Soviet illegal intelligence svr. Disgrace of a blind cat

Who is an illegal intelligence officer?

The recruited agent lives in a country familiar to him from childhood. His documents are genuine, he does not need to strain to remember certain moments of his biography. An abandoned illegal intelligence officer is another matter. He lives in a country foreign to him, whose language is rarely his native language; everyone around him recognizes him as a stranger. Therefore, an illegal immigrant always pretends to be a foreigner. A stranger can be forgiven a lot: he can speak with an accent, not know local customs, and get confused in geography. The intelligence officer sent to Germany pretends to be a Baltic German, the agent working in Brazil is, according to legend, a Hungarian, the intelligence officer living in New York is, according to documents, a Dane.

There is no greater danger for an illegal immigrant than meeting a “compatriot.” The slightest inaccuracy can be fatal. Suspicion will be aroused by pronunciation that does not correspond to the legend (as natives of Lvov and Kharkov speak the same Ukrainian language completely differently), an error in gesture (Germans, when ordering three glasses of beer, usually throw out their middle, index and thumb), ignorance of the national subculture (during the Ardennes operations 1944-1945 Americans split Skorzeny’s saboteurs with the question “Who is Tarzan?”).

It is simply impossible to predict all the subtleties of the legend: not a single reference book will write that Gretel, one of the many university laboratory assistants, is a local celebrity, and it is simply impossible not to know her. Therefore, every extra hour spent in the company of a “countryman” increases the risk of failure.

One among strangers

Nikolay Kuznetsov, communicating with the Germans, gave himself away for the German. From October 1942 to the spring of 1944, almost 16 months, he was in Rivne, occupied by the Nazis, moving in the same circle, constantly expanding the number of contacts. Kuznetsov didn’t just pretend to be a German, he became one, he even forced himself to think in German. The SD and the Gestapo became interested in Siebert only after evidence emerged that the chief lieutenant was related to a series of terrorist attacks carried out in Rivne and Lvov. But Paul Siebert, as a German, never aroused suspicion among anyone. Fluency in the language, knowledge of German culture, customs, behavior - everything was impeccable.

And all this despite the fact that Kuznetsov has never been to Germany and has never even traveled outside the USSR. And he worked in occupied Rivne, where every German is visible, where the SD and the Gestapo are working to eliminate the underground, and almost everyone is under suspicion. No other intelligence officer was able to hold out in such conditions for so long, penetrate so deeply into the environment, or acquire such significant connections. That is why the “fighters of the invisible front” unanimously call Kuznetsov illegal intelligence officer No. 1.

Where did he come from?

Yes, really, where from? For most, the biography of the famous intelligence officer begins with his appearance in Medvedev’s detachment in October 1942. Until this moment, Kuznetsov’s life is not just white spots, but a continuous white field. But brilliant intelligence officers do not appear out of nowhere; they are nurtured and prepared for a long time. Kuznetsov’s path to the heights of professionalism was long and not always straightforward.

Nikolai Kuznetsov was born in the village of Zyryanka, Perm province in 1911 into a peasant family. There are no nobles or foreigners in his family tree. Where a boy born in the Perm outback got his talent as a linguist is a mystery. The winds of revolution brought Nina Avtokratova, who was educated in Switzerland, to the Talitsk seven-year school. Nikolai received his first lessons in German from her.

But this was not enough for the boy. His friends were the local pharmacist, the Austrian Krause, and the forester, a former prisoner of the German army, from whom Kuznetsov picked up profanity that is not found in any German language textbook. In the library of the Talitsky Forestry College, where he studied, Nikolai discovered the “Encyclopedia of Forestry” in German and translated it into Russian.

Blows of fate

In 1929, Kuznetsov was accused of concealing his “White Guard-kulak origin.” Now it is no longer possible to determine what kind of passions raged in the Talitsky technical school, what intrigues Kuznetsov was drawn into (his father was neither a kulak nor a White Guard), but Nikolai was expelled from the technical school and from the Komsomol. The future intelligence officer was left with incomplete secondary education for the rest of his life.

In 1930, Nikolai got a job in the land department. Reinstated in the Komsomol. Having discovered that the authorities were engaged in theft, he reported this to the authorities. The robbers were given 5-8 years and Kuznetsov 1 year - for the company, however, without serving time: the punishment consisted of supervision and withholding 15% of earnings (the Soviet regime was harsh, but fair). Kuznetsov was again expelled from the Komsomol.

Freelance OGPU agent

On duty, Nikolai traveled around the remote villages of Komi, along the way he mastered the local language, and made many acquaintances. In June 1932, detective Ovchinnikov drew attention to him, and Kuznetsov became a freelance agent of the OGPU.

Komi in the early 30s was a place of exile for kulaks. Ardent enemies of Soviet Power and those unjustly repressed fled to the taiga, formed gangs, shot postmen, taxi drivers, villagers - everyone who at least somewhat represented the authorities. Kuznetsov himself was also attacked. There were uprisings. The OGPU needed local agents. Forest manager Kuznetsov was responsible for creating an agent network and maintaining contact with it. Soon higher authorities paid attention to him. The talented security officer was taken to Sverdlovsk.

