June 28, 1922 Collegium of the Main Political Directorate of the NKVD of the RSFSR
approved the regulations on the “Overseas Branch of the Foreign Department.” This document provided for the use of additional tools for foreign intelligence work - methods of illegal work.
The idea of creating illegal intelligence in the territory Soviet Russia arose several years earlier, after the events of 1917. At that time, our state found itself virtually in complete isolation, while the country's leadership had to remain aware of the plans and plans of foreign opponents. Only foreign intelligence forces could provide reliable information, but diplomatic relations with most foreign states were severed and there were simply no Soviet politicians there.
It is for this reason that the need arose to develop illegal intelligence methods.
A special place in the history of the unit is occupied by the activities of illegal intelligence officers on the eve of and during the Great Patriotic War. And in the post-war period, the forces of one of the most secret units of the intelligence services made a serious contribution to achieving nuclear parity between the great powers. Thanks to their work, the West was forced to abandon the plan to apply preemptive strike on the USSR and its allies.
Under someone else's name
Most of the successful operations of domestic illegal intelligence officers and their names forever remain classified as “secret”. However, the names of the most prominent of them are not only known, but have also become legends.
- Nikolay Kuznetsov
- komi-permarchiv.ru
The name of Nikolai Kuznetsov, who became famous during the Great Patriotic War, is inscribed in golden letters in the history of Soviet illegal intelligence. In 1942, he was abandoned behind German lines under the name of Oberleutnant Paul Siebert. During his time in the enemy camp, Kuznetsov did a tremendous job: he managed to warn Moscow about the preparation of the Wehrmacht offensive on the Kursk Bulge, with the help of other partisan reconnaissance officers he kidnapped the commander of the German special forces, General von Ilgen, and also reported on the impending assassination attempt by the German special services on the heads of the USSR, USA and England during the Tehran Conference in 1943.
Then the security of the leaders of the “Big Three” - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill - was ensured by equally famous illegal intelligence officers - Gevork and Gohar Vartanyanov.
For 30 years, the couple worked under the pseudonyms Anri and Anita in different countries of the world. The results of their work are so significant that they are still not subject to disclosure.
In the post-war period, a significant contribution to foreign and domestic policy The USSR was introduced by Konon Molodoy, who acted under the pseudonym Gordon Lonsdale. In 1954, an illegal Soviet intelligence officer, on instructions from the leadership, was sent to serve in Great Britain, where Young began to carry out his assigned tasks. During his six years as an intelligence officer, he obtained secret information about the British naval program, and also, according to some sources, learned secrets that saved the USSR several billion dollars on the development of weapons systems.
- Book "Aces of Illegal Intelligence"
No less legendary Soviet illegal intelligence officer is William Fisher, who operated in the West in the 1950s under various pseudonyms. He was sent to the USA to obtain information in the field of nuclear development. In 1957, when arrested, Fischer gave the name of his late friend Rudolf Abel. For outstanding achievements in providing state security Fischer was awarded many prestigious awards.
Colonel Alexei Kozlov became famous for his work as a Soviet illegal intelligence officer in South Africa in the late 1970s. He managed to obtain secret information about South Africa's nuclear program and transferred it to Moscow. Thanks to this, the leadership of the USSR was able to attract the attention of the world community to South Africa's nuclear plans. As a result, under public pressure, research on the creation of nuclear weapons in this country was stopped.
"Piece goods"
Not everyone can become a fighter on the “invisible front”. A true professional in the field of illegal intelligence must have a number of different qualities: well-developed thinking, memory, intuition, strong character, speak foreign languages, and also be emotionally stable.
On June 24, in an interview with Russian media, President Vladimir Putin called illegal intelligence officers “unique people” with special personal qualities, beliefs and character.
“Not everyone can give up their current life, give up their loved ones, their relatives and leave the country for many, many years, or devote their life to serving the Fatherland. Only a select few can do this. I say this without any exaggeration,” said the head of state.
Former employee of the foreign intelligence service of the KGB of the USSR Arsen Martirosyan, in a conversation with RT, also noted the exclusivity of the employees of the secret unit of the domestic special services.
“Illegal immigrants are a piece of goods. They are used only for particularly large, serious events - for deep penetration into objects of intelligence interest related to military and political issues.
These people are prepared for a long time, all aspects are worked out extremely carefully. Only trusted intelligence officers with enormous experience get in touch with illegal immigrants. You need to understand that the failure of one illegal intelligence officer is a blow to the entire intelligence network,” the expert emphasized.
“This is a very expensive jewel in the crown of Russian foreign intelligence. However, the work of illegal intelligence officers is a kind of our tradition,” said RT’s interlocutor.
