The name of Naum Eitingon until recently remained one of the most guarded secrets of the Soviet Union. This man was involved in events that influenced the course of world history.

The childhood of the legendary scout

Naum Eitingon was born on December 6, 1899, not far from Mogilev, in Belarus. His family was quite wealthy, his father, Isaac Eitingon, served as a clerk at a paper mill, and was a member of the board of the Shklov Savings and Loan Association. The mother raised the children, Naum had another brother and two sisters grew up. After graduating from the 7th grade of a commercial school, Eitingon got a job at the Mogilev city government, where he acted as an instructor in the statistics department. On the eve of the revolution of 1917, Naum becomes a member of the organization of the Left SRs. The leaders of this group staked on terrorist methods of struggle. The SR fighters had to be able to shoot well, understand mines and bombs, and also be in good physical shape. The militants used their knowledge and skills against the enemies of the party, among whom were the Bolsheviks.

1917 During the First World War, Mogilev was under the German occupiers, the city government was closed. Eitingon worked first at a concrete plant, then at a warehouse. In November 1918, the Germans left Mogilev and units of the Red Army entered the city. 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. December 21, 1944 at the Berezino site Soviet intelligence officers captured a group of six people - saboteurs from the personal team of Otto Skorzeny. Eitingon, during the operation, joined with the most famous saboteur of the Third Reich - and won this confrontation. Until the end of the war, Skorzeny believed in the existence of a German unit wandering in the Belarusian forests. Eitingon proved to be a brilliant counterintelligence officer.

A string of arrests

After the war, Naum Eitingon received another military rank of major general. About what he did for the next six years, his biography says briefly - he was engaged in the liquidation of Polish, Lithuanian and Uighur nationalist formations.

A new era has begun, the “thaw”. The post of leader was taken by Nikita Khrushchev, who hated Stalin, Beria (who was shot) and everything connected with them. Eitingon was again under attack, because Beria freed him. In the summer of 1953, he was arrested as a member of the Beria conspiracy, allegedly to destroy the Soviet government. Eitingon was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The legendary intelligence officer was imprisoned in the Vladimir Central, Evgenia Alliluyeva, Konstantin Ordzhonikidze, Pavel Sudoplatov were in the neighboring cells.

In prison, a stomach ulcer worsened, Eitingon almost died. But the prison doctors performed an operation and saved Eitingon.

Naum Eitingon was released on March 20, 1964. 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 an editorial position at the International Relations publishing house.

The legendary scout was rehabilitated only in 1992, 11 years after his death. "The Last Knight Soviet intelligence"I liked to repeat -" do what you must, and come what may.

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

His calculation managed to shoot down three German " Junkers when Poland ceased to exist as a geopolitical entity. The native village of Botyan became Soviet territory, Alexei also became a citizen of the USSR.

In 1940 on a modest teacher elementary school drew the attention of the NKVD. Speaking Polish as a native, a former non-commissioned officer "pilsudchik"... no, he is not shot as an enemy of the working people, but quite the opposite: he is accepted into an intelligence school, and in July 1941 he is enrolled in the OMSBON of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR. So for Alexei Botyan began new war, which ended only in 1983 - retirement.

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

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

Under his leadership, a major sabotage is being carried out: on September 9, 1943, the Nazi gebitskommissariat was blown up in Ovruch, Zhytomyr region, and 80 Nazi officers were killed in the explosion, including the gebitskommissar Wenzel and the head of the local anti-partisan center Siebert. 140 kilograms of explosives, along with meals, were dragged to Yakov Kaplyuka, the supply manager of the Gebietskommissariat, by his wife Maria. To insure against searches at the entrance, she always took with her the two smallest of her four children.

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

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

It must be recalled: if on Ukrainian soil Soviet partisans problems arose with Bandera, which had to be solved when by negotiations, and when with weapons, then three different anti-Nazi forces operated on Polish soil: the Krayova Army (“ akovtsy", formally subordinate to the emigrant government), the People's Army (" alovtsy”, supported by the Soviet Union) and the rather independent Khlopsky Battalions - that is, peasant ones. To successfully solve the problems at hand, it was necessary to be able to find mutual language with everyone, and Botyan did it superbly.

On May 1, 1944, a group of 28 people headed by Botyan is heading to the outskirts of Krakow. On the way on the night of May 14-15, together with the AL unit, Botyan's detachment takes part in the capture of the city of Ilzha and frees a large group of arrested underground workers.

On January 10, 1945, in a blown up headquarters car, one of the Soviet reconnaissance groups operating in the Krakow region found a briefcase with secret documents on mining objects in Krakow and the neighboring town of Nowy Sanch. Botyan's group captured a cartographic engineer, a Czech by nationality, who reported that the Germans were storing a strategic stock of explosives in the Royal (Jagiellonian) castle in Nowy Sącz.

