70 years ago, on March 9, 1944, a sabotage group of the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov died in the village of Boratyn, Lviv region. She was captured by UPA militants. Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade, and his companions were shot dead.
Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Kuznetsov began to prepare for work abroad from illegal positions. However, the outbreak of war made adjustments to this preparation. In the first days of the attack of Nazi Germany on our country, Nikolai Kuznetsov filed a report with a request to use it in "an active struggle against German fascism at the front or in the rear of the German troops that invaded our land." In the summer of 1942, having undergone special training, he was enrolled in the special-purpose unit "Winners", commanded by D.N. Medvedev. 
In accordance with the withdrawal plan, Kuznetsov was thrown out with a parachute deep behind enemy lines - in the Sarny forests of the Rivne region.
In the city of Rivne, turned by the Germans into the "capital" of the temporarily occupied Ukraine, Nikolai Kuznetsov appeared under the name of Lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert, holder of two Iron Crosses. Good professional training of the scout, brilliant knowledge of the German language, amazing will and courage were the basis for him to perform the most difficult reconnaissance and sabotage tasks.
Acting under the guise of a German officer, Nikolai Kuznetsov in the center of the city of Rovno carried out the people's sentence - he destroyed the imperial adviser to the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine Gell and his secretary Winter. A month later, in the same place, he mortally wounded the Deputy Reich Commissar, General Dargel. Together with his comrades-in-arms, he kidnapped and removed from Rovno the commander of the punitive forces in Ukraine, General von Ilgen, and the personal driver E. Koch Granau. Soon after that, in the courthouse, he destroyed the cruel executioner, the president of the supreme court in the occupied Ukraine, A. Funk. 
Secret meeting of Kuznetsov (left) with the secretary of the Slovak embassy Krno, a German intelligence agent. 1940, operational filming with a hidden camera.
An interesting episode with the liquidation of the commander of the special troops, General Ilgen. Kuznetsov proposed a plan not just to eliminate the general, but to capture him and deliver him to the detachment. The implementation of this plan, in addition to Kuznetsov, was entrusted to Strutinsky, Kaminsky and Valya Dovger.
General von Ilgen occupied a solid house in Rovno, which was constantly guarded. The moment for the operation to capture Ilgen was well chosen. Four German soldiers, who permanently lived in the general's house and guarded him, were sent to Berlin, where the general sent along with them suitcases with stolen goods. The house was guarded by local policemen.
On the scheduled day, Valya went to Ilgen's house with a package in her hands. The orderly suggested that Valya wait for the general, but she said that she would come later. It became clear that von Ilgen was not at home. Soon Kuznetsov, Strutinsky and Kaminsky appeared there. They quickly eliminated the guards, and the chief lieutenant explained to the batman that if he wants to live, he must help them. The attendant agreed.
Nikolai Ivanovich and Strutinsky selected documents of interest in von Ilgen's office, folded and packed them together with the weapons found in a bundle. Forty minutes later von Ilgen drove up to the house. When he took off his overcoat, Kuznetsov came out of the next room and said that in front of him were Soviet partisans. 
The general was forty-two years old, healthy and strong, he did not want to obey the commands of the scout. I had to deal with him. When the general was “packed”, it turned out that officers were coming to the house. Nikolai Ivanovich went out to meet them. There were four of them. The intelligence officer's mind worked feverishly: what to do with them? Interrupt? Can. But there will be noise. And then Kuznetsov remembered the Gestapo badge, which he had been given back in Moscow. He has never used it before.
Nikolai Ivanovich took out a token and, showing it to the German officers, said that a bandit in a German uniform had been detained here and therefore asked to see documents. After carefully reviewing them, he asked three of them to follow their path, and invited the fourth to enter the house as a witness. It turned out to be Erich Koch's personal chauffeur.
So, together with General von Ilgen, officer Granau, the Gauleiter's personal chauffeur, was also brought to the detachment. 