The training of one illegal intelligence officer in Soviet times cost 3-5 million rubles and took an average of seven years. Considerable attention was paid to working on the cover legend: his new name, biography, and occupation. It was important to create as much true story the life of an illegal intelligence officer, so that he can easily become one among strangers.
Unparalleled in the world
Not every country in the world can afford to have illegal intelligence units. Today, illegal intelligence officers are a distinctive feature of Russian military and foreign policy intelligence, the Soviet experience of which has not been replicated by any country in the world to this day.
According to RT interlocutor Arsen Martirosyan, the United States created a “deep-lying agency,” and Israeli intelligence tried to partially copy the Soviet intelligence format.
“These are closely related concepts, but not the same. There is no complete analogue in the world. Only our intelligence has this unique secret,” says the intelligence officer.
Over the years, due to the rapidly changing and increasingly complex operational situation in the world, the activities of the secret unit of domestic intelligence services are becoming increasingly valuable.
“Today, illegal intelligence continues to stand in the united combat formation of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, occupying a worthy place on the “invisible front.” It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this activity. Unfortunately, we cannot list the names of all its participants. It’s better to just remember them with a kind, grateful word. “They deserve this with their work for the good of the Fatherland,” says the congratulations posted today on the website of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.
This is the most secret foreign intelligence unit, and the most combative and experienced friendly team. Our wonderful intelligence officers, former leaders of this service - Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov and Vadim Alekseevich Kirpichenko, told the reader about this intelligence in detail and with knowledge of the matter, in published books of memoirs. It is difficult to imagine that anyone else knows more about illegal intelligence than these two respected professionals who are in love with their work. They are well aware of what this unit does, how and under what conditions illegal intelligence officers work, how they live, being ordinary citizens of Russia, and not fairy-tale heroes of our epics.
Remembering ten years of work in this intelligence service, my heart is filled with warm feelings for the staff of this wonderful detachment, which, like a magnificent symphony orchestra with excellent professional musicians, performs a symphony of defense of the Fatherland. I came to illegal intelligence after many years of working in legal political intelligence. I was in the shoes of an ordinary intelligence officer who actively worked in the field, a deputy resident and a resident. You can say that I went through the entire school of becoming an intelligence officer.
Having transferred to work in this intelligence unit, I sought to learn the most intimate subtleties of this romantic profession. For me, I’ll tell you frankly, it was a very honor to work hand in hand with illegal immigrants, these amazing people who, indeed, constantly risking everything and even their lives, carry out responsible tasks outside the borders of their homeland. They - true heroes, although they remain simple our compatriots, they do not expect honors and benefits, do not declare any claims due to the exclusivity of their profession. They simply work like everyone else, each in their own field. But they live in constant nervous tension. They don’t see any other life for themselves, since they themselves chose this profession - an illegal intelligence officer.
And I, having found myself among the employees of illegal intelligence, was not disappointed in my hopes of meeting and working together with people who were extraordinary in their fortitude and strength of character.
Illegal intelligence differs significantly from other foreign intelligence units in its specificity and special responsibility. The work of an illegal intelligence officer is simply incomparable with the work of an ordinary station intelligence officer. No matter how stressful the day of an intelligence officer working, say, “under the roof” of an embassy, in the evening he still returns to his family and temporarily forgets the worries of the day. An illegal intelligence officer does not have such a “roof”, there is no place where he can relax and forget, and often there is no family nearby. He is not socially protected, and not protected at all, all his salvation is in his own head and in clear constant work and in the hope of the Center, which does everything so that the illegal intelligence officer feels support behind his back.
Prepare a real illegal intelligence officer, provide him with reliable documents and take him abroad for practical work- this is an extremely difficult matter, requiring enormous efforts on the part of a large number of specialists of different profiles.
So who is an illegal intelligence officer? What kind of job does he have? An illegal is a special intelligence officer, different from an ordinary one in that he has higher personal qualities and special training, which allows him to perform and act like a local resident of the country where he is located.
Not everyone can become an illegal intelligence officer. The profession requires the candidate to have a high level of intellectual development - thinking, memory, intuition, emotional stability, which allows him to maintain intellectual potential in stressful situations and endure constant mental stress without harm to health. This is also a developed will, the ability to master foreign languages.
Finding people with this combination of qualities is not easy. Intelligence searches for and finds candidates on its own, going through hundreds and hundreds of people.
