The exploits of fighters 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 gathering of executioners and sadists, these days often remain in the shadows.

Part 1. Lion Hunter

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

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

The regiment's graduate took part in battles, was captured, escaped, became a homeless child in Odessa, and after the city was captured 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 ends up in a detachment of the Special Department (which had previously been ambushed and suffered heavy losses) as a cryptographer. So 14-year-old Pavel began serving in the state security agencies, and at 15 he already went to the border troops. Then Sudoplatov’s career went up: from the 23rd year at Komsomol work, from the 25th - in the Melitopol GPU, from the 28th - a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and an employee of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR. During 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 Sudoplatov, who was fluent in Ukrainian, was assigned to work against Ukrainian nationalists. There, the courier and illegal agent also quickly advanced in service, the assignments became more and more serious - the intelligence officer was entrusted with the preparation of sabotage, intelligence operations, and the creation of intelligence networks. Pavel was kept secret, his reports were signed with the pseudonym “Andrey”, and only his immediate superiors and immediate relatives knew about him.

Regularly traveling abroad, in 1935 he was able to infiltrate the circle of OUN leaders in Berlin. The Ukrainian nationalists were headed by Konovalets, already known to us. 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. The nationalists trained combat units and terrorist groups.

Konovalets

Having “befriended” Konovalets, Sudoplatov in 1938 received an order to eliminate the chief nationalist. To do this, they made a bomb disguised as a box of Konovalets’ favorite chocolates. When the nationalist was dealt with, a split occurred in the ranks of the OUN - Bandera and Melnik (Konovalets’ successor) fought among themselves, and Sudoplatov, under the guise of a Polish volunteer, went to Spain. There, in the ranks of an 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 OUN leader and continued to work in the NKVD. After Yezhov’s arrest, however, things changed in Sudoplatov’s life. hard days, he was almost expelled from the party, but... In March 1939, a call came to Stalin.

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

Sudoplatov took the experienced saboteur Naum Eitingon to help him. Alias ​​in the Cheka - Leonid. It was he who recruited people he knew from the war in Spain who could infiltrate Trotsky’s circle. Lev Davidovich, by the way, by that time had developed a vigorous activity: he tried his best 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.

So Trotsky

The operation to eliminate Trotsky was called “Duck,” although Sudoplatov himself called it “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 security guard named Hart (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 learned of 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: the reason for the failure was poor preparation. The members of the Siqueiros group who fought in Spain had neither experience in special operations nor experience in searching and clearing buildings. In general, Beria was furious, Eitingon declared his readiness to be punished, and Stalin ordered the use of a second group. Trotsky also lost no time, fortifying the house and strengthening the security. Members of the “Horse” group were arrested, but Siqueiros, although he admitted guilt, said that the attack had one goal: to exert psychological pressure and force Trotsky to leave Mexico.

In the second group important role was assigned to the son of its leader, Ramon Mercader, already familiar to Sudoplatov. Back in 1938, in Paris, he met the sister of an employee of Trotsky’s secretariat, New Yorker Sylvia Ageloff. A relationship began between them, things were approaching marriage... It is worth noting here that Mercader was posing as the Belgian Jacques Monrard, a wealthy heir, the son of the Belgian consul in Tehran. In 1939, under the name Frank Jackson, he arrived in New York with a false Canadian passport. He told Sylvia that in this way he was “getting rid of” the army. Somewhat later, Ramon moved to Mexico, where he waited for his bride. She arrived to her lover, thanks to her sister, she 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. Engrossed in reading, he did not notice how the saboteur took out an ice ax from under his cloak. The blow hit the back of the head, but Trotsky not only did not die immediately, but also managed to let out a scream... Mercader was arrested and announced personal hostility as the motive for the murder. He managed to hide his name for 6 years, and Ramon was released only in 1960. At the same time, during a visit to the USSR, Mercader received the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sudoplatov, in addition to leading the murder of Trotsky, continued to engage in intelligence - he traveled under the guise of “Molotov’s advisor” to Latvia, participated in the annexation operation Western Ukraine…