The merit of Nikolai Kuznetsov also consisted in the fact that, at the same time, he purposefully collected intelligence information important for the Center. So in the spring of 1943, he managed to obtain extremely valuable intelligence information about the preparation by the enemy of a major offensive operation in the Kursk region using the new Tiger and Panther tanks. He also became aware of the exact location of Hitler's field headquarters near Vinnitsa, which received the code name "Werwolf". Kuznetsov was the first to report on the preparation of an assassination attempt on the heads of governments of the "Big Three", who were going to a historic meeting in Tehran. His task also included collecting information about the movement of military units, about the plans and intentions of the Gestapo and SD services, about the trips of high officials of the Reich, which was successfully used in the fight against the enemy. 
From left to right: Nikolai Kuznetsov, commissar of the partisan detachment Stekhov, Nikolai Strutinsky
At the end of December 1943, N.I. Kuznetsov received a new task - to deploy intelligence work in the city of Lvov. Committing acts of retribution, he carried out the sentence of the people and destroyed the Vice-Governor of Galicia Otto Bauer and Lieutenant Colonel Peters. The situation in Galicia after that became extremely complicated. Kuznetsov and two of his comrades-in-arms - Yan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov - managed to escape from Lvov. It was decided to make their way to the front line. However, on the night of March 8-9, 1944, they were ambushed in the village of Boratin, Lviv region, and died in an unequal battle with Ukrainian nationalists, Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade, and his companions were shot dead. 
Monument to Nikolai Kuznetsov in Tyumen.
On November 5, 1944, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to employees of the special forces of the NKGB of the USSR operating behind enemy lines. In the list of those awarded, along with the name of D.N. Medvedev, was the name of Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov - posthumously.
In 1990-1991 a number of protests by members of the Ukrainian nationalist underground against perpetuating the memory of Kuznetsov appeared in the Lviv media. Monuments to Kuznetsov in Lvov and Rovno were dismantled in 1992. In November 1992, with the assistance of Strutinsky, the Lviv monument was taken to Talitsa.
Vandals repeatedly tried to desecrate the grave of Nikolai Kuznetsov. By 2007, the activists of the initiative group in Yekaterinburg had done all the preparatory work necessary to move Kuznetsov's remains to the Urals.
The case of Nikolai Kuznetsov is stored in the archives of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and will not be declassified until 2025.
The history of modern Russian military intelligence begins on November 5, 1918, when the Registration Directorate of the Field Headquarters of the Red Army (RUPShKA) was established by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the successor of which is now the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (GRU GSH).
About the fate of the most famous military intelligence officers of our country. Richard Sorge
Certificate issued by the OGPU to Richard Sorge for the right to carry and store the Mauser pistol.
One of the outstanding intelligence officers of the 20th century was born in 1895 near Baku in a large family of German engineer Gustav Wilhelm Richard Sorge and Russian citizen Nina Kobeleva. A few years after Richard's birth, the family moved to Germany, where he grew up. Sorge took part in the First World War both on the western and eastern fronts, was repeatedly wounded. The horrors of the war affected not only his health, but also contributed to a radical break in his worldview. From an enthusiastic German patriot, Sorge turned into a convinced Marxist. In the mid-1920s, after the German Communist Party was banned, he moved to the USSR, where, after marrying and receiving Soviet citizenship, he began working in the apparatus of the Comintern.
In 1929, Richard moved 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 arrived as a German correspondent.It was the Japanese period of Sorge that made him famous. It is generally accepted that in his numerous cipher messages, he warned Moscow about the imminent German attack on the USSR, and after that he brutalized Stalin that Japan would remain neutral towards our country. This allowed the Soviet Union, at a critical moment for it, to transfer new Siberian divisions to Moscow.
However, Sorge himself was exposed in October 1941 and captured by the Japanese police. The investigation into his case lasted almost three years. On November 7, 1944, the 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.
Nikolai Kuznetsov
Nikanor (original name) Kuznetsov was born in 1911 into a large peasant family in the Urals. Having studied as an agronomist in Tyumen, in the late 1920s he returned home. Kuznetsov showed outstanding linguistic abilities early on, 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 agencies. Since 1938, after spending several months in a Sverdlovsk prison, Kuznetsov became the detective of the central apparatus of the NKVD. Under the guise of a German engineer at one of the Moscow aircraft factories, he unsuccessfully 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 Directorate of the NKVD, 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 a 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 scout regularly communicated with officers of the Wehrmacht, special services, senior officials of the occupation authorities and sent the necessary information to the partisan detachment. For a year and a half, Kuznetsov personally destroyed 11 generals and high-ranking officials of the occupation administration of Nazi Germany, but, despite repeated attempts, he failed to eliminate Erich Koch, the Reichskommissar of Ukraine, known for his cruelty.