At Uralmash

Since 1935, Kuznetsov has been a workshop operator at the design bureau at Uralmash. Many foreign specialists, most of them Germans, worked at the plant. Not all foreigners working at the plant were friends of the USSR. Some of them demonstratively expressed their sympathies for Hitler.

Kuznetsov moved among them, made acquaintances, exchanged records and books. The duty of the “Colonist” agent was to identify hidden agents among foreign specialists, suppress attempts to recruit Soviet employees, and find among the Germans persons ready to cooperate with Soviet intelligence.

Along the way, Nikolai improved his German, acquired the habits and behavior characteristic of the Germans. Kuznetsov mastered six dialects of the German language, learned to determine from the first phrases which places the interlocutor was born and immediately switched to the native German dialect, which simply delighted him. Learned Polish and Esperanto.

Kuznetsov was not spared from repression. In 1938, he was arrested and spent several months in prison, but his immediate supervisor managed to recapture his charge.

“We must take him to Moscow!”

In 1938, one of the NKVD staff introduced a particularly valuable agent to a major Leningrad party official, Zhuravlev, who arrived on an inspection in Komi: “Brave, resourceful, proactive. Fluent in German, Polish, Esperanto, and Komi. Extremely effective."

Zhuravlev talked with Kuznetsov for several minutes and immediately called the deputy of the GUGB NKVD Raikhman: “Leonid Fedorovich, there is a person here - a particularly gifted agent, he must be taken to Moscow.” At that moment, Reichman had an intelligence officer in his office who had recently arrived from Germany; Reichman handed him the phone: “Talk.” After several minutes of conversation in German, the intelligence officer asked: “Is this calling from Berlin?” Kuznetsov's fate was decided.

Illegal in home country

When the head of the secret political department of the GUGB NKVD Fedotov saw the documents of Kuznetsov who had arrived to him, he grabbed his head: two convictions! Expelled from the Komsomol twice! Yes, such a questionnaire is a direct road to prison, and not to the NKVD! But he also appreciated Kuznetsov’s exceptional abilities and designated him as a “highly classified special agent,” hiding his profile from personnel officers behind seven locks in his personal safe.

To protect Kuznetsov, they abandoned the procedure for assigning a title and issuing a certificate. The special agent was issued a Soviet passport in the name of Rudolf Wilhelmovich Schmidt, according to which the security officer lived in Moscow. This is how Soviet citizen Nikolai Kuznetsov was forced to hide in his native country.

Rudolf Schmidt

At the end of the 30s, German delegations of all kinds of colors became frequent in the USSR: trade, cultural, socio-political, etc. The NKVD understood that 3/4 of the composition of these delegations were intelligence officers. Even among the Lufthansa crews there were not beautiful flight attendants, but brave stewards with military bearing, changing every 2-3 flights. (This is how Luftwaffe navigators studied areas of future flights.)

In the circle of this motley public, the “longing for the Fatherland” Soviet German Schmidt moved, quietly finding out which of the Germans was breathing what, with whom he was establishing contacts, and whom he was recruiting. On his own initiative, Kuznetsov obtained the uniform of a senior lieutenant of the Red Army Air Force and began posing as a test engineer at a closed Moscow plant. Ideal object for recruitment! But often the German agent who fell for Schmidt himself became an object of recruitment and returned to Berlin as an NKVD agent.

Kuznetsov-Schmidt made friends with diplomats and became surrounded by the German naval attaché in the USSR. The friendship with frigate captain Norbert Baumbach ended with the opening of the latter's safe and photographing secret documents. Schmidt's frequent meetings with the German military attache Ernst Kestring allowed the security officers to install wiretapping in the diplomat's apartment.

Self-taught

At the same time, Kuznetsov, who supplied the most valuable information, remained an illegal immigrant. Fedotov nipped in the bud all proposals from management to send such a valuable employee to any courses, carefully hiding “Schmidt’s” profile from prying eyes. Kuznetsov never took any courses. Fundamentals of intelligence and conspiracy, recruitment, psychology, photography, driving, German and culture - in all areas Kuznetsov was 100% self-taught.

Kuznetsov was never a party member. Just the thought that Kuznetsov would have to tell his biography at the party bureau during the reception threw Fedotov into a cold sweat.

Scout Kuznetsov

With the beginning of the war, Kuznetsov was enrolled in the “Special Group under the NKVD of the USSR”, headed by Sudoplatov. Nikolai was sent to one of the camps for German prisoners of war near Moscow, where he served several weeks, getting into the skin of the German chief lieutenant Paul Siebert. In the summer of 1942, Kuznetsov was sent to Dmitry Medvedev’s detachment. In the capital of the Reichskommissariat, Rovno, in exactly 16 months, Kuznetsov destroyed 11 senior officials of the occupation administration.

But one should not perceive his work solely as terrorist. Kuznetsov's main task was to obtain intelligence data. He was one of the first to report the upcoming Nazi offensive on the Kursk Bulge and determined the exact location of Hitler’s Werewolf headquarters near Vinnitsa. One of the Abwehr officers who owed money to Siebert a large sum money, promised to pay him with Persian carpets, which Kuznetsov reported to the center. In Moscow, the information was taken more than seriously: this was the first news of the preparation by the German intelligence services of Operation Long Jump - the liquidation of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during the Tehran Conference.

