvement in cooperation with intelligence on an ideological basis. Deutsch's deep analysis of the personality traits of a person interested in intelligence was so thoroughly staged that the devotion of his "godchildren" to communist and anti-fascist views remained with them until the end of their lives.

Studying and working at the university gives Deutsch the opportunity to establish wide contacts among the student youth. Deutsch himself, being a gifted and informative person with a wide range of interests, a wonderful storyteller, an interesting interlocutor, an attentive listener, attracts extraordinary people, and they imperceptibly fall under his charm. Taking into account a deep knowledge of human psychology, a subtle sense of the inner world of the interlocutor, Deutsch has the most effective abilities of a scout-recruiter.

And he makes the best use of the opportunities presented to him. From the position of a lecturer at the University of London, scout-recruiter Deutsch carried out the study, development and recruitment of more ... - let's put it carefully - a whole group of anti-fascist students.

His second find was conscious and purposeful work for the future. It was an innovative idea for INO, a new contingent of people and a working environment. And life has fully confirmed his correctness.

Deutsch focused on Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He was primarily attracted by students, who in the future could become reliable assistants in intelligence work for a long time.

It was time for his stellar moment in his career as a scout. He managed to create, educate and prepare the famous "Big Five", later called "Cambridge". This is precisely his invaluable service to the Fatherland.

"FIVE" was active in the 1930s-1960s, with free access to the highest government spheres of Britain and the United States. She supplied the Soviet leadership with highly relevant, reliable and secret documentary information on all aspects of international politics, and also reported on military plans and scientific research in Europe and overseas.

For three years of work in Great Britain, Deutsch, who has behind him years of clandestine work in the Comintern, was able not only to attract ideologically loyal sources to our side, but also to seriously prepare and educate them on the widest range of issues of intelligence activity.
His achievement as a practicing intelligence agent is that the members of the Cambridge Five themselves actively sought and recruited more and more assistants - ideological fighters for social justice and against the fascist threat on the eve of and during the Second World War. These assistants saw in the Soviet Union the real and only force that could resist and destroy Hitler's Nazism. This is Deutsch's third find.

If we talk only about the "Five", then, working as gunners, developers and recruiters, its members have significantly expanded the network of new sources of information. They managed to infiltrate British intelligence and counterintelligence, the Foreign Office, and the decryption service. The information coming to Moscow was of a proactive nature and allowed the Soviet side to make informed decisions during the difficult war years.

This was extensive information about the military-strategic plans of the Third Reich, including on the Soviet-German front. Documentary classified information related to the position of our "on their minds" British and American allies in the anti-Hitler coalition in relation to Germany, as well as the West's plans for the post-war arrangement of Europe and the world as a whole.

The result of Arnold Deutsch's work in England is impressive. In the second half of the 1930s, a group of pro-communist Britons created by Deutsch began to operate in England, and during the war years - active anti-fascists. These were progressive-minded students, coming from noble wealthy families, with a clear prospect of entering the highest echelons of power.

In one of his letters to the Center, Deutsch wrote about his assistants: “They all came to us after graduating from the universities in Oxford and Cambridge. They shared communist beliefs. Eighty percent of the top government jobs in England are from these universities, as tuition in these schools comes at an expense that only the very wealthy can afford. A diploma from such a university opens the door to the highest spheres of the state and political life of the country ... "

Three years of hard work and the sources acquired by Deutsch in England until the 1960s became the golden fund of Soviet foreign intelligence. The names of the "Five" members are now widely known and revered in our country. They are Kim Philby, a senior British intelligence officer, Donald McLean, a senior British Foreign Office officer, Guy Burgess, a journalist, a British intelligence officer, a British Foreign Office official, Anthony Blunt, a British counterintelligence officer, John Kerncross, a British Foreign Ministry, Treasury and Decryption Service officer.

The intelligence capabilities of the members of the "Cambridge Five" and their activity are still surprising. Then there were no electronic documents, compact media. They worked with documents and got them with suitcases. Due to such volumes, the risk exceeded all limits, but Deutsch's master class and the impeccable work of the London station staff allowed to avoid even the slightest shadow of suspicion on the part of the local special services.