If a person is finally found who has all the listed qualities to one degree or another, this does not mean at all that he will turn out to be an illegal intelligence officer. Some other properties of nature are also needed, elusive and difficult to convey in words, special artistry, ease of transformation and even some well-controlled penchant for adventure, some kind of reasonable adventurism. You can compare the transformation of an illegal immigrant into another person with the performance of an actor. But it is one thing to reincarnate for an evening or for a theater season, and quite another to reincarnate into another, once living or specially designed person, to think and dream in a foreign language and not allow one to think about oneself in the real dimension.
Training an illegal intelligence officer is very labor-intensive and takes several years. It is aimed at developing professional skills and abilities based on the employee’s existing personal qualities. It includes mastering foreign languages, training intelligence officers in psychologically, which allows him to act as a representative of a particular nationality. This includes operational training, which includes developing skills in obtaining and analyzing intelligence information, maintaining contact with the Center and other aspects.
During preparation and practical work in intelligence, an illegal immigrant acquires a lot: extensive knowledge, in particular in political and economic issues, several professions. But he also sacrifices a lot. It is difficult to arrange family affairs under these conditions: wife, children, parents - there is a string of endless difficulties, and it is rarely possible to solve everything more or less satisfactorily.
When you meet experienced illegals, you learn from them yourself. Everyone has their own unique experience of living abroad. When assigning a task, an illegal immigrant needs to accurately determine whether he is capable of this work, whether he has real or potential capabilities. To do this, the Center employee needs extensive personal experience, operational intuition, and knowledge of the specific situation.
Illegal intelligence treats with great respect illegal veterans who completed combat work abroad and began working at the Center as educators for the younger generation of intelligence officers. Everyone has a bright, unusual life behind them, which even today, in the era of rampant glasnost, is known only to a few.
Why are illegal immigrants needed in intelligence? For many reasons. First of all, because official Russian representatives can always be followed by a “tail”, visible or, taking into account the development of technology, invisible. But for an illegal intelligence officer, unless he himself has made any mistakes, there is no such surveillance. The geographical space for Russian citizens abroad is limited to various zones, and an illegal intelligence officer can move freely. Our country does not have diplomatic relations with a number of states, but sometimes it is necessary to be there for intelligence matters.
This is the foreign intelligence unit I came to work for after returning from Japan. I liked the department staff, they received me well, and I actively got involved in the work. I traveled almost the entire Soviet Union, participated in meetings, personal meetings and conversations, and met with the heads of local KGB agencies. The work captured me, and I felt that there were results.
Somehow, a new addition came to my small team. Our illegal intelligence officer returned from abroad, and the management of the department included him in our department. This wonderful man and comrade still works in intelligence, and I cannot yet name his last name. Let's just call him Vladimir. For many years, Vladimir was in a country with a complex intelligence and operational situation.
A lot of effort and energy was spent on preparing for work in that country; with great difficulty, he penetrated there, gained a foothold and began to carry out assignments. For reasons beyond his control, he was recalled to the Center. This happens in our work; no one is immune from accidents and miscalculations. But Vladimir found the strength not to break down because of someone else’s mistake, to gather himself into a ball and start life, in fact, all over again. The management team, comrades and marriage helped him in this. Yes, due to the long preparation, the conditions of the business trip, he had to go into the country single, not burdened with a family, he was deprived of the opportunity to find a life partner. And I came to this conclusion only after returning to my homeland.
Vladimir, being by nature a cheerful, sociable person, hardworking and diligent, easily entered the team and began a new job that was unfamiliar to him. And he successfully dealt with all the problems that confronted him. I won't praise him too much, but the fact that intelligence still needs him speaks for itself. I want to talk about his marriage, about his family, about his devotion to his family.
Vladimir was the soul of our team, and everyone tried to help him. We were a little surprised by the cold attitude of the department head towards him. How can you not love an illegal intelligence officer who has endured so many hardships to become one? But these were minor things.
Vladimir for for many years got used to my bachelor life. We understood that he was missing out on the opportunity to feel truly happy by becoming the father of a family. Convincing such a convinced bachelor, even for the entire team, was not an easy task. We organized all kinds of meetings, evenings, where representatives of the fair sex were present, unknown to Vladimir. As a professional intelligence officer, he quickly established human personal contact with them and knew how to attract lovely women with his charm and interesting conversations.
Unfortunately, all these acquaintances ended very soon, usually on the same day. Vladimir avoided further development of relations with them. It was clear that he was not finding the one that he had probably dreamed of all the years of his loneliness.
One day we organized a trip out of town to pick mushrooms. A friend of our employee’s wife happened to be among us. Vladimir did not pay much attention to her. The weather was not entirely favorable for mushroom pickers; heavy rain caught us in the forest. The mood gradually deteriorated, and the rain did not stop. Everyone began to return to their cars, and Vladimir suddenly disappeared into the forest. He appeared about forty minutes later, and in his hands was a basket full of mushrooms. Everyone was surprised by Vladimir’s agility and luck, and he gallantly presented his forest luck to Lenochka. That was the name of his future chosen one.