In March 1944, while trying to cross the front line near the village of Boratin, Lviv region, Kuznetsov's group ran into soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). During the battle with Ukrainian nationalists, Kuznetsov was killed (according to one version, he blew himself up with a grenade). He was buried in Lviv at the memorial cemetery "Hill of Glory".
Jan Chernyak
Yankel (original name) Chernyak was born in Chernivtsi in 1909, then still on the territory of Austria-Hungary. His father was a poor Jewish merchant, and his mother was Hungarian. During the First World War, his entire family perished in Jewish pogroms, and Yankel was brought up in an orphanage. He studied very well, even at school he mastered German, Romanian, Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech and French, which he spoke without any accent by the age of twenty. After studying in Prague and Berlin, Cherniak received an engineering degree. In 1930, at the height of the economic crisis, he joined the German Communist Party, where he was recruited by Soviet intelligence, which operated under the guise of the Comintern. When Chernyak was drafted into the army, he was appointed as a clerk in an artillery regiment stationed in Romania.At first, he passed on information about the weapons systems of European armies to Soviet military intelligence, and four years later he became the main Soviet resident in this country. After the failure, he was evacuated to Moscow, where he entered the intelligence school of the Fourth (intelligence) Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army. Only then did he learn Russian. Since 1935, Chernyak traveled to Switzerland as a TASS correspondent (operational pseudonym "Jen"). Regularly visiting Nazi Germany, in the second half of the 1930s, he managed to deploy a powerful intelligence network there, which received the code name "Krona". Subsequently, the German counterintelligence failed to uncover any of its agents. And now, out of 35 of its members, only two names are known (and there are still disputes about this) - this is Hitler's favorite actress Olga Chekhova (wife of the writer Anton Chekhov's nephew) and Goebbels' mistress, star of the film "The Girl of My Dreams", Marika Rekk .
Jan Chernyak.
In 1941, Chernyak's agents managed to obtain a copy of the Barbarossa plan, and in 1943, an operational plan for the German offensive near Kursk. Chernyak transferred to the USSR valuable technical information about the latest weapons of the German army. Since 1942, he also sent information to Moscow on atomic research in England, and in the spring of 1945 he was transferred to America, where he was planned to be included in the work on the US atomic project, but because of the betrayal of the cryptographer, Chernyak had to urgently return to the USSR. After that, he was almost not involved in operational work, he received the position of assistant to the GRU General Staff, and then a translator at TASS. Then he was transferred to a teaching job, and in 1969 he was quietly retired and forgotten.
Only in 1994, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "for the courage and heroism shown in the performance of a special assignment," Chernyak was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. The decree was passed while the intelligence officer was in a coma in the hospital, and the award was presented to his wife. Two months later, on February 19, 1995, he died, never knowing that the Motherland remembered him.
Anatoly Gurevich
One of the future leaders of the "Red Chapel" was born in the family of a Kharkov pharmacist in 1913. Ten years later, the Gurevich family moved to Petrograd. After studying at school, Anatoly entered the Znamya Truda No. 2 plant as a metal marker apprentice, where he soon grew to be the head of the factory civil defense.
Then he entered the Intourist Institute and began to intensively study foreign languages. When the civil war began in Spain in 1936, Gurevich went there as a volunteer, where he served as an interpreter for the senior Soviet adviser, Grigory Stern.
In Spain, he was given documents in the name of Lieutenant of the Republican Navy Antonio Gonzalez. After returning to the USSR, Gurevich was sent to study at an intelligence school, after which, as a citizen of Uruguay, Vincent Sierra, he was sent to Brussels under the command of the GRU resident Leopold Trepper.