Part 2. In defense of the Fatherland

Among Pavel Sudoplatov's awards 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 fewer forces, as a result of a sudden and decisive attack based on the full interaction of firepower, equipment and manpower;

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

For organizing a battle while surrounded by numerically superior enemy forces, breaking out of this encirclement and maintaining the combat capability of one’s units, their weapons and equipment;

For a deep raid carried out by an armored formation behind enemy lines, as a result of which a sensitive blow was dealt to the enemy, ensuring the successful completion of the army operation.

A military commander's award, so to speak. Sudoplatov, it seems, was not a commander. Or?..

On June 16, 1941, Pavel Anatolyevich received a call: “Beria, having summoned me to his place, gave the order to organize a special group from among intelligence officers under his direct subordination. It 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.”

Nahum Eitingon

Naum Eitingon became Sudoplatov’s deputy; his task was to ensure communication between the group’s fighters and the military command. Both security officers developed plans for the destruction of fuel depots supplying German motorized tank units, which had already begun to concentrate near our borders, but a conversation with General Pavlov, commander of the Western Special Military District, which took place on June 20, showed something terrible: the general was of little interest in the situation on the border and he confidently declared that even if the Germans suddenly attacked, there would be no problems. 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 to bring them to full combat readiness, which was simply ignored by this same general, as well as 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 command.

On the very first day of the War, the relevance of sabotage work in the German rear, into which Soviet territory was rapidly turning, increased a thousandfold. Sudoplatov began to lead 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) Directorate of the NKVD. In addition to sabotage, the group had to deal with opening enemy intelligence networks, obtaining intelligence data, radio games and misinforming the enemy.

“We needed a huge number of people, thousands and thousands. None of the NKGB staffs could withstand this. This is how the idea arose of creating a special military unit that would be engaged exclusively in reconnaissance and sabotage work,” the intelligence officer recalled. Where to get footage? Experienced security officers were recalled from retirement, and the recruitment of volunteers began. The group included more than 800 athletes - without exaggeration, the entire flower of Soviet sports: football players, runners, weightlifters, boxers, shooters... Among them, for example, were the runners the Znamensky brothers or the famous boxer Nikolai Korolev. As a result, the group included... 25 thousand people! This is how a separate motorized rifle brigade for special purposes (OMSBON) appeared - a real special forces of the NKVD.

From Sudoplatov’s book “Special Operations”: “Under our command we had more than twenty-five thousand soldiers and commanders, of which two thousand were foreigners - Germans, Austrians, Spaniards, Americans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and Romanians.”

Some statistics of the Brigade’s combat work:

1,415 enemy trains were derailed;

More than 120 garrisons, commandant's offices and headquarters were destroyed;

more than 90 km of rail tracks were undermined;

About 700 km of telephone and telegraph cable 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;

2,045 enemy intelligence groups were exposed and neutralized;

in more than a thousand open battles with punitive forces, Wehrmacht and SS units, more than 150 thousand fascists were destroyed;

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

The brigade's fighters were responsible for the legendary operations "Concert", "Rail War", "Citadel"... Not a single Soviet military formation was as effective.

Partisan commander Dmitry Medvedev

It is worth especially noting that Sudoplatov himself did not “sit out” in Moscow. So, in the summer of 1942, a scout gathered a group of climbers within a day and went with them to the Caucasus: to defend the passes and carry out sabotage. The Germans never got the Caucasian oil, and when the group departed, Pavel Anatolyevich was in the covering detachment...

But we will return to the Order of Suvorov.

