Legendary Soviet spy. The most famous Soviet intelligence officer Legends of Russian intelligence
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, the NKVD drew the attention of a modest elementary school teacher. 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, a new war began, which ended only in 1983 - with his 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 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. The ability to find a common language with everyone was required for the successful solution of the tasks at hand, 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 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. According to open information from the SVR and avaricious (“ permitted”), 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 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.
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. A new government has arrived. 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 the new authorities paid attention to the young man. 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 states. 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 of the Spanish Civil War. 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 the collectivization of 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 a 100,000-strong 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 goal of Operation Berezino is to catch as many enemy saboteurs as possible. German planes regularly dropped money, weapons, medicines, campaign leaflets. On December 21, 1944, at the Berezino site, Soviet intelligence officers captured a group of six people - saboteurs from the personal team of Otto Skorzeny. Eitingon, during the operation, joined with the most famous saboteur of the Third Reich - and won this confrontation. Until the end of the war, Skorzeny believed in the existence of a German unit wandering in the Belarusian forests. Eitingon proved to be a brilliant counterintelligence officer.
A string of arrests
After the war, 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. Released from prison, deprived 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 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 infiltrate the local authorities, the circles of the White Guard emigration and the residency of foreign intelligence services. Here he met the legendary scouts: the German Richard Sorge, the Bulgarian Ivan Vinarov, Grigory Salnin from the Republic of Uzbekistan, who for many years became his friends and comrades in combat work. In the spring of 1929, after a Chinese police raid on the Soviet consulate in Harbin, Eitingon was recalled to Moscow.
Soon he finds himself in Turkey under the legal cover of a diplomatic worker, here he replaces Yakov Blumkin, who was recalled to Moscow after contact with Trotsky. Here he does not work for long, and after the restoration of residency in Greece, he again finds himself in Moscow.
In Moscow, Eitingon worked for a short time as deputy head of the Special Group, Yakov Serebryansky (Uncle Yasha's group), then for two years as a resident in France and Belgium, and for three years he headed the entire illegal intelligence service of the OGPU.
Period from 1933 to 1935 when Eitingon was in charge 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 residency cash desk, Eitingon was approved as the chief resident, by that time the turning point had come in the war. In autumn, the Francoists, with the support of parts of the German legion "Condor", occupy the citadel of the Republicans in Barcelona. It is noteworthy that, along with the Francoists, one of the first to enter the captured Barcelona was the Times war correspondent Harold Philby. He is also the legendary Kim Philby, a member of the "Cambridge Five", whom Eitingon in August 1938, after Orlov's treacherous flight, got in touch through Guy Burges.
In addition to maintaining the "Cambridge Five", Eitingon in Spain also managed to gain good experience in leading the partisan movement, organizing reconnaissance and sabotage groups, which was useful to him only two years later, in the fight against German fascism. Some of the participants in the war in Spain, members of the international brigades, would later take a direct part in the operations of Soviet intelligence. For example, David Alfaro Siqueiros, a Mexican painter, will take part in an operation against Trotsky in 1940. Many members of the International Brigade will form the backbone of the legendary OMSBON special forces, under the leadership of General P. Sudoplatov. These are also Eitingon's Spanish merits.
OMSBON (separate motorized rifle brigade for special purposes) was formed in the early days of the war with Nazi Germany. In 1942, the formation became part of the 4th Directorate of the People's Commissariat. From the first to the last day of the war, General P. Sudoplatov led this special service, 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 agent network there, which was actively involved after the war to infiltrate military organizations in Palestine. The data obtained by Eitingon in 1943, when he was on a business trip in northwestern China, helped Moscow and Beijing neutralize sabotage groups operating in this strategically important area of China under the leadership of British intelligence.
Until October 1951, Eitingon worked as a deputy to Sudoplatov, head of the sabotage and intelligence service of the MGB (since 1950 - the Bureau for sabotage work abroad). In addition to this work, he also led the conduct of anti-terrorist operations on the territory of the USSR. On October 28, 1951, after returning from Lithuania, where he participated in the elimination of bands of forest brothers, General Eitingon was arrested on charges of "MGB conspiracy." On March 20, 1953, after Stalin's death, he was released, and four months later, on August 21, he was arrested again, this time in the case of Beria.
For a long 11 years, Eitingon turned from a "Stalinist intelligence agent" into a "Khrushchev political prisoner." Naum Eitingon was released on March 20, 1964. In prison, he underwent a serious operation, the doctors managed to save him. Before the operation, he wrote a personal letter to Khrushchev, in which he briefly described his life, years of service and years spent in prison. In a message to Khrushchev, he noted that while in prison he had lost his health and his last strength, although he could have worked all this time and benefited the country. He asked Khrushchev the question: “Why was I convicted?” At the end of his letter, he called on the party leader to release Pavel Sudoplatov, sentenced to 15 years, ending the message with the words: “Long live communism! Farewell!".
After his release, Eitingon worked as an editor and translator at the International Relations publishing house. The famous intelligence officer died in 1981, and only ten years after his death, in 1991, he was fully rehabilitated, posthumously.
Englishman Kim Philby - legendary scout who managed to simultaneously work for the governments of two competing countries - England and the USSR. The work of the brilliant spy was so highly appreciated that he became the only owner in the world of two awards - the Order of the British Empire and the Order of the Red Banner. Needless to say, maneuvering between two fires has always been very difficult ...
Kim Philby is considered one of the most successful British intelligence officers, he held a senior position in the SIS intelligence service and his main task was to track down foreign spies. "Hunting" for specialists sent from the USSR, Kim at the same time was recruited by the Soviet special services. Work for the Land of the Soviets was due to the fact that Kim ardently supported the ideas of communism and was ready to cooperate with our intelligence, refusing to be rewarded for his work.
Philby did a lot to help the Soviet Union during the war years, sabotage groups on the Georgian-Turkish border were intercepted by his efforts, the information received from him helped prevent the American landing in Albania. Kim also provided assistance to Soviet intelligence officers, members of the Cambridge Five, who were on the verge of exposure in foggy Albion.
Despite the numerous suspicions put forward by Kim Philby, the British secret services did not succeed in obtaining a confession of cooperation with the USSR from their intelligence officer. Kim spent several years of his life in Beirut, officially he worked as a journalist, but his main task, of course, was to collect information for British intelligence.
In 1963, a special commission from Britain arrived in Beirut, which nevertheless managed to establish Kim's proximity to the Soviet Union. It is very interesting that the only irrefutable evidence turned out to be a bas-relief presented to the intelligence officer ... by Stalin. It was made of noble woods and inlaid with precious metals and stones. Mount Ararat was depicted on the bas-relief, which made it possible for Philby to come up with a legend that this curiosity was allegedly acquired in Istanbul. The British managed to guess that the point from which the majestic mountain was captured could only be located on the territory of the USSR.
After the exposure, Philby disappeared. It was not possible to find him for a long time, but then it became known that Khrushchev had granted him political asylum. Until his death in 1988, Kim Philby lived in Moscow. The fascination with the Soviet Union passed when the intelligence officer settled in the capital, much remained incomprehensible to him. For example, Philby genuinely wondered how the heroes who won the war could lead such a modest existence.
Another legendary Soviet intelligence officer who made a lot of efforts to defeat fascism is.