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

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

The post-war activity of the intelligence officer is covered with an understandable fog. By open information SVR and stingy (" permitted”) according to Botyan’s stories, he performed special tasks in Germany and other countries, worked in the central office of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, participated in the creation of a group special purpose KGB of the USSR Pennant". And after his resignation, already as a civilian specialist, he helped prepare for another six years " young professionals».

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

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

Alexey Botyan still surprises everyone who knows him with his cheerfulness and optimism. He plays chess superbly, works out on an exercise bike, remembers the details of his eventful life to the smallest detail (but, of course, does not talk about what cannot be told). He is proud of the fact that for the entire time of "work" he was only once scratched on the temple by an enemy bullet - without even leaving a scar.

Yesterday the Scout Hero turned ninety-five.

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

World War I radically changed the worldview of Europeans. Colossal human sacrifices, hitherto unimaginable in the most terrible apocalyptic predictions, rudely and visibly invaded reality. The line of development of civilization, which until then suits by and large the population of Europe, has ceased to be perceived as natural and the only true one. It was a time of confusion and social quest. Part of the war and post-war generation fell into depression.

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

I would not like to give an assessment of the worldview position of the hero in a biographical sketch. Not the right place, not the right reason. But the presence in Europe and overseas of a huge number of people who sympathized with the young Soviet Republic, is established historical fact. For some of these people Soviet Union became the Motherland, to which they gave all their strength, and often their lives. So was Arnold Deutsch, legendary scout, whose life was amazing, and whose professional destiny was unique.

He was born on May 21, 1904 in the suburbs of the Austrian capital in the family of a small businessman, a former teacher from Slovakia. In 1928 he graduated from the University of Vienna and received a Ph.D. Having a knack for languages, he was fluent in, in addition to his native German, English, French, Italian, Dutch and Russian. In the future, this greatly helped Deutsch in revolutionary and intelligence work.
Arnold's revolutionary activity began in the ranks of the youth movement - at the age of sixteen he became a member of the Union of Socialist Students, and at twenty he joined the Austrian Communist Party. After graduating from the university, he was sent to one of the underground groups of the Comintern. Active and dynamic in nature, Deutsch is appointed as a liaison officer, works in southern Europe and the Middle East.

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

On the recommendation of the Comintern, Deutsch is sent to Moscow, where he is transferred from the Communist Party of Austria to the CPSU (b) and goes to work in the Foreign Department of the NKVD - the foreign political intelligence of the USSR. This completes the stage of his life associated with work in the Comintern. He becomes a career intelligence officer.

EARLY 1933, Deutsch goes to work illegally in France as an assistant and deputy resident. His task is to carry out special tasks of the Center in Belgium and Holland, and after Hitler came to power in Germany.

From that moment on, fellow workers know Deitch under the name of Stefan Lang. In his cipher telegrams and letters addressed to the Center, he signs the pseudonym "Stefan".

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

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

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

Studying and working at the university give Deutsch the opportunity to make wide connections among student youth. Deitch himself, being a gifted and meaningful person with a wide range of interests, a wonderful storyteller, interesting interlocutor, an attentive listener, attracts extraordinary people, and they imperceptibly fall under his charm. With deep knowledge human psychology, fine sense inner world interlocutor, Deutsch has the most effective abilities of a scout-recruiter.

And he makes the best use of the opportunities presented to him. From the position of a lecturer at the University of London, intelligence recruiter Deutsch conducted the study, development and recruitment of more ... - let's be careful - a whole group of anti-fascist students.

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

Deutsch concentrated his efforts on Oxford and Cambridge universities. He was primarily attracted to students, who in the long run could become reliable assistants for intelligence work.

The time has come for his stellar moment in his intelligence career. He managed to create, educate and prepare the famous "Big Five", later called the "Cambridge". This is precisely his invaluable service to the Fatherland.

The FIVE was active in the 1930s and 1960s, with free access to the highest public spheres in Britain and the United States. It provided the Soviet leadership with highly up-to-date, reliable and classified documentary information on all aspects of international politics, as well as war plans and scientific research in Europe and overseas.

For three years of work in Great Britain, Deutsch, who has years of underground work in the Comintern behind him, managed not only to attract ideologically devoted sources to our side, but also to seriously prepare and train them on the widest range of issues of intelligence activities.
His achievement as a practical intelligence officer lies in the fact that the members of the "Cambridge Five" themselves were actively looking for and recruiting more and more assistants - ideological fighters for social justice and against the fascist threat on the eve and years of World War II. These assistants saw in the Soviet Union the real and only force that could resist and destroy Hitler's Nazism. This is Deutsch's third find.

