The activities of illegal intelligence agents, for objective and understandable reasons, have always been surrounded by a dense veil of secrecy. If you tell everyone and 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 are looking for and finding candidates ourselves, sorting through hundreds and hundreds of people. The work is really piecemeal. To become an illegal immigrant, a person must have many qualities: courage, purposefulness, strong will, the 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 make it possible earn a living,” we read in the introduction to the book in question, the words former first Deputy Chief of Foreign Intelligence, Lieutenant-General Vadim Kirpichenko, who for a number of years had been the head of the illegal division 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 abroad, as the intelligence officers say, to perform special tasks, is a matter of exceptional complexity.

“The training of an illegal intelligence officer is very laborious and takes several years. It is aimed at building professional skills and abilities on the basis of the existing personal qualities of an employee,” 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 (Rudolf Abel). - Of course, it includes mastering foreign languages, psychological training of a scout, 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 the development of skills for obtaining and analyzing intelligence information, maintaining contact with the Center, and other aspects. An illegal intelligence agent is a person capable of obtaining intelligence information, including through analytical means.”

However, the complexity of training an illegal intelligence agent is more than compensated for by the immeasurable practical benefits that he brings to his country, especially during a period of political or military confrontation. That is why in the domestic foreign intelligence service, intelligence activities from illegal positions have always been given increased attention.

“For almost a century now, this legendary unit has been making a special, its own, sometimes invaluable contribution to ensuring state security, to 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 of 95th anniversary of the creation of its illegal administration. - Our country had to go through many trials, and always illegal intelligence officers were, as they say, "on the front line." More than once, it was their decisive actions, the information obtained, the subtly carried out operations that literally changed the course of history, made it possible to protect our people from threats, to preserve peace.

However, due to the specifics of the work of this department, which bears fruit in ensuring national security Russia, we do not always learn about what certain illegal intelligence agents have done for our country. We can safely say that we do not even know the vast majority of them. And this is justified - otherwise what kind of illegal immigrant is this, which everyone knows about. 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 longtime authors of NVO, a veteran of the state security agencies, retired colonel Vladimir Sergeevich Antonov, about the legendary Soviet illegal spy Konon Trofimovich Molodoy, which was recently published in the Life of Remarkable People series.

The biography of the future legend of the Soviet foreign intelligence is a real cut of the history of our country in the 20th century, full of grandiose accomplishments and irreparable tragedies. Konon Trofimovich was born on January 17, 1922 in Moscow in a family of scientists: his father, Trofim Kononovich, a teacher at Moscow State University and the Moscow Higher Technical School, head of the scientific periodical department of the State Publishing House, and his mother, Evdokia Konstantinovna, a general surgeon, during the Great Patriotic War- Leading surgeon of the evacuation hospital, and after the Victory - Professor of the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics, author of many scientific papers.

The first period of the life of the future illegal intelligence officer largely passed like that of his other peers. The exception was perhaps a trip to the United States to his mother's sister, where he lived from 1932 to 1938. By the way, the episode with the departure to the United States, in which the omnipotent Heinrich Yagoda, who then held the post of deputy chairman of the OGPU, took an active part, is one of the mysteries that have not been fully revealed in the life of Konon the Young. Upon returning to Moscow, he studied, graduated from school and was drafted into the army in October 1940. So, probably, life would have gone on, as they say, an ordinary Soviet boy (although, no doubt, very gifted): he would return from the army, finish civil university and would probably become a famous scientist or a first-class specialist in some branch of science. But then the war broke out...

Konon the Young ended up in the Western Military District, in the reconnaissance artillery battalion, and in the first months of the war he 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 a scout.” “Take the “language”, reconnoiter the location of the firing points - such tasks were set for the soldiers of the unit in which I served.”

At the same time, Konon Trofimovich went from private to officer, assistant chief of staff in the unit. And how he carried out the tasks entrusted 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 of I and II degrees and two medals (by the way, many of the photographs given in Vladimir Antonov’s book are published for the first time).

Having gone into the army as a boy, Konon the Young returned home after the Victory as a wise front-line soldier, matured and matured. “Maybe it was during the war years that he developed a taste for intelligence, adventurism, without which a person cannot choose this profession,” Trofim Molody 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 the state security agencies, in foreign intelligence. Three years later, he is already in Canada, where he was illegally taken out, and from there, with documents in the name of Canadian businessman Gordon Lonsdale, he moves to the UK, where he heads the illegal residency. Then - many years of fruitful work, but in 1961 - the arrest, which became possible due to the betrayal of a high-ranking employee of the Polish foreign intelligence, Colonel Mikhail Golenevsky, and a sentence of 25 years in prison. However, in 1964, Conon the Young was exchanged for the British intelligence officer Greville Wien and then worked in the central apparatus of foreign intelligence.