Anatoly Gurevich. Photo: from the family archive
Soon Trepper, because of his pronounced Jewish appearance, had to urgently leave Brussels, and the intelligence network - the "Red Chapel" - was headed by Anatoly Gurevich, who was given the pseudonym "Kent". In March 1940, he reported to Moscow about the impending attack by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. In November 1942, the Germans arrested "Kent", he was personally interrogated by Gestapo chief Müller. During interrogations, he was not tortured or beaten. Gurevich was offered to participate in the radio game, and he agreed, because he knew how to communicate that his ciphers were under control. But the Chekists were so unprofessional that they did not even notice the prearranged signals. Gurevich did not betray anyone, the Gestapo did not even know his real name. In 1945, immediately after his arrival from Europe, Gurevich was arrested by SMERSH. At the Lubyanka, he was tortured and interrogated for 16 months. The head of SMERSH, General Abakumov, also participated in torture and interrogations. A special meeting at the Ministry of State Security of the USSR "for treason" sentenced Gurevich to 20 years in prison. Relatives were told that he "disappeared under circumstances that did not entitle him to benefits." Only in 1948 did Gurevich's father find out that his son was alive. The next 10 years of his life "Kent" spent in the Vorkuta and Mordovian camps.After his release, despite Gurevich's many years of appeals, he was regularly denied a review of the case and the restoration of his honest name. He lived in poverty in a small Leningrad apartment, and spent his tiny pension mainly on medicines. In July 1991, justice prevailed - the slandered and forgotten Soviet intelligence officer was completely rehabilitated. Gurevich died in St. Petersburg in January 2009.
Soviet intelligence is the best in the world. None of these structures on the planet can boast of such a number of brilliantly conducted operations in its entire history - one theft of US nuclear technologies is worth something!
Can the CIA, or Mossad, or MI6 oppose anyone to Soviet intelligence officers of the class Artur Artuzov (Operations Trust and Syndicate 2), Rudolf Abel, Nikolai Kuznetsov, Kim Philby, Richard Sorge, Aldrich Ames or Gevork Vartanyan? They can. Agent 007. Operations carried out by Soviet intelligence are studied in all special schools in the world. And among this brilliant galaxy it is impossible to name the most-most. In one article, the idea is substantiated that the best Soviet intelligence officer is Kim Philby, in another they call Richard Sorge. Gevork Vartanyan, who outplayed the Abwehr, according to authoritative and unbiased estimates, is one of the hundred best intelligence officers in the world. And the aforementioned Artur Artuzov, in addition to dozens of brilliantly conducted operations, at some time supervised the work of such outstanding Soviet intelligence officers as Shandor Rado and Richard Sorge, Yan Chernyak, Rudolf Gernstadt and Hadji-Umar Mamsurov. Books have been written about the exploits on the invisible front of each of them.
the luckiest
For example, the Soviet intelligence officer Yan Chernyak. In 1941, he managed to get the Barbarossa plan, and in 1943, the plan for the offensive of the German army near Kursk. Jan Chernyak created a powerful intelligence network, not a single member of which was ever exposed by the Gestapo - in 11 years of work, his Krona group did not have a single failure. According to unconfirmed reports, his agent was the movie star of the Third Reich, Marika Rökk. In 1944 alone, his group sent 60 samples of radio equipment and 12,500 sheets of technical documentation to Moscow. He died in retirement in 1995. The hero served as a prototype for Stirlitz (Colonel Maxim Isaev).
invisible front
The Soviet intelligence officer Khadzh-Umar Mamsurov, who participated under the pseudonym Colonel Xanthi, served as the prototype for one of the characters in Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Recently, a lot of materials about Soviet intelligence have been declassified, making it possible to understand what the secret of its phenomenal victories is. It is very interesting to read about this structure and its brightest employees and collaborators. Few people know about many of them. Only recently, the Russia 1 channel launched a project that tells amazing stories about the legendary exploits of Soviet intelligence officers.
Hundreds of little-known and unknown heroes
For example, the film “Kill the Gauleiter. An order for three" tells the story of three young intelligence officers - Nadezhda Troyan and Elena Mazanik - who carried out the order to destroy the executioner of Belarus Wilhelm Kube. Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Fitin was the first to report to the Kremlin about there are a lot of them - heroes of the invisible front. Some remain in the shadows for the time being, others, due to the circumstances, are known and loved by the people.