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

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

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

In one of his letters to the Center, Deutsch wrote of his assistants: “They all came to us after graduating from universities at Oxford and Cambridge. They shared communist beliefs. 80 per cent of the highest government posts in England are held by people from these universities, because education in these schools involves expenses that are available only to very rich people. A diploma from such a university opens the door to the highest spheres of the state and political life of the country ... "

Three years of hard work and sources acquired by Deutsch in England until the 1960s became the golden fund of Soviet foreign intelligence. The names of the members of the Five are now widely known and revered in our country. These are Kim Philby - a senior British intelligence officer, Donald Maclean - a senior British Foreign Office official, Guy Burgess - a journalist, British intelligence officer, British Foreign Office official, Anthony Blunt - a British counterintelligence officer, John Cairncross - an employee of the Foreign Office, the Treasury and the decryption service of Britain.

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

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

DURING the war, the Cambridge Five, which worked in the holy of holies of the British state, received authentic documentary information regarding the results of the decryption by the British of the correspondence of the German high command, daily reports from the British military cabinet on the planning of military operations on all fronts, information from British agents for operations and German plans around the world, documents from British diplomats and the War Cabinet.

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

The members of the "Cambridge Five" should be spoken of as a special category of sources of information - as intelligence officers who, with their whole essence, were imbued with the concerns of the Soviet country at war with the aggressors. They showed initiative in seeking and obtaining preemptive information.
Even at the beginning of the Second World War, the "five" was aimed at finding information about work in the West on nuclear issues. And in September 1941, Donald Maclean, and then John Cairncross, handed over to the London residency extensive documentary information about the fact and state of work on the creation of atomic weapons in England and the USA.

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

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

IN SEPTEMBER 1937 Deutsch was recalled from London. In Moscow, the work of a scout was highly appreciated. From the leadership of intelligence, he was awarded the following recognition:

“During the period of illegal work abroad, “Stefan” showed himself in various sections of the underground as an exceptionally enterprising and dedicated worker ...

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

She especially noted Arnold's attitude to physical training. Deitch considered keeping fit as a scout's duty. Zoya Vasilievna, an excellent athlete herself, recalled: “According to him, a scout must be physically hardy, which became clear to him while working underground along the lines of the Comintern.”

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

Yes, and there was no one to do it. In the country, devastating the ranks of not only intelligence, there was a total and unrighteous purge. Fortunately, the repression bypassed Deutsch and his family.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The TANKER indeed was repeatedly part of the allied caravans, but it was not part of the PQ-17. After the death of the PQ-17 caravan, solo voyages were ordered to Soviet ships. At the same time, it was recommended to stick to the northern part of the Barents Sea, closer to the edge of the polar ice.

The tanker "Donbass" with Deutsch on board went to sea in early November 1942. On November 5, the watch officer reported to the captain about the German squadron he had noticed, consisting of a cruiser and several destroyers, heading for New Earth. The captain of the tanker Zilke decided to break the radio silence and warn other single ships, although the chance of getting away unnoticed was very high. The broadcast reached the addressees, but the Germans also found the tanker.

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

Following the laws of the naval fraternity, the crew of the Donbass tanker saved dozens of other vessels at the cost of their lives. The German squadron was then unable to detect a single target, although it passed another 600 miles after the battle with the tanker to the east.

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

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

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

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

The feat of the crew of the Donbass tanker did not go unnoticed. Vessels with this name sail the seas. In Donetsk, a Young Sailors Club was opened, called "Donbass".

In Vienna, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where Arnold Genrikhovich Deutsch, aka Soviet citizen Stefan Genrikhovich Lang, lived. The inscription “May the sacrifice made to them be understood by people” is engraved on it! It simultaneously serves as an epigraph to his bright life and an epitaph on his nameless grave.

The unique intelligence agent Deutsch-Lang had neither professional nor government awards. It would be fair even after many years since his last feat - a deadly battle with the Nazis in a naval battle, to apply to the Government of Russia with a proposal to award Arnold Deutsch - Stefan Lang with the Order of the Patriotic War, posthumously.

The activities of illegal intelligence officers, 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, determination, strong will, the ability to quickly predict various situations, resistance to stress, excellent ability to master foreign languages, good adaptation to completely new conditions of life, knowledge of one or more professions that make it possible to earn a living, ”we read in the introduction to the book under consideration 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 developing the skills to receive and analyze intelligence information, maintain 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 domestic foreign intelligence has always given increased attention to conducting intelligence activities from illegal positions.

“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: father - Trofim Kononovich - teacher at Moscow State University and Moscow Higher Technical School, head of the department of scientific periodicals of the State Publishing House, and mother - Evdokia Konstantinovna - general surgeon, during the Great Patriotic War - leading surgeon evacuation hospital, and after the Victory - professor at 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. “Perhaps 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.