Legend of Soviet intelligence. Soviet intelligence legend: Kim Philby is an English spy who worked for the USSR

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 possess 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 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 forming 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, in defense of the interests of the Fatherland, - said Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking last year at a solemn event at the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service on the occasion of the 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 is them decisive action obtained information, subtly carried out operations 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, of an ordinary Soviet guy (although, no doubt, very gifted): he would have returned from the army, graduated from a civilian university and would probably have become a famous scientist or a first-class specialist in some branches of science. But then the war broke out...

Konon the Young ended up in the Western Military District, in intelligence artillery battalion, and in the first months of the war he took part in many of the most difficult battles, including Smolensk and 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 assigned to him and led his subordinates is evidenced by a photograph of the young lieutenant Molodoy. It shows that the hero’s chest is decorated with the Order of the Red Star, two Orders of the Patriotic War 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 - long years 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.

Famous 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 “King of illegal immigrants”, wrote: “If you ask ten random passers-by on the street what they think of the intelligence officer, nine will name the illegal as an example ... 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.

Like "snow" on the head. Heroes of foreign intelligence: legends with a sequel
http://vpk-news.ru/articles/34372

A year ago, in Chelyabinsk, on the Aloe Field near the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren, a monument was erected to illegal intelligence officer Iskhak Akhmerov. The place soon acquired the name Chekist Square among the people. The monument to the illegal immigrant was perceived as dedicated to all "fighters of the invisible front." This year, deputies of the City Duma renamed the Aloe Field into Scout Square. About those in whose honor it is named, Anatoly Shalagin, the author of the book “And I am proud of it,” told the Military Industrial Courier.

- The history of domestic special services does not begin in 1917, as many believe. Intelligence was born and developed along with the state. Many great people of Russia are involved in it - Alexander Griboyedov, Jan Vitkevich, Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Gumilyov. Foreign or political intelligence is conditionally divided into legal and illegal. If a failure occurs, and no one is immune from it, then a legal intelligence officer has a chance to return to his homeland. The diplomat will simply be expelled from the host country. If there is no diplomatic passport, they can be arrested, but the Motherland will actively fight for its citizen. For illegal immigrants, the fate is more tragic. There are examples in the history of domestic intelligence when its employees were in foreign prisons for years and the USSR could not rescue them.

- Anatoly Vladimirovich, Iskhak Akhmerov is now known to everyone. And what other names are revealed to readers of your book?

- The first one worth talking about is Stanislav Martynovich Glinsky. He was born in Warsaw. His father, a railroad worker, was a Social Democrat and in 1906 was exiled with his family to Siberia for revolutionary activities. The son followed in his footsteps, joined the RSDLP. At the age of 16 he left his parents. I met the October Revolution in Chelyabinsk. When the Civil War began, he volunteered for the Red Army, served in the Ural regiment in front-line intelligence, and visited the rear of the Whites. At the age of 25 he became the military commissar of Troitsk. There he met Terenty Dmitrievich Deribas, who played an important role in the fate of Glinsky, recommending the young Chekist to intelligence.

How did he show himself?

- If we talk briefly about the merits, this is, first of all, participation in the Syndicate operation. Films have been made about her, books have been written, and although Glinsky's name is not mentioned anywhere, it was he who ensured the border crossing for Boris Savinkov. The result of the operation was the destruction terrorist organization, on account of which attacks on Soviet diplomatic couriers and ambassadors, terrorist attacks in Belarus and Russia. For this development, Glinsky received his first Order of the Red Banner.

In 1924–1926, he directly participated in Operation Trust, also well known from feature film. In it, Glinsky played the role of "bait": it was he who transferred photographs to our enemies, including those from Chelyabinsk and Troitsk, confirming the existence of an underground Monarchist Union in the USSR.

In the 30s, Glinsky was transferred to the European direction. The country's leadership was clear that it was necessary to prepare for war. Glinsky managed to introduce two agents into Hitler's entourage, who had just come to power in Germany. And they worked for the USSR for quite a long time. In 1937, Glinsky took part in the defeat of the Russian All-Military Union, a paramilitary organization with twenty thousand members, which was preparing for a campaign against Soviet Russia. In the same 1937, he receives the second Order of the Red Banner, becomes a senior major of state security, which is equivalent to the army rank of major general. This was the first time in Soviet foreign intelligence that an employee was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner.

It seemed that Glinsky had a great future, but ... In the same year, Yezhov called Glinsky from abroad, allegedly for a consultation. He is arrested, accused of collaborating with Polish intelligence, and shot. He was rehabilitated only in 1956.