Legendary Scout and Partisan
Often this is facilitated by well-produced films with talented and charming actors and well-written books, such as, for example, about Nikolai Kuznetsov. The stories “It was near Rovno” and “Strong in spirit” by D.N. Medvedev were read by all children in the Union. The Soviet intelligence officer of the Second World War, Nikolai Kuznetsov, who personally destroyed 11 generals and bosses of Nazi Germany, was known, without exaggeration, to every citizen of the USSR, and at one time he was generally the most famous Soviet intelligence officer. Moreover, his features are guessed in the collective image of the hero of the legendary Soviet film "The feat of the scout", which is still quoted.
Real events and facts
In general, the Soviet intelligence officers of the Second World War are surrounded by a halo of glory, because the cause for which they worked and very often gave their lives ended in a great victory for the Red Army. And that is why films about intelligence officers who penetrated the Abwehr or other fascist structures are so popular. But the scripts were not at all far-fetched. The plots of the paintings “The Way to Saturn” and “The End of Saturn” are based on the story of intelligence officer A.I. Kozlov, who rose to the rank of captain in the Abwehr. He is called the most mysterious agent.
Legendary Sorge
In connection with films about Soviet intelligence officers, one cannot but recall the film by the French director Yves Champi “Who are you, Dr. Sorge?” The legendary Soviet intelligence officer, who was in Japan during the Second World War and created a powerful ramified agent network there, who had the nickname Ramsay, told Stalin the date of the German attack on the Soviet Union. The film spurred interest both in the actor Thomas Holtzman and in Richard Sorge himself, about whom few knew at that time. Then articles about him began to appear in the press, and for a while the Soviet intelligence officer, the head of the organization in Japan, Richard Sorge, became very popular. The fate of this resident is tragic - he was executed in the courtyard of Tokyo's Sugamo Prison in 1944. The entire residency of Sorge in Japan was failed. His grave is in the same place where he was executed. The first Soviet person to put flowers on his grave was a writer and journalist
Traded for Powers
At the beginning of the film "Dead Season" Rudolf Abel addresses the audience. The prototype of the scout, who was perfectly played, was another famous Soviet intelligence officer, Konon the Young. Both he and, as a result of the betrayal of his partners, failed in the USA, were sentenced to long terms and exchanged for American intelligence officers (the famous exchange scene on the bridge in the film). For a while, Rudolf Abel, who was exchanged for the American pilot F. G. Powers, becomes the most discussed intelligence officer. His work in the states since 1948 was so effective that already in 1949 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in his homeland.
Cambridge Five
The Soviet intelligence officer, the head of the organization known as the "Cambridge Five", Arnold Deutch recruited major high-ranking officials of British intelligence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work for the Soviet Union. Allen Dulles called this organization "the most powerful intelligence group of the Second World War."
Kim Philby (nickname Stanley) and Donald McLean (Homer), Anthony Blunt (Johnson), Guy Burges (Hicks) and John Cairncross - all of them, due to their high position, possessed valuable information, and therefore the efficiency of the group was high. Kim Philby is called the most famous and most important Soviet intelligence officer.
The legendary "Red Chapel"
Another Soviet intelligence officer, the head of the Red Capella organization, the Polish Jew Leopold Trepper, entered the annals of our country's intelligence. This organization was a horror for the Germans, they respectfully called Trepper the Big Chief. The largest and most effective Soviet intelligence network operated in many European countries. The history of many members of this organization is very tragic. To combat it, the Germans created a special Sonderkommando, which was personally led by Hitler.
Many known, many unknown
There are many lists of Soviet intelligence officers, there are also five of the most successful. It includes Richard Sorge, Kim Philby, Aldridge Ames, Ivan Agayants and Lev Manevich (he worked in Italy in the 30s). In other lists other surnames are called. Robert Hanssen is often mentioned - an FBI officer in the 70s and 80s. It is obvious that it is impossible to name the most, since Russia has always had more than enough enemies, and there have always been a lot of people who gave their lives in a secret fight against them. And the names of a large number of intelligence officers are still classified as "secret".
The name of Naum Eitingon until recently remained one of the most guarded secrets of the Soviet Union. This man was involved in events that influenced the course of world history.