May 1 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Soviet intelligence officer Arnold DEICH

DURING the war, the Cambridge Five, which worked in the holy of holies of the British state, received genuine documentary information concerning the results of the British deciphering the correspondence of the German High Command, daily reports of the British War Cabinet on planning military operations on all fronts, information from British agents on operations and plans of Germans around the world, documents of British diplomats and the War Cabinet.

The information received by Moscow covered the military situation on the Soviet-German front, in the North Atlantic, Western and Southern Europe; preparation by the Germans of offensives on Moscow, Leningrad, on the Volga and the Kursk Bulge; data on the latest German weapons - aviation, armored vehicles, artillery.

The members of the "Cambridge Five" should be spoken of as a special category of information sources - as spies who, in their entirety, were imbued with the concerns of the Soviet country at war with the aggressors. They took the initiative to seek and obtain proactive information.
Even at the beginning of World War II, the "five" was aimed at finding information about work in the West on nuclear issues. And in September 1941, Donald McLean and then John Kerncross transferred extensive documentary information about the fact and state of work on the creation of atomic weapons in England and the United States to the London residency.

As a result, the intelligence officers brought up by Deutsch drew the attention of the Soviet government to the problem of the military atom with their information. Therefore, the name of Deutsch is deservedly among the names of Soviet scientists and intelligence officers involved in the creation of the Soviet atomic bomb. Its appearance in the USSR 65 years ago and the test conducted on August 29, 1949, put an end to the American monopoly on atomic weapons and no longer allowed the United States to brandish a "nuclear club".

Deutsch's "nestlings" ushered in the era of atomic energy in the Land of the Soviets. It was the "light of a distant star" - "Stefan", which reached the Motherland years after the death of the scout.

In SEPTEMBER 1937, Deutsch was recalled from London. In Moscow, the intelligence officer's work was highly appreciated. On the part of the intelligence leadership, he was awarded the following recognition:

“During the period of illegal work abroad,“ Stefan ”showed himself in various parts of the underground as an exceptionally proactive and devoted worker ...

In 1938, Arnold Deutsch, his wife (also an illegal intelligence officer) and their daughter applied for Soviet citizenship. In the summer, awaiting the decision, they lived at V.M. Zarubin, a talented intelligence officer who has worked in Europe and Southeast Asia since the 1920s. His eighteen-year-old daughter Zoya was friends with the Deutsch family. Many years later, Zoya Vasilievna recalled her communication with Arnold as with an unusually interesting person who possessed an attractive force and challenged frankness.

She especially noted Arnold's attitude to physical fitness. Deutsch considered maintaining good physical condition as a scout's duty. Zoya Vasilievna, herself an excellent athlete, recalled: "According to him, a scout must be physically enduring, which became clear to him while working underground on the line of the Comintern."

Deutsch actively used his stay at the dacha in a Russian family to restore his skills and improve his Russian language. Zoya, in the future also a scout, a major linguist and creator of the world school of simultaneous translation, tried her teaching skills on the Deutsch family.
Deutsch and his family received Soviet citizenship. He became officially Stefan Genrikhovich Lang. These pre-war years, according to Deutsch, were the most difficult and dreary period of his life. Deutsch's active nature protested against the measured and monotonous life, but he was not involved in operational work.

And there was no one to do it. In the country, devastating the ranks of not only intelligence, there was a total and unjust cleansing. Fortunately, the repression spared Deutsch and his family.

For almost a year Deutsch remained, as he regretfully noted, in "forced inactivity." Finally, he became a researcher at the Institute of World Economy and World Economy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His extensive knowledge, analytical experience and enormous capacity for work proved to be in demand and appreciated.

AFTER Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, the intelligence leadership decides to immediately send an experienced intelligence officer to illegal work in Latin America. The place of intelligence activity is Argentina, which supported the Third Reich politically and economically during the Second World War.

In November 1941, "Stephen's group" was ready to leave. The route lay through Iran, India and further through the countries of Southeast Asia. But when the group had already left, Japan began military action against the United States by attacking the Pearl Harbor naval base.

For months the group has been looking for an opportunity to move to Latin America. But in June 1942 Deutsch was forced to inform the chief of intelligence P.M. Fitin:

“For 8 months now, my comrades and I have been on the road, but we are as far from the goal as we were at the very beginning. We're out of luck. However, 8 valuable months have already passed, during which every Soviet citizen devoted all his strength to the military or labor front. "
The group was returned to Moscow. A new route was proposed for penetration into Argentina from Murmansk by sea convoy through Iceland to Canada and beyond. Deutsch stepped on board the tanker Donbass ...