Death and posthumous glory

Kuznetsov could not “hold on” forever. The SD and the Gestapo were already looking for a terrorist in the uniform of a German lieutenant. Before his death, the official of the Lviv air force headquarters who was shot by him managed to name the shooter’s surname: “Siebert.” A real hunt began for Kuznetsov. The scout and his two comrades left the city and began to make their way to the front line. March 9, 1944 Nikolai Kuznetsov, Ivan Belov and Yan Kaminsky in the village. Boratin ran into a UPA detachment and died in battle.

N. Kuznetsov was buried on the Hill of Glory in Lvov. In 1984, a young city in the Rivne region was named after him. Monuments to Nikolai Kuznetsov were erected in Rovno, Lvov, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, and Chelyabinsk. He became the first foreign intelligence officer to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Nikolay Kuznetsov(1911-1944) was the first in the history of Russian intelligence to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He had extraordinary linguistic abilities. A guy from a distant village easily mastered not just the German language, but 6 of its dialects. Before the war in Moscow, he posed as a Soviet test pilot of German blood Rudolf Schmidt. He recruited several diplomats from Germany and countries of the Hitlerite coalition. He was neither an officer nor a member of the Communist Party. Didn't finish any specials educational institutions. He was kept in the basements of the Sverdlovsk Cheka and was not sentenced to death at the very peak of the repressions of the 30s only thanks to the courage of several security officers who vouched for him. During the war sent to a short time behind the Germans near Rovno, Kuznetsov accomplished the impossible: he held out under the name Paul Siebert about 2 years. He destroyed the fascist leaders in the territory they temporarily captured. His contribution to strategic intelligence is no less valuable. So, he was the first to learn about the favorite being prepared in 1943 Hitler Otto Skorzeny assassination attempt big three» - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill- during the Tehran Conference. He determined where Hitler’s headquarters was located near Vinnitsa. Siebert-Kuznetsov informed the Center about the German forces preparing for the battle on the Kursk Bulge. On March 9, 1944, not wanting to surrender to Bandera, he blew himself up with a grenade.

Flew to the USA on a NATO plane

Gevork Vartanyan(1924-2012) and his and now living wife Gohar Levonovne is a very serious achievement. They worked in special conditions", that is, in illegal intelligence, 45 (!) years. Vartanyan is the second after Nikolai Kuznetsov Hero of the Soviet Union, an illegal intelligence officer from the SVR. Together with the young 16-year-old Gohar, he was in the Light Cavalry group that prevented an attempt on the life of the Big Three in Tehran in 1943. For many years, starting before the war, he lived with his father, an illegal Soviet intelligence officer, in Iran. I followed my father's path at the age of 17. He graduated from the British intelligence school in Tehran, which helped him avoid not only arrest, but even the slightest suspicion during all the years of work. It is still unknown in which countries the Vartanyans worked. A good friend of mine admitted to me that he had visited almost a hundred countries of the world. They returned to their homeland only in 1986. For purposes of conspiracy, even the title of Hero was awarded to Vartanyan in someone else’s name.

The degree of Vartanyan’s penetration into foreign intelligence services, the level of his connections is evidenced by the fact that in the USA from Western Europe he flew on the plane of one of the leaders of NATO, the American Admiral Turner. One of the most unpleasant episodes in Vartanyan’s life occurred when ... his own intelligence service tried to send him from abroad to the Union - only legal. Having intercepted a message that the police in the host country were looking for a man very similar to Vartanyan, Colonel H. found “Henri” (Vartanyan - N.D.) and was going to take him to the airport. Vartanyan, absolutely confident in himself, did not agree. As it turned out later, the signs of the bandit wanted in that well-known country by fate coincided with the signs of Gevork Andreevich. Vartanyan stayed and worked under a false name for many more years.

He was exchanged for 13 foreign agents

Alexey Kozlov(1934-2015) - another illegal immigrant awarded the title of Hero of Russia. First, under the guise of a German draftsman, and then the owner of a dry cleaner and then a traveling salesman, he worked illegally for 30 years in many countries, starting with Denmark. He settled in Germany, marrying his own wife sent from the Soviet Union. There, the couple had two children, who had no idea that their parents were Russian intelligence officers. The godfather of the first child was a former SS officer. After the death of his wife, Kozlov returned to Moscow for a while and sent his children to a boarding school. For many years, the “German” lived in Rome, traveling with a genuine passport mainly to countries with which the USSR did not have diplomatic relations in those years. If arrested, the illegal immigrant had no chance of salvation.

Arrested in South Africa on a tip from a traitor Oleg Gordievsky. He was kept in inhumane conditions. I was seriously ill. When Alexey Mikhailovich told me about the tortures he suffered, I understood that I would never talk about them, they were so terrible and savage that no paper could stand it. But the colonel did not reveal a single agent. Every Friday Kozlov was taken to execution. Prisoners from his death block were hanged and thrown down a hatch. Then he was exchanged for 13 (!) agents from different Western countries. One of the exchanged, a South African officer, was specially captured for credibility with the help of Soviet military intelligence and Cuban volunteers during the war in Angola.

Returning to his homeland, he worked in Moscow for two years, and then disappeared for many years: again working as an illegal immigrant in as yet undisclosed countries. This is the first such case in the history of the Foreign Intelligence Service. The crowded huge hall, which accommodated several thousand workers of various special services, stood up in a single natural impulse after seeing newsreel footage of President Vladimir Putin presented another military order to Hero of Russia Kozlov.