The childhood of the legendary scout
Naum Eitingon was born on December 6, 1899, not far from Mogilev, in Belarus. His family was quite wealthy, his father, Isaac Eitingon, served as a clerk at a paper mill, and was a member of the board of the Shklov Savings and Loan Association. The mother raised the children, Naum had another brother and two sisters grew up. After graduating from the 7th grade of a commercial school, Eitingon got a job at the Mogilev city government, where he acted as an instructor in the statistics department. On the eve of the revolution of 1917, Naum becomes a member of the organization of the Left SRs. The leaders of this group staked on terrorist methods of struggle. The SR fighters had to be able to shoot well, understand mines and bombs, and also be in good physical shape. The militants used their knowledge and skills against the enemies of the party, among whom were the Bolsheviks.
1917 During the First World War, Mogilev was under the German occupiers, the city government was closed. Eitingon worked first at a concrete plant, then at a warehouse. In November 1918, the Germans left Mogilev and units of the Red Army entered the city. A new government has arrived. The idea of a world revolution fascinated Naum Eitingon, and he joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party. Soon he was able to prove himself - clashes began in the city between the White Guards and the Red Army, who had been factory workers yesterday. Only unlike them, Eitingon knew how to shoot, understood tactics and strategy - the Socialist-Revolutionary past affected. The rebellion was crushed, and the new authorities paid attention to the young man. Eitingon dreamed of serving the state.
At first, Eitingon was appointed a commissioner of the Gomel region, at the age of 19 he became a deputy of the Gomel Cheka. Nikolai Dolgopolov notes that Eitingon was a hard man. Dzerzhinsky liked this quality, and it is believed that Eitingon was summoned to Moscow at his suggestion.
In 1922, Eitingon was transferred to Moscow. He becomes an employee of the central apparatus of the OGPU, at the same time enters and studies at the eastern faculty of the Military Academy of the General Staff.
In Moscow, Eitingon met his future wife, Anna Shulman. In 1924, the couple's son, Vladimir, was born. But soon the young people broke up.
In 1925, after graduating, Naum Eitingon was enrolled in the staff of the foreign department of the OGPU - this department was engaged in collecting intelligence on the territory of foreign countries. In the autumn of 1925, Eitingon begins his first assignment. He leaves for China under a fictitious name - Leonid Naumov, this name he bore until 1940. In 1925, he meets Olga Zarubina, and the young couple realizes that they are perfect for each other. He adopts Zoya Zarubina, who will be grateful to him all her life.
The beginning of intelligence activities
In 1928, Chinese General Jang Zou Lin began secret negotiations with the Japanese. He wanted to create the Manchurian Republic on the border with Russia. Stalin only saw a threat in the negotiations. Eitingon received an order to destroy the general from Moscow. He prepared to blow up the train in which Zou Lin was riding. After returning to Moscow, Naum Eitingon was transferred to a special department of the OGPU - a department for especially important and top-secret assignments.
Spanish Civil War
In 1936, Eitingon leaves for another business trip. At the same time, a civil war began in Spain between the Republicans and Franco's pro-fascists. The USSR sent help to the Republicans, among whom was Naum Eitingon - he worked in Spain under the name of Leonid Kotov. He served as deputy head of the NKVD residence in Spain, and also led the Spanish partisans, for which the Spaniards respectfully spoke of him as "our general Kotov."
In the summer of 1938, the Spanish residency was headed by Naum Eitingon. The appointment coincided with a turning point in the course of the Spanish Civil War. The Francoists, with the combat support of parts of the German legion "Condor", occupied the capital of the Republicans, Barcelona. Nahum Eitingon had to urgently save the Republican government of Spain and members of the international brigades - and all this under the constant threat of attack from the Francoists and German saboteurs. Eitingon did the impossible - he helped to evacuate the Republicans, volunteers, Spanish gold, first to France, then to Mexico, where there was Spanish emigration.
Assassination of Leon Trotsky
Naum Eitingon returned to the USSR in 1939. At this time, the new People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, Lavrenty Beria, was getting rid of the supporters of his predecessor. Most of Eitingon's colleagues and acquaintances with whom he worked in Spain were arrested or shot. Almost all heads of the foreign department of the NKVD and about 70% of intelligence officers were repressed. Eitingon was also close to arrest. They wanted to charge him with "squandering" public funds and working for British intelligence. But instead of prison, the intelligence officer was given a new task - Eitingon was ordered to kill Leon Trotsky.