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

At the same time, it should be noted that the book contains two very voluminous appendices, which provide brief information about the chiefs of Soviet foreign intelligence during the period of Konon the Young's work in it, as well as information about his fighting friends and associates. Among the latter are the legends of domestic foreign intelligence Ashot Akopyan, George Blake, Iosif 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 the solution of the most difficult tasks in the interests of the national security of our state.

The well-known Russian writer Teodor Gladkov, in his book The King of Illegals, dedicated to the famous Soviet intelligence officer Alexander Korotkov, who secretly received the title of “King of illegal immigrants,” wrote: “If you ask ten random passers-by on the street what they think of the intelligence officer, nine will be named as an example illegal ... And this is not accidental, but natural. Since it is in the illegal immigrant that all the general and specific features inherent in the intelligence profession are concentrated to the greatest extent.

One of these legendary illegal intelligence officers is Colonel Konon Trofimovich Molody, 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 as “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 to a wide range of readers Russian foreign intelligence officers who gave all their strength for the good of the Motherland.

The name of Nahum Eitingon until recently remained one of the most guarded secrets. 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 To 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. Came new government. 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 young man new authorities took notice. 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 civil war in Spain. 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 collectivization. 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 by a hundred thousandth 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 High Command of the Wehrmacht that a large German army was hiding in the Belarusian forests. military unit. 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, 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, Nahum 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 scout 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.

Nahum Eitingon was released on March 20, 1964. Came out of jail stripped 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 the position of editor in the publishing house " International relationships».

The legendary scout was rehabilitated only in 1992, 11 years after his death. "The Last Knight Soviet intelligence"I 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 british empire and the Order of the Red Banner. Needless to say, maneuvering between two fires has always been very difficult ...

Another legendary Soviet spy, who made a lot of efforts to defeat fascism, -.

Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan was born on February 17, 1924 in Rostov-on-Don in the family of Andrey Vasilyevich Vartanyan, an Iranian citizen, director of an oil mill.

In 1930, when Gevork was six years old, the family left for Iran. His father was connected with the Soviet foreign intelligence and left the USSR on her instructions. Under the guise of commercial activities, Andrei Vasilievich conducted active intelligence work. It was under the influence of his father that Gevork became a scout.

Gevork Vartanyan connected his fate with Soviet intelligence at the age of 16, when in February 1940 he established direct contact with the NKVD station in Tehran. On behalf of the resident, Gevork led a special group to identify fascist agents and German intelligence agents in Tehran and other Iranian cities. In just two years, his group identified about 400 people, one way or another connected with German intelligence.

Most of the information about the activities of this person is still kept secret. His collection of surnames, codenames, operational aliases and illegal covers would be the envy of any intelligence officer and spy. More than once he put his life in danger on the fronts, in battles with saboteurs and spies. But he survived, one might say miraculously having gone through repressions, endless battles, purges and arrests, and 12 years in prison. More than anything, he despised cowardice and betrayal of the oath and his homeland.

On December 6, 1899, Naum Isaakovich Eitingon was born in Mogilev. Naum spent his childhood in the provincial town of Shklov. After graduating from school, he entered the Mogilev Commercial School, but he failed to graduate. There was a revolution in the country, in 1917 the young Eitingon took an active part in the work of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party for some time.

But the romance of terror did not captivate Eitingon, and after October 1917 he left the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and got a job as an employee of the local Council, in the department for pensions for the families of those killed in the war. Until 1920, he managed to change several jobs, take part in the defense of the city of Gomel from the White Guards and join the RCP (b).

Eitingon's Chekist activity begins in 1920, as an authorized representative of the Gomel fortified area, and since 1921, an authorized representative for military affairs of a special department of the Gomel GubChK. During these years, he participated in the liquidation of Savinkov's terrorist groups in the Gomel region (intelligence Krot). In the autumn of 1921, in a battle with saboteurs, he was seriously wounded, the memory of this injury will remain with Naum for life (Eitingon limped slightly).

After the end of the civil war, in the summer of 1922, he participated in the liquidation of nationalist gangs in Bashkiria. After the successful completion of this assignment, in 1923 Eitingon was recalled to Moscow, to the Lubyanka.

Until the middle of 1925, he worked in the central office of the OGPU as an assistant to the head of the department, under the supervision of the famous Jan Khristoforovich Peters. Eitingon combines his work with his studies at the Military Academy of the General Staff, at the eastern faculty, after which he is enrolled in the INO (foreign department) of the OGPU. From now on, the whole future life of Naum Isaakovich will be connected with Soviet intelligence.

In the fall of 1925, under "deep" cover, he recovers to China to carry out his first overseas reconnaissance mission.

The details of those operations in China are little known and classified to this day. In China, Eitingon hones his skills as a scout, gradually becoming a good analyst and developer of complex multi-way, operational combinations. Until the spring of 1929, he worked in Shanghai, Beijing, as a resident in Harbin. His agents infiltrate the local authorities, the circles of the White Guard emigration and the residency of foreign intelligence services. Here he meets legendary scouts: German Richard Sorge, Bulgarian Ivan Vinarov, Grigory Salnin from Uzbekistan, who for many years became his friends and comrades in combat work. In the spring of 1929, after a Chinese police raid on the Soviet consulate in Harbin, Eitingon was recalled to Moscow.