Lena gratefully accepted the basket of mushrooms and expressed her gratitude to Vladimir for his attention. And Vladimir began to shine on this cloudy day, he was delighted with his action and the successful surprise of the sweet girl.
Encouraged by this grateful reaction from Elena, our dear bachelor soon completely “capitulated” to her. We didn't have to wait long for the wedding. And only after the wedding, wise Elena admitted to Vladimir that all the mushrooms he collected in the forest turned out to be inedible.
They played a wedding, and a new life began for Lenochka and Volodya. I don’t know which of them is braver, and perhaps they are both not timid, but in the coming years they acquired two sons, and they turned out to be a full-fledged family. Lena, in her fragile feminine arms, had three men at once. Here, perhaps, one could get confused, but Volodya and Lenochka’s sister Natasha did not let this happen. And our illegal immigrant has two heroic sons growing by leaps and bounds.
You need to see with what touching care Lena, Vladimir and Natasha look after the children. They grow up intelligent, smart and healthy. And I am sure that when these guys grow up, they will be proud of their father, who was an illegal intelligence officer for Russian intelligence, faithfully serving the Fatherland and its interests.
My work in Directorate “C” continued. When the problem arose in Afghanistan, I asked management to send me to work in this country. I was not fully aware of all the difficulties that I would have to face there, but I wanted to be at the forefront of the acute struggle for a calm position in the world. For some reason I was confident that I would prove useful in that difficult situation. My request was granted.
In Afghanistan, as I already said above, I had to do unusual work; it did not resemble my usual intelligence activities, since it left its mark on open armed struggle with the enemy. But at the same time, the skills I had in intelligence and operational practice were useful. And the skills to communicate with people and the ability acquired on site to manage a large team of operational workers were very useful. Here, apparently, my military education and my willingness, in certain cases, to take responsibility for decisions made had an impact.
When I returned from Afghanistan and reported to Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov for the work done, he jokingly noted that he would not be able to assign such a large number of operational workers to me here. I answered frankly that I was tired of such work and was ready to answer only for myself.
Later, Drozdov transferred me to work in the most important, in my opinion, department of illegal intelligence. In this department, almost all employees were active illegal intelligence officers. The team of this department was, and will remain in my memory until the end of my days, the best team of all that I have ever worked with in my long life as an intelligence officer. Wise in life experience and intelligence practice, people were easy to use, attentive to each other, precise in their work and efficient. I somehow immediately fell in love with them all. These brave, intelligent, resourceful people, with and without orders and Stars of Heroes, did not have the right to openly speak about themselves and their merits to anyone. And they weren’t bothered by it. They just live like everyone else. Maybe in the soul of each of them everything is not so simple, but they know how to manage their emotions. They remained illegal intelligence officers.
We often communicated as families. We organized relaxation evenings, where we met with great pleasure with writers and musicians. Sometimes they visited our Moscow enterprises. My wife immediately felt the special spirit of the people who made up my new team. Not knowing who these people were, she was soon able to understand that they were all intelligence officers, and special intelligence agents at that. She told me more than once after our meetings that these are some extraordinary people, they radiate some kind of special human warmth. Everyone has their own aura. It was a fashionable expression back then.
And among these new work colleagues of mine was a married couple, Henri and Anita. Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov, in his memoirs about working in illegal intelligence, speaks very warmly about these wonderful people and names their pseudonyms.
Anri, in a conversation with a Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent in September 1993, introduced himself as Georgiy Andreevich. And I will call him Georgiy Andreevich. In 1984, a special Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces was issued, which read: “For the courage and heroism shown during the performance of a special task, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union... Henri.” Anita was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Our compatriots, and people all over the world, know Sorge, Abel, and Philby well. Richard Sorge worked in Japan, was arrested and executed. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union much later than his death. Rudolf Abel worked in the USA, was arrested, and then he was exchanged and returned to his homeland. Kim Philby was an Englishman, actively worked against the United States and England in the interests of his new homeland, evading arrest, and went to the Soviet Union. We know these most worthy people only because the enemy discovered their activities. And this happened either due to a fatal coincidence of circumstances, or because of betrayal or a risk that they took quite consciously, realizing how important the information they obtained was for the Center.
Such are the paradoxes of the intelligence profession. To become famous, you “need” to shine. About others, those who were luckier from a professional point of view - they remained undisclosed - as a rule, few people know both here and, naturally, over the hill.