Naturally, German intelligence she 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 intelligence officer Alexander Demyanov, and the leadership - Sudoplatov. Coming from a noble family, Demyanov already had contacts with the Germans, and he was taught radio 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 spoke about the underground church-monarchist anti-Soviet organization “Throne”, of which he was a representative, and was even sent precisely to communicate with the German command. The intelligence officer endured constant interrogations and checks, and 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 him the pseudonym “Max”, and already in March 1942 transported him to the territory of the USSR. 2 weeks later, the first “disinformation” went to Germany... In addition to constantly misinforming the Germans, the operation had other “side” effects - German agents, saboteurs and contacts were arrested - about 60 people. At the “Monastery” they also “earned” several million Soviet rubles received from the Germans!

Just 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 expected an attack near Rzhev and repelled it. Encirclement and capture of the group German troops under the command of Field Marshal Paulus at Stalingrad turned out to be a complete surprise for them, which ultimately opened the path for the Red Army to victory over 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 valued 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” was received by 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 “Monastery”. Both radio games were never discovered 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 a “mole” working for the Germans in the Soviet General Staff.

Not only against the Germans...

The amount of work placed on Sudoplatov’s shoulders was simply enormous. In 1944, he was assigned to obtain information on the “Manhattan Project” - the development of the American atomic bomb. The work was organized so successfully that Stalin received the test results almost before Roosevelt...

RDS-1

The information obtained by Sudoplatov’s agents made it possible to greatly accelerate the interruptions of the war. work to create our nuclear “club”.

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

Part 3. “Gratitude”

Again against the nationalists

It so happened that Sudoplatov’s fate took a kind of loop and Pavel Anatolyevich was again tasked with fighting the Ukrainian nationalists, of whom there were enough in Western Ukraine after the Great Patriotic War. Having gone through the war on the enemy’s side, they did not at all strive to become normal Soviet citizens. And in general...

About half a million civilian Ukrainians alone died at the hands of nationalists. And more than 400 thousand Soviet prisoners of war, 220 thousand Poles and 850 thousand Jews. Well, about 5 thousand of our own, not enough Svidomo, were killed. All this happened with the blessing of the Uniate Church, which absolved all the sins of Bandera’s followers and prayed in honor of the “invincible German army and its main leader, Adolf Hitler.” There is no point in describing the “godly” deeds of these child killers, rapists, who enthusiastically “fought” civilians. Suffice it to mention that Khatyn is their work. And this is far from the only thing. By the way, some of the UPA detachments were led by Uniate priests.

This is the “struggle” for “independence”.

And after the War, Bandera’s followers did not calm down: they robbed, raped, killed... For example, in the village of Svatovo, near Lvov, they tortured and killed 4 young teachers. Only because they were from Donbass. I don’t know what exactly was done 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 threatened her, 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 out, a five-pointed star was cut out on her body in mockery, then a wire loop was thrown around her neck and, still alive, she was tied to a horse and set off to ride across the field.

Is there no fascism in Ukraine?

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

After the Great Patriotic War, Bandera’s troops 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, now heroized in Ukraine, aka “General Taras Chuprinka.” Here are his words: “The OUN must act in such a way that everyone who recognized Soviet power is 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’s nothing wrong with that...” This character, who was recruited, distinguished himself very, very much during the war with his atrocities, cruelty, and love of torture. He was also one of the authors and implementers of the “method” of mass murders: the population of villages was herded into one place, after which total extermination began. Then the dead were dumped in pits, covered with earth, and fires were lit on mass graves. In just two days, August 29 and 30, 1943, Shukhevych’s Banderaites killed 15 thousand women, old people and children... By the way, Chuprinka was recruited by the Germans back in 1926...

child killer and rapist, hero of Ukraine, Shukhevych

The security officers began fighting the nationalists who remained in the rear of the Red Army back in 1944. The activity was aimed at finding the leaders and destroying the militants, but there was clearly not enough strength, and the number of caches and any support from the locals helped Bandera’s followers continue to do evil. 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 finding the leaders of the Bandera underground and eliminating them. This was said in an unquestioning tone." Sudoplatov went to Lvov.

a good Banderaite is a dead Banderaite

The intelligence work began again, the collection of information began again. They developed Uniate priests. They were looking for ways to contact Shukhevych's confidants and his mistresses. As a result, they managed to detain Chuprynka’s contact Darina Gusyak, who gave false information during interrogation and constantly complained of feeling unwell. She was sent to the infirmary, where there was a “beaten” woman smeared with green paint. This woman turned out to be agent “Rosa” - a former nationalist caught and recruited by the security officers. She was able to gain the trust of Gusyak and she told her where to look for Shukhevych.