Brilliant "persuader"

Rudolf Abel -William Fisher(1903-1971) lived six other people's lives and another one - his own. The first illegal intelligence officer in history, whose name became known throughout the Soviet Union. But, as it turned out many years after his death in Moscow, it was only fictitious. Rudolf Abel - this is the name of the Soviet intelligence colonel after his arrest in the United States. He was betrayed by a traitor. What did you do in a distant country? It was he who headed the network of atomic intelligence officers, and after the war they obtained the secrets of production of the latest American weapons of mass destruction. Fischer was the best radio operator of the organs, and also a brilliant “persuader.” It was he who, on Stalin’s personal orders, persuaded the famous physics Kapitsa. In the early 1950s, he managed to convince the agent "Perseus", aka American theoretical physicist Theodore Hall, do not break ties with Soviet intelligence.

Fischer-Abel, who spent about 7 years in US prisons, never gave the FBI a single name. The resilience is incredible, because for the already middle-aged intelligence officer, the sentence of 30 years, handed down in 1957, was tantamount to death. In February 1962, the colonel was exchanged for a spy - pilot Gary Powers, shot down near Sverdlovsk, and two more small fish. A heavy smoker, Fischer died in 1971 in Moscow from lung cancer.

Took a high position in a foreign country

Illegal intelligence officer X. A hero, and even the time to tell - whether it is the Soviet Union or Russia - has not yet come and, it seems, will never come. The first thing he saw after being transported to a distant foreign country was endless boulders. Under one of them he found someone hidden peasant clothes. He had to build his new biography for more than a decade and a half in complete solitude: unfortunately, he had to send his wife with her typically Slavic appearance and inability to complex languages was tantamount to group suicide. Made his way into the people. Having overcome incredible competition, he took a high position. This made it possible to transmit the most valuable information of a strategic nature to the homeland.

Grief came unexpectedly. The young son, whom he was able to meet extremely rarely, drowned. The illegal immigrant managed to escape to Moscow only for a day and immediately after the funeral, gritting his teeth, hurried to his place of duty.

By intelligence standards, he returned to his homeland not so long ago. And already here a misfortune happened. He, already a Hero, who had endured all the hardships and hardships, was hit and killed by a car. His belongings were kept in one of the apartments. It was clear how modestly he lived after returning from abroad. Even in the document that flashed only once, his last name appears, without a first name or patronymic, a heroic asterisk, and instead of a photograph there is a dark spot.

MOSCOW, June 28 – RIA Novosti. The Directorate of Illegal Intelligence of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, which made an invaluable contribution to ensuring national security USSR and Russia, celebrates on Wednesday the 95th anniversary of its creation.

"Behind long years activities, Russia’s illegal intelligence has strengthened, hardened and fully proven its effectiveness. She invariably coped with the tasks assigned to her, went through a long military path, sharing with our state and its people all the historical eras and events it experienced,” the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation said in a statement.

After 1917, the young Soviet state faced almost complete isolation in the international arena. He had to operate in a hostile environment. Under these conditions, the country's top leadership needed information about plans and intentions foreign countries. It was possible to obtain reliable and proactive information about them only with the help of foreign intelligence.

In most foreign countries, there were no Soviet diplomats and trade representatives due to the lack of diplomatic relations. It is for this reason that the question of the need to organize intelligence from illegal positions has become paramount. On June 28, 1922, the Collegium of the Main Political Directorate approved the regulations on the so-called overseas department of the Foreign Department, which was engaged in foreign intelligence.

As one of the additional tools for solving the tasks facing intelligence, the document provided for its use of methods of illegal work.

Bright pages in the history of illegal intelligence were its activities on the eve and during the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War. In the post-war period, she made a significant contribution to achieving nuclear parity between the USSR and the USA and disrupting Western plans to preemptive strike on the Soviet Union.

For obvious reasons, only a few names of Soviet and Russian illegal intelligence officers and the operations in which they participated are now known. Many of them will remain classified forever.

Legendary Kuznetsov

Nikolai Kuznetsov became a legend of Soviet illegal intelligence. Having exceptional linguistic abilities and excellent data for operational work, Kuznetsov, even before the war, carried out tasks to obtain valuable information from German diplomats working in Moscow.

During the war, Kuznetsov acted as part of the NKVD “Winners” partisan detachment, commanded by Colonel Dmitry Medvedev.

In 1942, Kuznetsov was thrown behind German lines in the area of ​​the Ukrainian city of Rivne. With documents addressed to Chief Lieutenant Paul Siebert, Kuznetsov was well-established in the circles of German officers and collected information of interest to Moscow.

In particular, Kuznetsov conveyed to Moscow information about the impending assassination attempt by the German special services on the leaders of the USSR, USA and England during the Tehran Conference, and about the preparation of the Wehrmacht offensive on the Kursk Bulge.

In addition, Kuznetsov was involved in the liquidation of the leaders of the German regime in Western Ukraine. Kuznetsov destroyed the vice-governor of Galicia Otto Bauer, the main Nazi judge in Ukraine Alfred Funk, and the deputy Gauleiter of Ukraine General Hermann Knuth. With the help of other partisan intelligence officers, Kuznetsov kidnapped the commander of the German special forces, General von Ilgen.