Our dear Anri and Anita are known to a narrow circle of people, usually associated with our illegal intelligence.
And what wonderful, kind and sympathetic people they are. Their heads are already dusted with frosty gray hair, but their eyes are still the same - young and radiant. Georgy Andreevich is a truly heroic person, but in life he is a modest, shy and calm person. Our fellow citizens, meeting them on the streets of Moscow, do not pay any attention to them, but they are the pride of the nation. Former illegal immigrants live in a small Moscow apartment, quietly, calmly, and do not expect any special honors from anyone. They don't even have a dacha near Moscow.
Once, having learned that Georgy Andreevich likes to go out of town into nature in the summer, but cannot do this often due to the lack of personal transport, I offered him assistance in purchasing a car. In those days it was still very difficult, even with honest money, to buy a car. Georgy Andreevich began to refuse, but I felt that he liked the idea. I wrote a letter to economic management KGB, signed it with the head of illegal intelligence and went on the road. In the letter, I indicated that we were asking for a car to be allocated for the Hero of the Soviet Union. In the KGB in those days there weren’t many Heroes, as they say, once or twice, and they were out of number. I was confident that my letter would make the right impression on business executives. But, as always, naivety let me down. The deputy head of the department, indifferently turning the paper in his hands and for some reason even looking at the back of the sheet, said that he would put it on the queue. There was nothing to do but wait.
A month passed, then another, there was no change. And then I rushed into battle. I reappeared at the economic department and asked to see the head of the department. They began to assure me that only the deputy takes decisions on these issues, but I insisted on meeting with the boss and got my way. After that the issue was resolved faster.
And how nice it was to see Georgy Andreevich driving his Volga. His wife was also pleased. Now they were mobile and could enjoy the beautiful places near Moscow.
Concluding this chapter, I would like to emphasize once again - who is this illegal intelligence officer? This is a person who has tried on someone else’s biography, nationality, psychology, intelligence, lifestyle, language, style of thinking, culture, habits, historical memory, existing laws, customs... and remained what he was until that hour - a faithful soldier of the Fatherland , for the sake of whose protection he voluntarily and selflessly took on hard and dangerous work equal to a feat.
For the rest of my life I have had great satisfaction from working in illegal intelligence, enormous respect for all my comrades and associates in this difficult profession and especially, of course, for our illegal intelligence officers - the golden fund of our intelligence. They are the true heroes of our Fatherland.
One of the prominent cultural figures once said that an artist cannot become an intelligence officer overnight, but every intelligence officer must be an artist. In the history of Soviet and Russian intelligence, intelligence officers are known who were ambassadors of foreign countries in foreign countries, and businessmen, and gangsters, and simply street sellers, like, say, the “milkmaid” Marina Kirina on the streets of Vienna. Everything presented in the book is based solely on archival documentary materials. Illegal intelligence officers are people of extraordinary destiny. What makes them so is the specific nature of working far from their homeland, their secret life under false names and with fictitious documents. The book will talk about the wonderful Soviet intelligence officers who carried out very complex tasks in the enemy’s lair, and always risking his life.
ILLEGAL SCOUT K.T. YOUNG
ILLEGAL SCOUT K.T. YOUNG
On March 23, 1961, in the famous criminal court of supreme jurisdiction, the Old Bailey, the trial ended, the main one characters which was Canadian businessman Gordon Lonsdale. 25 years in prison - that was the court verdict. The name of this man did not leave the front pages of English and American newspapers. But only many years later the world learned that a career Soviet intelligence officer, Colonel Konon Trofimovich Molody, worked under this name in England.
In the first years of my service in the KGB foreign intelligence service, I met two illegal intelligence officers. In a short essay I have already talked about Rudolf Abel (William Fisher). Now, based on declassified documentary materials, I will try to tell you about another legendary Soviet illegal intelligence officer - Konon Molodoy.
Konon Trofimovich Young was born on January 17, 1922 into a family of scientists. Konon's father taught at Moscow State University and the Moscow Energy Institute. Mother was a professor at the Central Research Institute of Prosthetics. K. Young was born in Moscow.
At the invitation of his aunt (Aunt Tanya), K. Young came to her in the USA in 1932 with the permission of the government. Aunt lived in the USA since 1914. Konon studied at high school city of San Francisco, where he mastered English. In 1938, he returned to Moscow and continued his studies at high school, graduating in 1940.