By the way, Gusyak has lived to this day and still talks about the terrible tortures that the “cursed Muscovites” inflicted on her in order to obtain information. The new Ukrainian authorities do not forget about the old woman and even reward her.

Prisoner #8

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died. On June 26, Beria was arrested on charges of treason. Perhaps they kill them then. On August 21, 1953, Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov was arrested in his own office on charges of conspiracy. He was accused of wanting to overthrow Soviet power and “restorate capitalism”, accused of creating special group to destroy the unwanted.

In reality, 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 resettlement of young people to Siberia and Far East. Sudoplatov objected and Stalin listened to his opinion. There were also documents signed by Khrushchev and the head of state security of the Ukrainian SSR Savchenko, speaking of the need for mass repressions in Ukraine.

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

Sudoplatov's wife, Emma Kaganova, was able to figure out how to convey information to her husband. The nurse she recruited brought books wrapped in newspapers or old letters. From the newspapers the intelligence officer learned that Beria and six more of his associates were shot, from a letter with the text “the old man was exposed at a general meeting of collective farmers, the accountants are not feeling well, the conditions at the company are still the same, but there is enough money to continue further” he learned about the exposure of Stalin's personality cult.

When the news came about the resignation of Molotov and Kaganovich (1957), Sudoplatov decided that it was time to act and decided to stop feigning madness. In 1958, a trial took place and the general was sentenced to 15 years and sent to the Vladimir central prison. The intelligence officer was released on August 21, 1968, blind in one eye, crippled and surviving several heart attacks.

While still in prison, he wrote letters, where he developed methods of countering enemy sabotage groups, after imprisonment he worked as a translator, under his old operational pseudonym “Andrey,” remaining loyal 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.

Sudoplatov himself did not know why he managed to survive. Being number eight on the list of those arrested in the "Beria conspiracy", he did not share the same fate - execution - with the first seven.

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

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

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The activities of illegal intelligence officers, for objective and understandable reasons, have always been surrounded by a thick veil of secrecy. If you tell everyone about illegal immigrants and their methods of work, then what kind of illegal immigrants are they? Moreover, illegal intelligence, according to the unanimous opinion of historians of special services, is the holy of holies of intelligence activities in any country in the world, and therefore candidates for work in it are selected especially carefully, relying on people with special qualities.

HARD SELECTION

“We search for candidates and find them ourselves, going through hundreds and hundreds of people. The work is truly unique. To become an illegal immigrant, a person must have many qualities: courage, determination, strong will, the ability to quickly predict various situations, resistance to stress, excellent mastery abilities foreign languages, good adaptation to completely new living conditions, knowledge of one or more professions that provide the opportunity to earn a living,” we read in the introduction to the book in question former first Deputy Chief of Foreign Intelligence, Lieutenant General Vadim Kirpichenko, who for a number of years headed the illegal unit of domestic foreign intelligence.

At the same time, preparing an illegal intelligence officer, as well as providing him with reliable documents and then taking him, as the intelligence officers say, abroad to perform special tasks is a matter of exceptional complexity.

“Training an illegal intelligence officer is very labor-intensive and takes several years. It is aimed at developing professional skills and abilities on the basis of the employee’s existing personal qualities,” Vladimir Antonov quotes the words of another well-known head of domestic illegal intelligence, Major General Yuri Drozdov, who was directly involved in the development and implementation of the William Fisher (Rudolph) exchange operation Abel). – Of course, it includes mastering foreign languages, training an intelligence officer psychologically, which, in particular, allows him to act as a representative of a particular nationality, a bearer of certain national and cultural characteristics. Of course, this also includes operational training, which includes developing skills in obtaining and analyzing intelligence information, maintaining contact with the Center, and other aspects. An illegal intelligence officer is a person capable of obtaining intelligence information, including through analytical means.”