In March 1944, Kuznetsov died in battle with Ukrainian nationalists. For the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazis, Nikolai Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Colonel Abel

The most famous Soviet intelligence officer operating in the West in the 1950s was William Fisher. After the war, under various pseudonyms, he worked in the United States and led the intelligence network in this country. In 1957, due to betrayal, he was arrested, but in order to let Moscow know about his arrest and that he was not a traitor, Fischer gave the name of his late friend Rudolf Abel.

During the investigation, he categorically denied his affiliation with intelligence, refused to testify at trial, and rejected attempts by American intelligence officers to persuade him to betray. Fischer was accused of collecting data on atomic research and military information and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 1962, Fisher was exchanged for American pilot Francis Powers, who had been shot down in the USSR.

As for the British direction, here illegal immigrant Konon Molodoy, who worked in Foggy Albion under the name of Canadian entrepreneur Gordon Lonsdale, achieved great results.

For six years, Ben's station (Molodoy's operational pseudonym) obtained the most important secret documentary information, which was highly valued in Moscow.

In 1961, due to the betrayal of Polish intelligence officer Mikhail Golenevsky, who defected to the United States, Molody was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He rejected offers of British counterintelligence cooperation.

In 1964, Molodoy was exchanged for British businessman Greville Wynne, who was convicted by a Soviet court of espionage in the Penkovsky case.

Tehran-43 and South Africa's nuclear secrets

The names of the spouses Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan are written in golden letters in the history of domestic illegal intelligence. In 1943, as part of a special group, they took part in the operation to ensure the security of the Tehran Conference. Then an assassination attempt by Hitler’s secret services on the leaders of the “Big Three” - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill - was prevented.

Since 1956, for thirty years, the Vartanyans, under the pseudonyms “Anri” and “Anita,” worked illegally in different countries of the world. According to experts, the results of their work are so significant that they will never be made public.

In 1984, Gevork Vartanyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Another prominent illegal immigrant is Colonel Alexey Kozlov. In the late 1970s, he, working in South Africa under the name of German businessman Otto Schmidt, received operational information about South Africa's program to create its own nuclear weapons.

The information Kozlov reported to the Center helped to attract the attention of the world community to South Africa's nuclear plans. Under public pressure, the authorities of this country were forced to curtail their research into creating nuclear weapons.

In 1980, as a result of betrayal, Kozlov was arrested. He was kept in a South African prison for a month, subjected to constant torture. Kozlov then spent six months on death row in Pretoria Central Prison. In 1982 it was exchanged for ten West Germans and one South African Army officer.

For the courage and heroism shown during the performance of a special task, Kozlov was awarded the title of Hero of Russia in 2000.

“Today, illegal intelligence continues to stand in the united combat formation of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, occupying a worthy place on the “invisible front.” It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this activity. Unfortunately, we cannot list the names of all its participants. It is better to simply remember them with a kind, grateful word. they earned it by working for the good of the Fatherland,” the SVR press bureau said in a statement.

IN Russian Empire There was no illegal intelligence, but the Soviet government quickly corrected this unfortunate omission: in June 1922, at the suggestion of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) decided to create it.
Today, the illegal intelligence service of the SVR celebrates its 95th anniversary. It is known that particularly distinguished employees receive state awards, but their names are kept secret. Such is the motto of illegal intelligence: “Without the right to glory, for the glory of the state.”
Read about the intelligence officers whose fates became known to the public in our material.

Rudolf Abel
William Genrikhovich Fisher - this is the real name of the intelligence officer - was named so poetically in honor of Shakespeare. However, his career turned out to be by no means literary. In the second half of the 1920s, the son of British political emigrants began working in the foreign department of the OGPU. In 1938, Fischer was fired from the structure because Lavrentiy Beria considered him unreliable: William was in contact with intelligence officer Alexander Orlov, who fled to the West.


Rudolf Abel: “People in my profession are accustomed to listening more and talking less”
In 1941, Fischer was reinstated, and after the end of the war he was sent to the United States, where the illegal intelligence officer needed to receive information about the functioning of atomic facilities. Fisher worked successfully in the United States for almost a decade, but in 1957 he was betrayed by a radio operator and discovered. The trial turned out to be truly high-profile. 32 years in prison - that was the sentence. However, the intelligence officer served only a small part of his sentence in an American prison: in 1962 he was exchanged for pilot Francis Powers, convicted in the USSR of espionage.

Nikolay Kuznetsov

The biography of Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov did not in any way predispose him to become a famous intelligence officer and Hero of the Soviet Union: “White Guard-kulak” origin, expulsion from the Komsomol, dismissal from the factory for absenteeism, criminal record. Nevertheless, Kuznetsov was nevertheless accepted into the central apparatus, and this decision turned out to be strategically correct.

Nikolay Kuznetsov
During the war, Kuznetsov, under the name of the German officer Paul Siebert, worked directly among the enemies. He transmitted the data received from Wehrmacht officers to the partisan detachment. The main task that faced Kuznetsov was the elimination of Erich Koch. The false Siebert made several attempts to eliminate him, but none of them were successful. However, the assassination attempts were not useless: it is believed that Kuznetsov personally eliminated eleven generals and important officials of the Third Reich.
The scout died on March 9, 1944. There are several interpretations of this tragic event: According to one version, Kuznetsov died during a shootout with Ukrainian nationalists. But there is another point of view: perhaps Kuznetsov decided not to surrender and deliberately blew himself up with a grenade.