In October 1940, Konon Molody was drafted into the Red Army to undergo conscript service. The entire period of the Great Patriotic War was in the active army, in front-line reconnaissance. Took direct part in the battles against Nazi troops. As an assistant chief of staff of a separate reconnaissance division, Lieutenant Molody repeatedly went behind enemy lines, took “tongues,” and obtained information about the enemy necessary for the command. In the battles with the fascist invaders, such qualities of K. Molodoy as courage, resourcefulness and courage were revealed.
After demobilization from the army in 1946, he entered the law faculty of the Moscow Institute. foreign trade. Studied Chinese. After graduating from the institute in 1951, he remained there as a teacher. In collaboration with colleagues, he took part in the creation of a Chinese language textbook, which, by the way, was used by students of language universities until recently.
At the end of 1951, K. Molody was enlisted in the foreign intelligence service of the NKVD of the USSR. Completed a full course of intelligence and special training for working abroad from illegal positions.
In 1954, he was illegally brought to Canada, and then, with documents in the name of Canadian businessman Gordon Lonsdale, he moved to England, where he began to carry out the Center’s assignment as the head of the illegal residency.
In London, Konon did business, creating a company selling and servicing slot machines. This became a successful cover for intelligence activities and the legalization of funds received from the Center. In 1955, K. Young went to study at the University of London, located in the very center of the city, next to the world famous British Museum.
Describing Konon, one of his fellow students at the Moscow Institute noted the following:
“Young had the typical appearance of a scout - he was a man without special signs. If, say, you met him in the evening, and the next morning you are asked to describe the portrait of K. Molodoy, you will almost certainly not be able to do this. Only the feeling of something common and still pleasant will remain in the memory. However, charm is a purely personal trait. His appearance is devoid of any bright national features. He can easily pass for an Englishman or a Scandinavian, as well as a German, a Slav and even a Frenchman.”
Some time had passed while studying at the university, and Konon had already managed to get to know many of his fellow students better. “I immediately noticed,” K. Molody noted later, “that one of the academic groups of the university was sharply different from the rest of the student population. The average age of students in this group was at least 10 years older than in other groups."
Gordon Lonsdale was also included in this group. He knew that special services employees were taught rare languages at this faculty. By that time, Gordon already knew a little Chinese. His task was to get into this particular group in order to identify intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers of our potential opponents.
“My enrollment in this group,” G. Lonsdale further notes, “was facilitated by Secretary Jean, whom I met while visiting the university. I was able to easily convince her that it would be inconvenient for me to study in the same group with young guys. She immediately put me on the list of “overgrowns.” Perhaps her compliance was facilitated by the fact that I remembered her name, and also by the fact that I presented her with a small bottle of French perfume that I had purchased the day before in Paris. Most likely, it’s both.”
G. Lonsdale's task, in addition to some other issues, included identifying intelligence officers from among the students, collecting personal data, studying their personal qualities, etc. It was not so easy for Gordon to do this, since the British rarely approach people from an unfamiliar circle for them, especially with foreigners. The students of the group considered themselves respectable people who had already made a certain career. In addition, almost all of them were family. Free time Most of them are used to spending time in “their”, as they say in England, clubs of interest.
“I must say,” K. Molody writes in his memoirs, “in Ashtosh, especially in London, there is an incredible number of pubs. There are often two, three, or even four pubs at one intersection. Well, in the USA, say, or Canada, their number is insignificant compared to England. Almost every Englishman (and, by the way, the same with the Germans in Germany. - N.Sh.) there is a pub that he considers “his own”, and often this pub may not be close to home at all. In “his” pub, the Englishman knows most of the regulars and feels almost at home.
During my weekly visits to the pub, I learned a lot about my classmates and managed to establish good relationships with almost everyone. My classmates knew that photography was my hobby, and no one at our meetings was surprised to see me with a camera and an electronic flash. So, in one far from last evening, I took several dozen photographs and promised to send them to everyone. Well, since it was the last day of the semester, I wrote down the addresses of everyone present!
At the end of our studies, we had a farewell party in one of the Chinese restaurants. The evening was very interesting, especially for me, because at parting, my former classmates told each other who had been sent to work where, and we all exchanged addresses.
Several people were heading to Beijing, many were going to Hong Kong, and so on. Our only American, Clayton Bredt, was returning to his homeland in the USA.
I remembered him many years later. During classes, he usually sat next to me near the wall. He knew that, as an American, he was disliked in the group, so he hung out mainly with Tom Pope and me. After all, we, as Canadians, were like cousins of both the British and the Americans. In the end, he also figured out our “classmates.” And then one day, during a very boring lecture on Chinese philosophy, he nudged me with his elbow and said: “Listen, everyone here except you and me are spies.” He began to give me various arguments, but I continued to insist that this was not so.