In 1929, Leon Trotsky left the USSR after losing to Stalin. Already abroad, he began to express his anti-Soviet views, spoke out against the five-year plan for the development of the economy, criticized the ideas of industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. Trotsky predicted the defeat of the USSR in the war with Nazi Germany. Trotsky began to gather new supporters around him, including those abroad. Such vigorous activity of Trotsky irritated Stalin. And the leader decided to physically eliminate his political opponent.
After the arrest of the Siqueiros group, Naum Eitingon activated the second plan to eliminate Leon Trotsky. A lone killer entered the case; Eitingon chose Ramon Mercader for this role. This is a Spanish aristocrat recruited in 1937. In the winter of 1940, Mercader met Trotsky's personal secretary, Sylvia Agelov, under the personal influence of a wealthy playboy. Gallantry, manners of an aristocrat and wealth made the right impression on Sylvia. Ramon proposed to her and Sylvia agreed. So Mercader became a member of Trotsky's house as Sylvia's fiancé.
August 20, 1940 Ramon Mercader asked to evaluate his article for one of the newspapers. Together they went into the office, and when Trotsky bent over the papers, Mercader hit him on the head with a summer axe. Trotsky shouted, Trotsky's guards ran to the shout and started beating Mercader. Ramon's assailant was later handed over to the police. But the assassination attempt achieved its goal - the next day, Leon Trotsky died. Operation "duck" was successfully completed.
Activities during the Great Patriotic War
After the outbreak of the war, Naum Eitingon led the organization of the First Patriotic Special Forces detachments. On the basis of a special foreign intelligence group, a separate special-purpose motorized rifle brigade, OMSBON, was formed. In a short time, professional assassins and saboteurs were trained from scouts, athletes and members of foreign communist parties at the Dynamo stadium. They were prepared for being thrown into the rear of the Germans, to perform special tasks.
At first, in the rear of the Germans, because of the short time for preparation, poorly trained groups of saboteurs were thrown. Everyone knew about this - both the special forces soldiers and their teachers. Eitingon, as a professional, understood this, and before leaving, he invited the fighters to his home to give personal instructions and support them.
Despite the losses, the fighters of the special purpose brigade managed to complete most of the tasks assigned to them. Among the most high-profile victories is the kidnapping of the former Russian prince Lvov, who worked closely with the Nazis. He was taken by plane to Moscow and handed over to a military tribunal. Another high-profile operation - in the city of Rovno they kidnapped and destroyed Major General of the German army Igen.
Having completed the formation of a special forces brigade, Eitingon returned to his direct duties - collecting intelligence and carrying out targeted sabotage. The new task is the organization of sabotage in the Turkish Dardanelles. Eitingon's group included six people - experts in the field of explosives and radio operators. They settled in Turkey, under the guise of emigrants, and Naum Isaakovich arrived in Istanbul as the consul of the USSR Leonid Naumov. Muza Malinovskaya acted as his wife. Muse Malinovskaya is a famous "seven thousandth", a woman who jumped with a parachute from a height of 7 thousand meters. She made more than a hundred jumps, was a first-class radio operator. Muse Malinovskaya conquered Eitingon, after returning to Moscow they will begin to live together. In 1943, the couple had a son, Leonid, in 1946, a daughter, Muza.
On the morning of February 24, 1942, Ambassador Franz von Pappen and his wife were walking along Atatürk Boulevard in Ankara. Suddenly, an explosive device went off in the hands of a stranger. The terrorist died, the police decided that the deceased was a Soviet agent. Historians of the special services name Naum Eitingon as the organizer of the assassination attempt on Franz von Pappen. But there is no exact evidence, the archives are closed. It is known that six months later, Eitingon left Turkey, and in Moscow he received a promotion - he became deputy head of the 4th department of the NKVD.
In the new position of one of the leaders of the sabotage department, Eitingon was to organize the largest counterintelligence operation of the Great Patriotic War.
In the summer of 1944, east of Minsk, Soviet troops surrounded a 100,000-strong group of Germans. In Moscow, the idea arose to hold a "radio game" with the German Abwehr. It was decided to plant a legend to the Wehrmacht high command that a large German military unit was hiding in the Belarusian forests. This part is experiencing a shortage of weapons, food and medicine. Having deceived the Germans, the Soviet counterintelligence intended to inflict significant material damage on them. On August 18, disinformation was sent to the Germans by radio, and the Nazis believed in the existence of such a military unit.