Africa de las Heras Gavilan

Spanka began collaborating with Soviet foreign intelligence in 1937. She carried out assignments not only within her native country, but also abroad. A year later, Africa was transferred directly to the Soviet Union. During the war, she worked behind enemy lines, and soon after the end of hostilities she ended up in Latin America, where she was destined to live for about twenty years.


Africa de las Heras Gavilan
In 1956, the Soviet intelligence officer Giovanni Antonio Bertoni was sent there, who, according to the instructions of the Center, was to become the husband of Africa. Despite the fact that this marriage was, strictly speaking, fictitious, in the end the union of the illegal intelligence officers turned out to be happy, and the relationship was sincere and trusting.
Africa returned to Moscow in 1967. She returned alone: ​​her husband had died in Latin America three years earlier. His wife survived him by more than 20 years. Africa de las Heras Gavilan died in 1988 in Moscow.

Alexey Kozlov

Another prominent representative of Soviet illegal intelligence is Alexei Mikhailovich Kozlov. Perhaps the most terrible period of his life was associated with his work in South Africa. He was sent there in 1979, collected the necessary information about secret atomic tests, but did not have time to leave the state: he was arrested by counterintelligence officers and accused of terrorism.


Alexey Kozlov
For two years, Kuznetsov was kept in solitary confinement in Pretoria. The illegal intelligence officer was subjected not only to endless interrogations, but also torture, but no one managed to get him to talk. Moreover, Kuznetsov spent six months on death row, where the guards even staged an “invitation to execution.” In 1982 Soviet government managed to achieve the exchange of Kuznetsov for ten German intelligence officers who were arrested on the territory of the USSR and the GDR, as well as for one military man from South Africa. It is known that at the time of arrest Kuznetsov’s body weight was 90 kg. After leaving prison he weighed only 58 kg.

Without the right to glory, for the glory of the state

In the 60s of the 20th century, everyone heard the name of the famous illegal intelligence officer Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (William Genrikhovich Fischer), who came out with honor from all the trials that befell him in the USA, where he found himself a victim of betrayal. Methods of illegal reconnaissance are changing, but one thing remains unchanged: reconnaissance is not a trick, not an adventure, but a painstaking and dangerous work in the shadow of infamy.

The hero of the television series “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” Colonel Isaev, aka SS Sturmbannführer Stirlitz, who appeared on screens in the early 1970s, became the idol of youth not only in the former Soviet Union, but also in other countries where this film was shown for many years. During the days the series was shown on Soviet Central Television, Moscow streets became deserted, and the police were surprised to record a sharp decrease in crime not only in the capital, but also in other cities of our vast country. Boys on the streets played “Stirlitz” and “Müller,” which testified to the enormous popularity of the film’s favorite characters and the genuine interest of the general public in the exploits of illegal intelligence officers.

The famous Russian writer Theodor Gladkov, in his book “The King of Illegals,” dedicated to the outstanding Soviet illegal intelligence officer Alexander Korotkov, writes: “If you ask ten random passers-by on the street what they imagine an intelligence officer to be like, nine will name an illegal person. Of those who really existed - Konon Molodoy (Lonsdale), William Fisher (Abel), Nikolai Kuznetsov (Lieutenant Siebert). Heroes of popular films will also be named: Major Fedotov (“The Exploit of a Scout”), Ladeinikov (“Dead Season”), Isaev (“Seventeen Moments of Spring”). And this is no coincidence. It is in the illegal immigrant that all the traits characteristic of the intelligence profession are concentrated to the greatest extent.”

FOREIGNER PASSPORT

So what is illegal intelligence, why is it needed and how does it differ from legal intelligence? The position of an illegal intelligence officer abroad is fundamentally different from the status of an employee of a legal station. The latter, being a citizen of his country, is provided with original documents proving his identity, and works under the cover of its official institutions: diplomatic, trade, cultural missions, news agencies, private firms, and sometimes international organizations, in which he represents his country.

As for the employee of the illegal residency, he is abroad with a passport of a foreign citizen, has no connection with the official missions of his country and does not even visit them, so as not to attract attention from the local intelligence services and not to decipher himself.

“An illegal intelligence officer is virtually defenseless before local authorities,” notes Theodor Gladkov. - In a country with tough political regime he could be secretly arrested, subjected to “third degree” interrogation, or even liquidated without any publicity. Even knowing about his arrest, the embassy of his native country cannot officially help him in any way. If convicted of espionage, an illegal immigrant can only hope that they will help him organize an escape (and this is always problematic), or hope that in a few years he will be exchanged for a captured red-handed intelligence officer of the state whose strictly guarded “guest” he is currently "

It is appropriate to note that not all countries conducting intelligence use illegal intelligence officers. At their service in different times England, Germany, Japan, China and Israel came running. Of course, the work of an illegal intelligence officer is associated with great risk, so this contingent of intelligence officers is usually used by countries that are confident in their abilities.