Bradg, of course, was mistaken, but I could not tell him what his mistake was (he himself learned about it many years later from the newspapers after my arrest), nevertheless I could not help but be pleased that this, as it seemed, , a very observant person who managed to decipher the true face of our “classmates,” did not suspect me of belonging to the special services.
And if an American who encounters Canadians mistook me for a Canadian businessman who had lived in the USA for many years, then I didn’t have to be afraid of the British.”
Was it not this self-confidence that led K. Molodoy to decipher it? I think not. After all, Young made his conclusion without assuming that he could be betrayed. But the British still managed to get on the trail of K. Molodoy and arrest him and his assistants Morris and Leontine Cohen (Peter and Helen Kroger).
Morris and Leontina Cohen as Ben's faithful assistants (operational pseudonym of Konon Molodoy. - N.Sh.) deserve to be talked about in a little more detail.
Ben's station for six years successfully obtained large quantities of very valuable documentary information from the British Admiralty and NATO Naval Forces, relating, in particular, to British weapons development programs. Ben's assistants, who maintained regular contact with the Center by radio, were the famous Soviet illegal intelligence officers Peter and Helen Kroger. This married couple did a lot for Soviet intelligence during the most difficult time for our country.
When Morris and Leontine Cohen (“Louis” and “Leslie,” respectively) were in the United States and worked on “atomic issues” for Soviet intelligence, they were in touch with our famous illegal intelligence officer “Mark” (William Fisher - Rudolf Abel).
Meanwhile, at the beginning of 1950, a “witch hunt” began in the United States. Under this campaign, clouds began to gather over “Louis” and “Leslie”. The center urgently decided to immediately withdraw them to the Soviet Union. But Morris was against it and argued that they could continue to work quietly for some time. But the illegal immigrants had to be convinced of the correctness decision taken, and in August 1950 they were illegally taken from the United States to the Soviet Union.
While in Moscow, they constantly stated to the intelligence leadership that belonging to Soviet intelligence was a sacred duty for them, and that they continued to be proud of what they had done for the Soviet Union. “If communism is considered a religion,” they said, “then we are ready to devote our entire subsequent life in Russia to this very religion.”
After some time, the curator of Morris and Leontina Koreshkov, Alexander Afanasyevich, had a business conversation with the head of illegal intelligence, Major General A.V. Tishkov on the upcoming use of the Cohens through illegal intelligence.
Kovda Koreshkov told his wards about the conversation he had had with the leadership of illegal intelligence, then Morris cautiously noted: “It seems that for the first time in six months of our stay in the USSR we felt a business interest in ourselves. Or am I mistaken, Mr. Denis (pseudonym of A. Koreshkov. - N.Sh.).
Absolutely right. If you are ready to work as productively as before, in the interests of our state, then we have a specific offer for you.
Which one exactly? - Leontina picked up.
Very interesting. You will have to go to the West to work. "
ABOUT! It would be nice to go to Latin America. Closer to New York,” Morris joked.
No, this is excluded. Most likely, we are talking about an African country.
Anyway, we agree.
But then you will have to completely change your first and last name and live according to fictitious documents.
We are ready for anything. If necessary, we are even ready to undergo plastic surgery on the face, just to get to work as quickly as possible,” Leontina hastened to assure her interlocutor.
Why do you do all this so easily?
Probably because intelligence for us is like heroin for drug addicts. We now cannot imagine our life without her; in her we experienced true inspiration and great devotion to the idea. For us, exploration is the path to great things and the triumph of great achievements.”
In terms of preparing illegal immigrants for work abroad, there was the following point:
“Through “Mark” (Rudolph Abel. He was at that time as an illegal immigrant in the USA) to find out whether FBI employees were interested in the fact of the disappearance of “K” (Coen. - N.Sh.) from New York. If the FBI knows anything about their whereabouts, then it is necessary to take this into account when finalizing their biographies.”
On March 26, 1951, a request was sent to Mark over the radio channel regarding the Cohens. The radiogram received from Mark to the Center stated:
"Owl" secret
Ex. unity
On No. 287/34 dated March 26, 1951.
Unknown persons repeatedly inquired about the disappearance of the Drugars from Louis's parents and relatives. They referred to the fact that the school and the education department allegedly really needed Louis. Drugar’s father answered everyone the same way: about a year ago, his son and his wife left for Canada, they promised to return home in two or three months, but for reasons unknown to him, they still have not returned. In addition, the father reported that his son’s apartment was sealed by someone in October last year.
IN last time Louis' disappearance was reported in February, which may indicate that the Drugs are still being sought to this day.
04/09/51 Mark.”