However, the complexity of training an illegal intelligence officer is more than compensated by the immeasurable practical benefits that he brings to his country, especially during periods of political or military confrontation. That is why the domestic foreign intelligence service has always paid increased attention to conducting intelligence activities from illegal positions.

“For almost a century now, this legendary unit has been making a special, sometimes invaluable contribution to ensuring state security and protecting the interests of the Fatherland,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking last year at a gala event at the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service on the occasion 95th anniversary of the creation of its illegal administration. “Our country has had to go through many trials, and illegal intelligence officers have always been, as they say, “on the front line.” More than once, it was their decisive actions, obtained information, and delicately carried out operations that literally changed the course of history, made it possible to protect our people from threats and preserve peace.”

However, due to the specifics of the work of this department, which bears fruit in ensuring the national security of Russia, we do not always learn about what certain illegal intelligence officers have done for our country. It's safe to say that we don't even know the vast majority of them. And this is justified - otherwise, what kind of illegal immigrant is this that everyone knows about? All the more valuable are rare articles, books and films about these heroes - fighters of the invisible front. One of these works is a unique book by one of the long-time authors of NVO, a veteran of state security agencies, retired colonel Vladimir Sergeevich Antonov about the legendary Soviet illegal intelligence officer Konon Trofimovich Molodoy, which was recently published in the series “The Life of Remarkable People.”

The biography of the future legend of Soviet foreign intelligence is a real cross-section of the history of our country in the 20th century, full of grandiose achievements and irreparable tragedies. Konon Trofimovich was born on January 17, 1922 in Moscow into a family scientific workers: father - Trofim Kononovich - teacher at Moscow State University and Moscow Higher Technical School, head of the scientific periodicals sector of Gosizdat, and mother - Evdokia Konstantinovna - general surgeon, during the Great Patriotic War– leading surgeon of the evacuation hospital, and after the Victory – professor at the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics, author of many scientific works.

The first period of the life of the future illegal intelligence officer was largely the same as that of his other peers. The only exception was a trip to the United States to visit his mother’s sister, where he lived from 1932 to 1938. By the way, the episode with the trip to the USA, in which the all-powerful Genrikh Yagoda, who then held the post of deputy chairman of the OGPU, took an active part, is one of the never fully revealed secrets in the life of Konon the Young. Upon returning to Moscow - studies, school graduation and conscription into the army in October 1940. This is probably how the life of, as they say, an ordinary Soviet boy (albeit, without a doubt, very gifted) would have gone on: he would have returned from the army, graduated from a civilian university and would probably have become a famous scientist or a first-class specialist in some branches of science. But then war broke out...

Konon Molody ended up in the Western Military District, in the reconnaissance artillery division, and in the first months of the war took part in many difficult battles, including Smolensk and the battles near Vyazma and Rzhev. “I was in the very first link of army intelligence, which operates directly on the front line,” the future illegal intelligence officer later pointed out in the book “My Profession is Intelligence.” “Take the “tongue”, scout out the location of firing points - such tasks were assigned to the soldiers of the unit in which I served.”

At the same time, Konon Trofimovich went through the ranks in the unit from a private to an officer, assistant chief of staff. And how he carried out the tasks assigned to him and led his subordinates is evidenced by a photograph of the young lieutenant Molodoy. It shows that the hero’s chest is decorated with the Order of the Red Star, two Orders of the Patriotic War, I and II degrees, and two medals (by the way, many of the photographs given in Vladimir Antonov’s book are being published for the first time).