The British, who had accumulated vast experience in conducting strategic intelligence, were, as always, pioneers in this matter. Consider, for example, the famous British illegal intelligence officer Lawrence of Arabia, who posed as an Arab. True, despite brilliant knowledge Arabic, he still failed.

This is what the famous British intelligence officer George Hill, who represented the Patriotic War the British intelligence service Secret Intelligence Service in Moscow and who personally knew Lawrence:

“The life of a scout is in his hands. His existence is a succession of occasions, happy or unhappy. The scouts in Her Majesty's service carried out their dangerous task for the love of adventure. British intelligence officers, disguised as Afghans, slipped through the Cyber ​​Pass. Dressed in the rags of local merchants, they wandered through the eastern bazaars, obtaining the information they needed. However, it is difficult for a European, even if he has spent a long time in a foreign environment, to pass himself off as a local citizen due to roughness in pronunciation, ignorance of the habits, and way of thinking of other peoples, so secret agents constantly need the help of local residents.”

Of course, today you will not meet illegal intelligence officers “dressed in rags.” Such their use was possible only in those times when Great Britain resorted to colonial expansion, greedily seizing one country after another “just in case,” strengthening the power of the United Kingdom, in which “the sun never sets.” But even today the work of illegal intelligence officers, as it is sung in one of the popular songs, “both dangerous and difficult.” However, despite the great risk that illegal intelligence officers are exposed to, the information received from them is extremely important and often cannot be obtained in any other way.

ILLEGAL INTELLIGENCE PERSONS FROM AN UNRECOGNIZED STATE

It is known that the day before Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905 Japan literally flooded Russian Far East and Manchuria, including Port Arthur and Dalny, with their career intelligence officers who pretended to be Chinese, Koreans, Manchus, but in fact were officers of the imperial army.

Tokyo actively used Japanese citizens to conduct reconnaissance against Russia. They served as cooks, laundresses, nannies, worked as traders, photographers, commission agents, and at the same time were either career intelligence officers or agents of Japanese intelligence.

It's no secret that royal Russia It had no illegal intelligence, and all intelligence work on Japan was based on legal positions and was carried out extremely weakly. This was one of the reasons for Russia's defeat in the war.

The failures and shortcomings in the work of Russian intelligence were taken into account only after the October Revolution, when, under the leadership of Dzerzhinsky, the Foreign Department was created in the Cheka, which over time turned into one of the effective intelligence agencies of the state. And if today the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is rightfully among the best intelligence services in the world, then this, without a doubt, is the merit of the first generations of Soviet intelligence officers and its illegal immigrants.

However, on initial stage activities of the Foreign Department of the Cheka, the work of the young Soviet intelligence was built exclusively from a legal position. At the same time Soviet Russia at that time she had diplomatic relations with a minimum number of foreign countries, which were also hostile to her. Therefore, the legal INO residencies were unable to solve all the problems facing them. It should also be borne in mind that the White Guard armed emigration hatched plans to organize, together with the Entente countries, a new “crusade” against the Soviet Republic. In this regard, the country's political leadership was in dire need of reliable information regarding the activities of white emigration.

It was possible to reveal the true plans and intentions of the ruling circles of those countries with which diplomatic relations were not maintained only by combining legal and illegal methods of work. Therefore, in June 1922, at the suggestion of Dzerzhinsky, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) decided to create an illegal intelligence service.

It is worth noting, however, that at that time the division of intelligence into legal and illegal was rather arbitrary. Employees of the legal residency after graduation business trip abroad could be sent beyond the cordon along the line of illegal intelligence and vice versa. This is evidenced, in particular, by the operational biographies of the famous intelligence officers Fyodor Karin, the spouses Vasily and Elizaveta Zarubin, Alexander Korotkov, who headed illegal intelligence in the late 1950s, and others.

WHY ARE ILLEGAL ALIGNMENTS NEEDED?

This question is answered in his memoirs “Intelligence: Faces and Personalities” by the former first deputy head of Foreign Intelligence, who for a number of years headed its illegal division, Lieutenant General Vadim Kirpichenko:

“First of all, because official Russian representatives can always be followed by a “tail”, visible or completely invisible (taking into account the development technical means), and the illegal immigrant, unless he himself makes any mistakes, is not monitored. The geographical space for Russian citizens abroad is limited to all kinds of zones, and an illegal intelligence officer can move freely. Our country does not have diplomatic relations with a number of states, but sometimes it is necessary to go there on intelligence matters.”

It should be noted that the activities of illegal intelligence officers have always been surrounded by a thick veil of secrecy. This, of course, is not accidental, because illegal intelligence is the holy of holies of all intelligence activities, and people with special qualities are selected to work in it. It is extremely difficult to prepare a real illegal intelligence officer, provide him with reliable documents and send him abroad to perform special tasks.

WHO ARE THEY - ILLEGALS

For an answer to this question, let us turn again to Vadim Kirpichenko:

“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, ability to quickly predict various situations, resistance to stress, excellent ability to master foreign languages, good adaptation to completely new living conditions, knowledge of one or more professions that provide the opportunity to earn a living.

If a person is finally found who has all the listed qualities to one degree or another, this does not mean at all that he will turn out to be an illegal intelligence officer. Some other properties of nature are also needed, elusive and difficult to convey in words, special artistry, ease of transformation and even some well-controlled penchant for adventure, some kind of reasonable adventurism. The transformation of an illegal immigrant into another person is often compared to the performance of an actor. But it is one thing to transform for an evening or for a theater season, and quite another to transform into another, once living or specially designed person, to think and dream in a foreign language and not allow one to think about oneself in the real dimension.”