Valentin Pikul in his novel "Requiem for the PQ-17 Caravan" tells about the death of this allied caravan. It also tells about the fate of the tanker "Donbass". However, our remarkable historian and popularizer of Russian, Russian and Soviet history made a mistake.

The TANKER was indeed part of the allied caravans more than once, but it was not part of the PQ-17. After the death of the PQ-17 convoy, Soviet ships were ordered to sail alone. At the same time, it was recommended to adhere to the northern part of the Barents Sea, closer to the edge of the polar ice.

Tanker "Donbass" with Deutsch on board went to sea in early November 1942. On November 5, the watchman reported to the captain about the German squadron he had noticed, consisting of a cruiser and several destroyers, heading for Novaya Zemlya. Tanker captain Tsilke decided to break the radio silence and warn other lone vessels, although the chance of escaping unnoticed was very high. The radio broadcast reached the addressees, but the Germans also found the tanker.

I had a chance to meet with captain-mentor G.D. Burkov, President of the Association of Polar Captains, and he helped to document the circumstances of the heroic unequal battle of the tanker "Donbass" with the German squadron. A destroyer was sent to destroy the tanker, with which Donbass entered the battle with only two 76-mm guns on board. The last message from the tanker was "... we are conducting an artillery battle ...". This signal arrived on November 7 - the day of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution.

Following the laws of the naval brotherhood, the crew of the Donbass tanker saved dozens of other ships at the cost of their lives. The German squadron then could not find a single target, although after the battle with the tanker it passed another 600 miles to the east.

In his memoirs, the commander of the fascist destroyer wrote that he decided to sink the tanker from a distance of 2,000 meters with a fan attack from three torpedoes. The tanker's crew dodged it with a competent maneuver. Then the destroyer fired at the tanker with main battery guns and, having smashed the engine room, caused a fire on the ship. The tanker continued to conduct targeted artillery fire. Then, having reduced the distance to 1,000 meters, the destroyer fired several more torpedoes, one of which hit the tanker and split it in half.

More than forty people of the crew were killed, about twenty were captured and interned in concentration camps in Norway. Deutsch was not among the survivors ...

After the war, Captain Tsilke, who returned from captivity, reported the details of the death of our scout. Deutsch participated in the battle with the destroyer as part of the artillery servants on the bow of the tanker. At the time of the explosion of the torpedo, he was there with broken legs. The depths of the Barents Sea swallowed up an outstanding scout. This happened three hundred miles west of the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya.

Soviet citizen Stephen Lang died uncharacteristically for a scout, in an open battle with the enemy. And although he was a passenger, he could not stay away from the battle with the Nazis, having taken an active part in it.

The feat of the Donbass tanker crew did not go unnoticed. Ships with this name go on the seas. In Donetsk, the Club of Young Seamen was opened, named "Donbass".

In Vienna, a memorial plaque has been installed on the house where Arnold Genrikhovich Deutsch, who is also a Soviet citizen Stefan Genrikhovich Lang, lived. The inscription "May the sacrifice brought to them be understood!" Is engraved on it. She simultaneously serves as an epigraph to his bright life and an epitaph on his unmarked grave.

The unique intelligence agent Deutsch-Lang had neither professional nor government awards. It would be fair even after many years have passed since the day of his last feat - a mortal fight with the Nazis in a naval battle, to turn to the Russian Government with a proposal to award Arnold Deutsch - Stephen Lang the Order of the Patriotic War, posthumously.

The Second World War began for the anti-aircraft gunner, non-commissioned officer Alexei Botyan on September 1, 1939. He was born on February 10, 1917, back in the Russian Empire, but in March 1921 his small homeland - the village of Chertovichi in the Vilnius province - ceded to Poland. So the Belarusian Botyan became a Polish citizen.

His crew managed to shoot down three German " Junkers”When Poland as a geopolitical unit ceased to exist. Botyan's native village became Soviet territory, and Alexei became a citizen of the USSR.