The first German paratroopers arrived in the area of \u200b\u200bLake Peschanoe, they were caught and included in the radio game. The main goal of Operation Berezino is to catch as many enemy saboteurs as possible. German planes regularly dropped money, weapons, medicines, campaign leaflets. On December 21, 1944, at the Berezino site, Soviet intelligence officers captured a group of six people - saboteurs from the personal team of Otto Skorzeny. Eitingon, during the operation, joined with the most famous saboteur of the Third Reich - and won this confrontation. Until the end of the war, Skorzeny believed in the existence of a German unit wandering in the Belarusian forests. Eitingon proved to be a brilliant counterintelligence officer.
A string of arrests
After the war, Naum Eitingon received another military rank of major general. About what he did for the next six years, his biography says briefly - he was engaged in the liquidation of Polish, Lithuanian and Uighur nationalist formations.
A new era has begun, the “thaw”. The post of leader was taken by Nikita Khrushchev, who hated Stalin, Beria (who was shot) and everything connected with them. Eitingon was again under attack, because Beria freed him. In the summer of 1953, he was arrested as a member of the Beria conspiracy, allegedly to destroy the Soviet government. Eitingon was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The legendary intelligence officer was imprisoned in the Vladimir Central, Evgenia Alliluyeva, Konstantin Ordzhonikidze, Pavel Sudoplatov were in the neighboring cells.
In prison, a stomach ulcer worsened, Eitingon almost died. But the prison doctors performed an operation and saved Eitingon.
Naum Eitingon was released on March 20, 1964. Released from prison, deprived of awards and military rank. Requests for rehabilitation went unheeded. But his authority among colleagues remained very high, his merits were known and remembered. Thanks to the patronage of the KGB, Eitingon received a Moscow residence permit and an editorial position at the International Relations publishing house.
The legendary scout was rehabilitated only in 1992, 11 years after his death. "The last knight of Soviet intelligence" liked to repeat - "do what you must, and come what may."
Englishman Kim Philby - legendary scout who managed to simultaneously work for the governments of two competing countries - England and the USSR. The work of the brilliant spy was so highly appreciated that he became the only owner in the world of two awards - the Order of the British Empire and the Order of the Red Banner. Needless to say, maneuvering between two fires has always been very difficult ...
Kim Philby is considered one of the most successful British intelligence officers, he held a senior position in the SIS intelligence service and his main task was to track down foreign spies. "Hunting" for specialists sent from the USSR, Kim at the same time was recruited by the Soviet special services. Work for the Land of the Soviets was due to the fact that Kim ardently supported the ideas of communism and was ready to cooperate with our intelligence, refusing to be rewarded for his work.
Philby did a lot to help the Soviet Union during the war years, his efforts intercepted sabotage groups on the Georgian-Turkish border, the information received from him helped prevent the American landing in Albania. Kim also provided assistance to Soviet intelligence officers, members of the Cambridge Five, who were on the verge of exposure in foggy Albion.
Despite the numerous suspicions put forward by Kim Philby, the British secret services did not succeed in obtaining a confession of cooperation with the USSR from their intelligence officer. Kim spent several years of his life in Beirut, officially he worked as a journalist, but his main task, of course, was to collect information for British intelligence.
In 1963, a special commission from Britain arrived in Beirut, which nevertheless managed to establish Kim's proximity to the Soviet Union. It is very interesting that the only irrefutable evidence turned out to be a bas-relief presented to the intelligence officer ... by Stalin. It was made of noble woods and inlaid with precious metals and stones. Mount Ararat was depicted on the bas-relief, which made it possible for Philby to come up with a legend that this curiosity was allegedly acquired in Istanbul. The British managed to guess that the point from which the majestic mountain was captured could only be located on the territory of the USSR.
After the exposure, Philby disappeared. It was not possible to find him for a long time, but then it became known that Khrushchev had granted him political asylum. Until his death in 1988, Kim Philby lived in Moscow. The fascination with the Soviet Union passed when the intelligence officer settled in the capital, much remained incomprehensible to him. For example, Philby genuinely wondered how the heroes who won the war could lead such a modest existence.
Another legendary Soviet intelligence officer who made a lot of efforts to defeat fascism is.