Speaking about Stanislav Glinsky, it is necessary to say about his wife Anna Viktorovna. She was born in the village of Nizhneuvelsky, Chelyabinsk Region. At the age of 15, she voluntarily joined the Red Army, was also a scout, went to the rear of the Whites. In Chelyabinsk, she was arrested by Kolchak. They were tortured and sentenced to death. And Stanislav Glinsky saved her from certain death, future husband. When he was shot, Anna Viktorovna, as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, was sentenced to camps. She served her term in the notorious Karlag, from where she returned ten years later, in 1947, to Moscow. She began to seek the restoration of the honest name of her husband. She is arrested again and sent to Vorkuta. She died on the way, the place of burial is unknown. The only photograph of this steadfast woman has survived.

- The name of Nikolai Kuznetsov is known to everyone. Books have been written and films made about him. In Yekaterinburg, he is an honorary citizen of the city.

- Indeed, the people of Sverdlovsk consider Nikolai Ivanovich their hero. But in fairness it should be said that he was born in the Talitsky district, which until the beginning of the forties was part of the Chelyabinsk region. Even in the fake passport with which Kuznetsov lived and worked when he was a secret NKVD officer, it is written that he was born in the Chelyabinsk region. In books and films, Kuznetsov's sabotage activities are in the foreground. His work as a counterintelligence officer remained in the shadows. And these pages of the biography deserve a separate story.

Let's at least briefly fill this gap.

- It's no secret that the Urals with its industrial potential has always been of interest to the special services of other countries. In the 1930s, when Kuznetsov was invited to work in the NKVD, he became a secret agent to identify foreign intelligence agents. Nikolai Ivanovich had a rare ability for languages, he communicated a lot with the German colonists. By the way, his operational pseudonym at that time was precisely the Colonist. In 1940, Kuznetsov was transferred to Moscow, where he was engaged in the development of German agents. There were many. In the short time before the start of the war, Kuznetsov and his colleagues identified about twenty Abwehr and Gestapo agents.

When the Great Patriotic War began, Nikolai Ivanovich was transferred to the Fourth Directorate, which was engaged in reconnaissance and sabotage activities in the occupied territory. It is here that he becomes known from films and books as Oberleutnant Paul Siebert. The documents made at the Lubyanka were of such quality that he passed hundreds of patrol checks and no one suspected forgeries.

- As a researcher of the history of intelligence, what would you emphasize when talking about the merits of Nikolai Kuznetsov.

- It was he who sent information to the Center about the top-secret object "Werwolf" - Hitler's headquarters in the occupied territory. He was the first to report that an assassination attempt was being prepared on the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition in Tehran and that in the summer of 1943 the Germans would advance near Kursk. On account of Kuznetsov, a dozen liquidated hardened Nazi criminals. He died on the night of March 8-9, 1944 in a battle with Ukrainian nationalists, when, together with his group, he tried to cross the front line. On November 5, 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He became the first Soviet foreign intelligence officer to be awarded the Gold Star.

– I cannot but ask about Iskhak Akhmerov.

He has been overseas twice. The first business trip to the USA was in the pre-war period. The next - already during the Second World War. Through Akhmerov's intelligence network, which was very wide and reached the Oval Office of the White House, more than 2,500 photographic films with secret documents from various US government agencies - the State Department, the Ministry of Defense, and intelligence passed. In 1940-1941, Akhmerov was directly involved in the development and implementation of Operation Snow. Its purpose was to involve the United States in the war on our side. America then fenced itself off from the whole world with the so-called neutrality law. It was not hidden - let the Germans fight with the Russians, and then we will come to Europe as masters. Therefore, it was important that the coalition against Hitler, which Stalin aspired to, take shape. For this, Operation Snow was developed. What Akhmerov wrote, then, almost word for word, formed the basis of the so-called Hull note, the then US Secretary of State. When the Japanese got acquainted with it, the final decision was made in Tokyo - not to attack the USSR. Then came the raid on Pearl Harbor, and the United States had no choice but to enter the war. Our country was able to transfer significant forces from Far East to the west.

In 1943-1945, materials on the uranium project, which would later be called Manhattan, passed through the network of Iskhak Abdulovich. His agents received samples of materials that American and Canadian nuclear scientists were working on. Through Akhmerov's group, drawings were obtained, which undoubtedly accelerated the process of creating atomic weapons under the guidance of academician Kurchatov.