In 1940, the NKVD drew attention to the humble elementary school teacher. A former non-commissioned officer who speaks Polish as a native "Pilsudchik"... no, he is not shot as an enemy of the working people, but quite the opposite: he is admitted to an intelligence school, and in July 1941 he is enrolled in the OMSBON of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. So for Alexei Botyan, a new war began, which ended only in 1983 - with his resignation.

Many details of this war, for the exploits in which he was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union three times, are still secret. But even some well-known episodes say a lot about this person.

He first appeared in the German rear in November 1941 near Moscow, becoming the commander of a reconnaissance and sabotage group. In 1942 he was sent to the deep rear of the enemy, to the regions of Western Ukraine and Belarus.

Under his leadership, a major sabotage is being carried out: on September 9, 1943, in Ovruch, Zhytomyr region, the Hitlerite commissariat was blown up, and 80 Hitlerite officers were killed in the explosion, including the commissar of the commando Wenzel and the chief of the local anti-partisan center Siebert. 140 kilograms of explosives along with lunches were carried by his wife Maria to Yakov Kaplyuk, the manager of the Gebitskommissariat. To insure herself against searches at the entrance, she always took the two smallest of her four children with her.

After this operation, Kaplyuki were taken out into the forest, and Botyan was first introduced to the Hero - but received the Order of the Red Banner.

At the beginning of 1944, the detachment received an order to move to Poland.

It should be recalled: if on Ukrainian soil Soviet partisans had problems with Bandera, which had to be solved sometimes by negotiations, and sometimes with weapons, then three different anti-Nazi forces acted on Polish soil: Akovtsy", Formally subordinate to the émigré government), the Army of Ludov (" alovians", Were supported by the Soviet Union) and quite independent Khlopskie Battalions - that is, peasant ones. Successful solution of the tasks required required the ability to find a common language with everyone, and Botyan did it superbly.

On May 1, 1944, a group of 28 people headed by Botyan was sent to the vicinity of Krakow. On the way on the night of May 14-15, together with the AL unit, Botyan's detachment takes part in the seizure of the city of Ilzhi and frees a large group of arrested underground fighters.

On January 10, 1945, in a blown up command vehicle, one of the Soviet reconnaissance groups operating in the Krakow region discovered a portfolio with secret documents on the mining of objects in Krakow and the neighboring town of Nowy Sacz. Botyan's group captured a cartographic engineer, a Czech by nationality, who said that the Germans were keeping a strategic reserve of explosives in the Royal (Jagiellonian) Castle in Nowy Sонcz.

The scouts went to the head of the warehouse of the Wehrmacht Major Ogarek. After talking with Botyan, he hired another Pole, who carried the hour mine embedded in his boots to the warehouse. On January 18, the warehouse exploded; more than 400 Nazis were killed and wounded. On January 20, Konev's troops entered practically the whole of Krakow, and the second performance to the Hero went to Botyan. (Subsequently, Botyan became one of the prototypes " Major Whirlwind"From the novel of the same name by Yulian Semyonov and a TV movie shot according to his script.)

After the war, Aleksey Botyan became Czech Leo Dvořák (he did not know the Czech language; he had to vigorously master it “ immersion method", Fortunately, his legend explained the poor possession" relatives»Language) and graduated from a higher technical school in Czechoslovakia. There, by the way, he met a girl who became his faithful companion in life - not yet knowing about the multi-layered life of Pan Dvorak.

The post-war activities of the intelligence officer are covered with an understandable fog. According to open information from the SVR and avaricious (" permitted") Botyan's stories, he performed special assignments in Germany and other countries, worked in the central office of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, participated in the creation of a special task force of the KGB of the USSR" Pennant". And after his resignation, as a civilian specialist, he helped prepare for six more years “ young professionals».

Alexey Botyan was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Red Banner of Labor and the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, high Polish and Czechoslovak awards. In post-Soviet Russia, he was awarded the Order of Courage, and in 2007, President Putin presented him with the Gold Star of the Hero of Russia.

Simultaneous game session with cadets of the Vympel Military-Patriotic Club, 20.02.2010.

Alexey Botyan still surprises everyone who knows him with his cheerfulness and optimism. He plays chess superbly, works out on a stationary bike, remembers the details of his eventful life to the smallest detail (but, of course, he does not talk about what cannot be told). He is proud of the fact that for all the time of his "work" he was only once scratched in the temple by an enemy bullet - not even leaving a scar.

The scout hero turned ninety-five yesterday.