The most famous scouts in the world. Legendary Soviet scouts: Nikolai Kuznetsov

The history of modern Russian military intelligence begins on November 5, 1918, when the Registration Directorate of the Field Headquarters of the Red Army (RUPShKA) was established by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the successor of which is now the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (GRU GSH).
About the fate of the most famous military intelligence officers of our country. Richard Sorge

Certificate issued by the OGPU to Richard Sorge for the right to carry and store the Mauser pistol.

One of the outstanding intelligence officers of the 20th century was born in 1895 near Baku in large family German engineer Gustav Wilhelm Richard Sorge and Russian citizen Nina Kobeleva. A few years after Richard's birth, the family moved to Germany, where he grew up. Sorge took part in the First World War both on the western and eastern fronts, was repeatedly wounded. The horrors of the war affected not only his health, but also contributed to a radical break in his worldview. From an enthusiastic German patriot, Sorge turned into a convinced Marxist. In the mid-1920s, after the German Communist Party was banned, he moved to the USSR, where, after marrying and receiving Soviet citizenship, he began working in the apparatus of the Comintern.
In 1929, Richard moved to the Fourth Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters (military intelligence). In the 1930s, he was sent first to China (Shanghai), and then to Japan, where he arrived as a German correspondent.It was the Japanese period of Sorge that made him famous. It is generally accepted that in his numerous cipher messages, he warned Moscow about the imminent German attack on the USSR, and after that he brutalized Stalin that Japan would remain neutral towards our country. This allowed the Soviet Union, at a critical moment for it, to transfer new Siberian divisions to Moscow.
However, Sorge himself was exposed in October 1941 and captured by the Japanese police. The investigation into his case lasted almost three years. On November 7, 1944, a Soviet intelligence officer was hanged in Tokyo's Sugamo Prison, and 20 years later, on November 5, 1964, Richard Sorge was posthumously awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.

Nikolai Kuznetsov

Nikanor (original name) Kuznetsov was born in 1911 into a large peasant family in the Urals. Having studied as an agronomist in Tyumen, in the late 1920s he returned home. Kuznetsov showed outstanding linguistic abilities early on, he almost independently learned six dialects German language. Then he worked in logging, was twice expelled from the Komsomol, then accepted Active participation in collectivization, after which, apparently, he came to the attention of the state security agencies. Since 1938, after spending several months in a Sverdlovsk prison, Kuznetsov became the detective of the central apparatus of the NKVD. Under the guise of a German engineer at one of the Moscow aircraft factories, he unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate the diplomatic environment of Moscow.

Nikolai Kuznetsov in the uniform of a German officer.

After the outbreak of World War II in January 1942, Kuznetsov was enrolled in the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, which, under the leadership of Pavel Sudoplatov, was engaged in reconnaissance and sabotage work behind the front line in the rear of the German troops. Since October 1942, Kuznetsov, under the name of a German officer Paul Siebert, with documents of an employee of the secret German police, conducted intelligence activities in Western Ukraine, in particular, in the city of Rivne, the administrative center of the Reichskommissariat.

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 revolutionary activity exiled with his family to Siberia. 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. Behind a 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. More than 2,500 photographic films with secret documents from various public institutions USA - State Department, Department of Defense, Intelligence. 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. Drawings were obtained through Akhmerov's group, which, undoubtedly, accelerated the process of creation atomic weapons under the direction 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 the operation "Crossword", during which the Americans secretly exported 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 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 state awards Russian Empire».

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 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 rescue 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 work on 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, under the personal supervision of a wealthy playboy, met personal secretary Trotsky by Sylvia Agelov. 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 motorized rifle brigade was formed. special purpose- OMSBON. 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. Unexpectedly, in the hands of stranger explosive device went off. 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.

AT new position 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 Wehrmacht high command that a large German military unit was hiding in the Belarusian forests. 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 arrived in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bLake Peschanoe, they were caught and included in the radio game. the main objective operation "Berezino" - to catch as many enemy saboteurs as possible. German aircraft 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 the position of editor in the publishing house " International relationships».

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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