In addition, Akhmerov and his associates revealed many fascist agents in the United States. When, at the end of the war, Hitler dreamed of a weapon of retaliation, he was convinced that with the help of new missiles it was possible to bomb any city in the world. They tried to launch rockets across the Atlantic, but they fell into the ocean. For accurate guidance, the installation of radio beacons was required. And two German agents were abandoned on a submarine in the US. One FBI grabbed quickly, and the other "dissolved." They expected the worst, but thanks to Akhmerov's agents, they also managed to neutralize it. The plot for a real movie, which may someday be made.

Akhmerov and his network were involved in the declassification of separate negotiations between the Nazis and the Americans in Bern. This story is well known to us from Seventeen Moments of Spring. At the end of the war, Akhmerov's group reported on Operation Crossword, during which the Americans secretly removed from Germany scientists involved in the development of new weapons.

For work in foreign intelligence, Iskhak Abdulovich was awarded two orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star.

- Who else among the famous scouts comes from the Southern Urals?

- Colonel Boris Nikodimovich Batraev. He is from the Nagaybak region. He talked about his work as much as he could. In particular, about participation in the operation "Archive B", associated with the return to the USSR of the archive of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Batraev was a resident in many countries - India, Pakistan, Ceylon, worked in the line of scientific and technical intelligence in Italy and France. There were several agents in his practice whom he attracted to work on an ideological basis. And this is considered aerobatics in intelligence.

A native of the city of Asha, Colonel Vadim Nikolaevich Sopryakov worked in the residencies of our intelligence in the countries South-East Asia, Japan.

He was one of the first leaders of the legendary special forces detachment of the KGB of the USSR "Cascade". He and his subordinates did a lot of good deeds in Afghanistan - thousands of lives saved, and not only Soviet citizens. Unfortunately, Vadim Nikolaevich is also no longer with us.

I cannot fail to name one more of our fellow countrymen - Vladimir Ivanovich Zavershinskiy. He, colonel-general of foreign intelligence, was born and raised in the Chesme district in the village of Tarutino. So far nothing can be said about Vladimir Ivanovich's work, everything is classified, and our generation is unlikely to find out anything. Even the list of his awards is still a mystery.

Vladimir Ivanovich is more familiar to us as a local historian and author of books on the history of the Southern Urals, including “Essays on the history of Tarutino”, “On the creation of the first Red Cossack named after Stepan Razin regiment in Troitsk” and others. He is one of the creators of the fundamental "Nominal Directory of the Cossacks of the Orenburg Army, awarded with state awards of the Russian Empire."

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 the Russian Empire, but in March 1921 his 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 department 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 should be recalled: if on Ukrainian soil the Soviet partisans had problems with Bandera, which had to be solved sometimes by negotiations, and sometimes by weapons, then three different anti-Nazi forces acted 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. For a successful solution challenges the ability to find a common language with everyone was required, and Botyan succeeded 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 liberates large group 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 an engineer-cartographer, a Czech by nationality, who reported that the Germans kept 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 companion life - 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. According to open information from the SVR and avaricious (“ permitted”) 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 special purpose group of the 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, I 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 golden star Hero of Russia.

Session simultaneous play with cadets of the Military Patriotic Club "Vympel", 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 as "the best group of agents of the Second World War."

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 an established fact. historical fact. For some of these people, the Soviet Union became the Motherland, to which they gave all their strength, and often their lives. So was Arnold Deutsch, the legendary intelligence officer, whose life was amazing, and whose professional fate 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 prey 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 a 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, an interesting interlocutor, an attentive listener, attracts extraordinary people, and they imperceptibly fall under his charm. Taking into account the deep knowledge of human psychology, subtle feeling inner peace interlocutor, Deutsch has the most effective abilities of a scout-recruiter.

And he the best way uses the opportunities presented to him. From the position of a lecturer at the University of London, intelligence recruiter Deutsch has studied, developed and recruited more ... - let's be careful - whole group 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 future could become reliable intelligence assistants for a long time.

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.

"FIVE" was active in the 1930-1960s, having free access to the highest public spheres Britain and the USA. She supplied the Soviet leadership in the highest degree up-to-date, reliable and secret documentary information on all aspects of international politics, as well as reporting on military 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 Soviet side 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 was 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 McLean 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, herself an excellent athlete, 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 researcher 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 the naval base at 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. Was offered new route 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 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 Novaya Zemlya. 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 between the Donbass tanker and 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 officer 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.