Having joined the army as a boy, Konon the Young returned home after the Victory as a wise front-line soldier, matured and seasoned. “Perhaps it was during the war that he developed a taste for intelligence, an adventurism, without which a person cannot choose this profession,” Trofim Molodoy later recalled about his father.

FROM SCOUT TO SCOUT

After the war - demobilization, study at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Trade, and from December 1951 - work in state security agencies, in foreign intelligence. Three years later, he is already in Canada, where he was taken illegally, and from there, with documents in the name of Canadian businessman Gordon Lonsdale, he moves to the UK, where he heads an illegal station. Then - many years of fruitful work, but in 1961 - an arrest, which became possible due to the betrayal of a high-ranking Polish foreign intelligence officer, Colonel Mikhail Golenevsky, and a sentence of 25 years in prison. However, in 1964, Konon Molody was exchanged for British intelligence officer Greville Wine and then worked in the central apparatus of foreign intelligence.

More details about all stages of life and professional activity The reader can learn about Konon the Young from the presented book by Vladimir Antonov.

It should be especially noted that the book contains two very voluminous appendices, which contain brief information about the heads of Soviet foreign intelligence during the period of Konon Molodoy’s work there, as well as information about his military friends and comrades-in-arms. Among the latter are the legends of domestic foreign intelligence Ashot Akopyan, George Blake, Joseph Grigulevich, Vasily Dozhdalev, Leonid Kvasnikov, Leonid Kolosov, Nikolai Korznikov, Alexander Korotkov, Vitaly Pavlov, Semyon Semenov, Yuri Sokolov and William Fisher. Behind each of these names are years of hard work in the field of foreign intelligence, associated with solving complex problems in the interests of the national security of our state.

Famous Russian writer Theodor Gladkov, in his book “The King of Illegals,” dedicated to the famous Soviet intelligence officer Alexander Korotkov, who secretly received the title “King of Illegals,” wrote: “If you ask ten random passers-by on the street how they imagine an intelligence officer, nine will name an illegal immigrant as an example... And This is not accidental, but natural. Because it is in the illegal immigrant that all the general and specific features characteristic of the intelligence profession are concentrated to the greatest extent.”

One of these legendary illegal intelligence officers is Colonel Konon Trofimovich Molodoy, about whose bright and rich in unique events life and work (within the limits of what is permitted, of course, since many episodes of the intelligence officer’s biography will remain classified “secret” for a long time) we can read in the new book by Vladimir Antonov, one of the best authors of “NVO”, who tells on the pages of our weekly about well-known or little known Russian foreign intelligence officers who gave all their strength for the good of the Motherland.

Englishman Kim Philby - legendary scout , who managed to simultaneously work for the governments of two competing countries - England and USSR. The work of the brilliant spy was so highly appreciated that he became the only recipient 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 post in the SIS intelligence service and his main task was to track down foreign spies. While “hunting” for specialists sent from the USSR, Kim himself was at the same time recruited by the Soviet intelligence services. Working for the Country of Soviets was due to the fact that Kim ardently supported the ideas of communism and was ready to cooperate with our intelligence, refusing remuneration for his work.

Philby did a lot to help the Soviet Union during the war; through his efforts, sabotage groups were intercepted on the Georgian-Turkish border, and the information received from him helped prevent an 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 to Kim Philby, the British intelligence services were never able to obtain confessions about 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 was, of course, collecting information for British intelligence.

In 1963, a special commission from Britain arrived in Beirut and managed to establish Kim’s closeness to the Soviet Union. It is very interesting that the only irrefutable evidence was a bas-relief presented to the intelligence officer... by Stalin. It was made of noble wood and inlaid with precious metals and stones. The bas-relief depicted Mount Ararat, which made it possible for Philby to come up with a legend that this curiosity was allegedly purchased in Istanbul. The British managed to guess that the point from which it was captured majestic mountain, could only be located on the territory of the USSR.

After the exposure, Philby disappeared. It took a long time to find him, 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 was genuinely perplexed 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 -.

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