Soon he finds himself in Turkey under the legal cover of a diplomatic worker, here he replaces Yakov Blumkin, who was recalled to Moscow after contact with Trotsky. Here he does not work for long, and after the restoration of residency in Greece, he again finds himself in Moscow.

In Moscow, Eitingon worked for a short time as deputy head of the Special Group, Yakov Serebryansky (Uncle Yasha's group), then for two years as a resident in France and Belgium, and for three years he headed the entire illegal intelligence service of the OGPU.

Period from 1933 to 1935 when Eitingon was in charge illegal intelligence, is the most mysterious period of his service. According to available data, during this period of time he managed to go on several business trips to China, Iran, the USA and Germany. After the transformation of the OGPU into the NKVD and the change of leadership, a number of new tasks were set for intelligence to obtain scientific, technical and economic information, but it was not possible to immediately begin to solve new problems, the war began in Spain.

In Spain, he was known as Major GB L. I. Kotov, Deputy Advisor to the Republican Government. Under his command, the future Heroes of the Soviet Union Rabtsevich, Vaupshasov, Prokopyuk, Maurice Cohen fought. The head of the NKVD station in Spain at that time was A. Orlov, he also led all operations to eliminate the leaders of the Spanish Trotskyists and was the chief security adviser to the Spanish Republicans.

In July 1938, Orlov fled to France, taking with him the residency cash desk, Eitingon was approved as the chief resident, by that time the turning point had come in the war. In autumn, the Francoists, with the support of parts of the German legion "Condor", occupy the citadel of the Republicans in Barcelona. It is noteworthy that, along with the Francoists, one of the first to enter the captured Barcelona was the Times war correspondent Harold Philby. He is also the legendary Kim Philby, a member of the "Cambridge Five", whom Eitingon in August 1938, after Orlov's treacherous flight, got in touch through Guy Burges.

In addition to maintaining the "Cambridge Five", Eitingon in Spain also managed to gain good leadership experience partisan movement, the organization of reconnaissance and sabotage groups, which came in handy only two years later, in the fight against German fascism. Some of the participants in the war in Spain, members of the international brigades, would later take a direct part in the operations of Soviet intelligence. For example, David Alfaro Siqueiros, a Mexican painter, will take part in an operation against Trotsky in 1940. Many members of the International Brigade will form the backbone of the legendary OMSBON special forces, under the leadership of General P. Sudoplatov. These are also Eitingon's Spanish merits.

OMSBON (separate motorized rifle brigade for special purposes) was formed in the early days of the war with Nazi Germany. In 1942, the formation became part of the 4th Directorate of the People's Commissariat. From the first to last day During the war, this special service was headed by General P. Sudoplatov, and Eitingon was his deputy.

Of all the Soviet intelligence officers, only Eitingon and Sudoplatov were awarded the Order of Suvorov, which was awarded to military leaders for military merits. The operations “Monastyr” and “Berezino” developed and successfully carried out by them were included in textbooks on military intelligence and became a classic.

The experience gained during the war was used by Soviet intelligence for many years of the Cold War. Back in 1942, while in Turkey, Etingon organized a wide agent network there, which was actively involved after the war to infiltrate combat organizations in Palestine. The data obtained by Eitingon in 1943, when he was on a business trip in northwestern China, helped Moscow and Beijing neutralize sabotage groups operating in this strategically important area of ​​China under the leadership of British intelligence.

Until October 1951, Eitingon worked as a deputy to Sudoplatov, head of the sabotage and intelligence service of the MGB (since 1950 - the Bureau for sabotage work abroad). In addition to this work, he also led the conduct of anti-terrorist operations on the territory of the USSR. On October 28, 1951, after returning from Lithuania, where he participated in the elimination of bands of forest brothers, General Eitingon was arrested on charges of "MGB conspiracy." On March 20, 1953, after Stalin's death, he was released, and four months later, on August 21, he was arrested again, this time in the case of Beria.

For a long 11 years, Eitingon turned from a "Stalinist intelligence agent" into a "Khrushchev political prisoner." Naum Eitingon was released on March 20, 1964. In prison, he underwent a serious operation, the doctors managed to save him. Before the operation, he wrote a personal letter to Khrushchev, in which he briefly described his life, years of service and years spent in prison. In a message to Khrushchev, he noted that while in prison he had lost his health and his last strength, although he could have worked all this time and benefited the country. He asked Khrushchev the question: “Why was I convicted?” At the end of his letter, he called on the party leader to release Pavel Sudoplatov, sentenced to 15 years, ending the message with the words: “Long live communism! Farewell!".

After his release, Eitingon worked as an editor and translator at the International Relations publishing house. The famous intelligence officer died in 1981, and only ten years after his death, in 1991, he was fully rehabilitated, posthumously.