Another prominent Soviet intelligence officer, Major General Yuri Drozdov, who led illegal intelligence for 12 years and was directly involved in the development and implementation of the operation to exchange William Fisher (Rudolf Abel), testifies on the same occasion:

“An illegal immigrant is a special intelligence officer, different from an ordinary one in that he has higher personal qualities and special training that allow him to perform and act like a local resident of the country where he is located. Not everyone can become an illegal intelligence officer. The profession requires the candidate high level development of intelligence (thinking, memory, intuition), developed will, ability to master foreign languages, emotional stability, which allows maintaining intellectual potential in stressful situations and endure constant mental stress without harm to health.

These are the most General requirements, but one can understand that it is not easy to find people with such a combination of qualities and that illegal intelligence is the lot of specially selected people. Training an illegal intelligence officer is very labor-intensive and takes several years. It is aimed at developing professional skills and abilities based on the employee’s existing personal qualities. Of course, it includes mastering foreign languages, training in psychologically, which allows him to act in the role of 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.”

And the already mentioned British intelligence officer J. Hill assesses the qualities that an illegal immigrant should have:

“The best type of intelligence officer is a patriotic intelligence officer at the very high value this word. This is a man who, in the name of the love of the freedom of his country, leads a life full of risk and sacrifice, knowing that if he is captured, an unpleasant end awaits him. A scout must understand the language, customs, morals and way of thinking of the people among whom he will find the field of his activity, have a gifted mind and dexterity, be able to instantly draw conclusions and make immediate decisions, be resourceful in order to save his head from a noose, be extremely tactful , patient and vigilant. His memory must be trained in such a way that he can easily recognize traitors not only by their appearance and be able to remember the verbatim content of documents.

In addition, a patriotic intelligence officer must have an organizational genius. To complete the task, the scout needs to debug a thousand and one parts. It's not easy to keep key messages in mind or choose where to meet with agents. Thus, nine out of ten intelligence agents are exposed as a result of choosing the wrong method of organizing communications.”

One of the aces of Soviet illegal intelligence, William Fisher, better known to the general public as Colonel Rudolf Abel, emphasized in one of his interviews:

“Working conditions and the situation in capitalist countries oblige the intelligence officer to be constantly vigilant and carefully observe the rules of secrecy. Devotion to one's homeland, honesty and discipline, dedication, resourcefulness, the ability to overcome difficulties and hardships, modesty in everyday life - this is far from full list requirements for the business and personal qualities of an intelligence officer.

Reconnaissance is not an adventure, not some trickery, not pleasure trips abroad, but, above all, painstaking and hard work that requires great effort, tension, perseverance and endurance, will, serious knowledge and great skill. Remember what Dzerzhinsky said? Clean hands, a cool head and a warm heart. In these meager but precise words lies exclusively deep meaning. They, if you like, are a kind of compass for a scout, helping to find strength and courage in any situation. I was convinced of this on my own own experience during last business trip in the USA, when, as a result of betrayal, I had to come face to face with American counterintelligence.”

It should be especially emphasized that the employees of the illegal foreign intelligence units of different periods who became widely known for one reason or another not only fully met the high criteria for illegal intelligence officers, but also possessed exceptional human qualities and were, as they say, real people. They were and are the “golden fund” of our foreign intelligence.

VIRTUOSOS OF THE GENRE

The motto of illegal intelligence is “Without the right to glory, for the glory of the state,” because illegal intelligence officers do not think about glory, and do not talk about the specific content of their activities even among friends and workmates. Their names, as a rule, are unknown to outsiders and are kept secret even within the intelligence service itself. And only if an illegal intelligence officer fails, say, as a result of betrayal, will the general public learn about him. However, even in this case, the enemy’s counterintelligence does not always manage to fully understand the content of his work or reveal all his connections.

Even in the Foreign Intelligence Service, which is closed to outsiders, there are statutes of limitations. But they are not present in illegal intelligence, the forms and methods of work of which must always be kept deeply secret. A professional virtuoso who has not made a single failure and avoided betrayal is doomed to public oblivion. Therefore, the highest criterion, the measure of his work and talent, becomes only the assessment of his colleagues.

Illegal intelligence officers do not work for fame and honor. They, as a rule, do not achieve high positions in foreign intelligence, although they sometimes occupy prominent positions abroad.

Theodor Gladkov writes about this:

“Illegal immigrants with extensive experience (dozens of years) returned to their homeland as elderly people, having served all conceivable and unimaginable terms for retirement. Due to the long separation from administrative work in the central intelligence apparatus, it was difficult to use them for any leadership positions. Moreover, during their absence, one, or even two generations of employees were replaced in the same Center. As a rule, illegal veterans were successfully used as teachers of special disciplines, consultants, and experts.”

The current generation of SVR employees not only pays tribute to those illegal intelligence officers who have already passed away and who constituted its “golden fund,” but is also proud of those soldiers of the invisible front who, even today, far from their homeland, defend its interests “without the right to glory.” , for the glory of the state."

Vladimir Sergeevich Antonov -