Taking into account the contents of the radiogram from New York, Moscow, step by step, began to work out versions of legend-biographies for the Cohens and determine the country of their further illegal settlement. At the same time, Major Konon Trofimovich Molody (operational pseudonym “Ben”) was preparing for work in England at the Center. In agreement with “Ben,” the intelligence leadership decided that the American Cohens should become his communications and radio operators. Without revealing them to each other, "Ben" was introduced to them under the name Arnie as an illegal intelligence officer who had recently returned from Canada (which was true). Direct supervision of their joint training was entrusted to Vitaly Grigorievich Pavlov.
Lieutenant General Pavlov V.G. in intelligence since 1938. In 1942–1946 - resident in Canada, 1966–1970. - in Austria. In 1961–1966 - 1st Deputy Head of the KGB Vocational School under the USSR Council of Ministers. In 1971–1973 - Head of the Red Banner Intelligence Institute. In 1973–1984 - Head of the KGB representative office in Poland. Currently retired. Author of two books about Soviet intelligence activities abroad.
At the beginning of July 1951, V.G. Pavlov briefly outlined the training program to the Cohens in the presence of mentors specially allocated for them. “As for your safety measures,” Pavlov emphasized, “you must remember that none of the instructors should know your real names and surnames, as well as your former nicknames in New York.”
During preparation, the Cohens had to learn secret writing, ciphers and their use. At the final stage of preparation, the Cohens had to master their main job behind the cordon - working on a radio transmitter.
In preparation for the illegal work, the Coens somehow immediately took a liking to “Ben.” Based on one mysterious sign known to him, he saw in them the embodiment of British restraint, intelligence and a responsible attitude to business. He also liked the fact that, despite already having experience in intelligence work, they paid great attention to everything they were taught, that they did not hesitate to admit what they did not know and could not do. “Ben”, in turn, also learned from them the correct pronunciation English words and phrases, especially the names of those London streets that are read completely differently from how they are written.
Before going to work abroad, the head of the department for training illegal immigrants, Pavlov, together with his curators, discussed their legends and biographies. During the conversation, the Cohens said that they would like to know which country they plan to send them to. This is very important for the legend.
Several options were considered,” Pavlov explained. - And now we will talk about sending you to England.
The Cohens were extremely happy, and Leontina even applauded.
Apparently, God still exists! - she exclaimed.
Yes, England is not Africa or New Zealand,” Morris added significantly. - Thank God that we won’t have to rebuild now.
But you and I don’t quite agree with this,” Pavlov continued. - In England you will have to play new roles. In London you will live and work under other names, have your own commercial business. You will be assigned other reconnaissance tasks.
After a pause, Pavlov continued.
You will receive a task of exceptional importance and secrecy. At the moment, only my comrades present here and two other people know about it. One of them is the head of illegal intelligence Stepanov (deputy chief of intelligence, Major General Alexander Mikhailovich Korotkov). The other is also our colleague who is preparing cover documents for you. He will tell you how to use them during the instruction. You will go to England as New Zealand citizens under the name Krogers. Morris will be named Peter John, and Leontyne will be named Helen Joyce.
In the case of "Dachnikov" (Kroger. - N.Sh.), stored in the archive, the following document is filed:
"Owl" secret Ex. unity
To the Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR
Colonel General
Comrade Serov I.A.
The Center carried out work to create an illegal residency for “Ben” in the UK. Summer residents - former foreigners Louis and Leslie - are planned to be its operational workers.
Cohen Morris, born in 1910, a native of OBA, an American, a participant in military operations in Germany and Spain, graduated from the Faculty of Education at Columbia University in 1948.
Cohen (Paetke) Leontina, born in 1913, a native of the USA, Polish, and her husband have been collaborating with Soviet intelligence since 1941.
To settle in England, Louis and Leslie use foreign passports, officially received by them at the New Zealand mission in Paris. They are expected to be transferred to the UK from Austria via Switzerland.
I ask you to approve Louis and Leslie as operatives of the illegal station of “Ben” and to authorize the planned combination of their removal to England, where they will act as New Zealand citizens - businessman Peter Kroger and housewife Helen Joyce Kroger.
Acting boss
First Main Directorate
A.M. Korotkov."
The resolution on the report:
“I authorize the withdrawal of “K” abroad.
I.A. Serov."
The next day, a final instructive conversation was held with “K” before their departure for the cordon.
In order to legalize in the country of residence and organize cover for conducting intelligence work in accordance with the plan of intelligence and operational activities, they were once again quite thoroughly recommended:
1. Buy a house in the suburbs of London in which to equip a radio apartment.
2. Rent premises for bookselling.
3. Open accounts in Swiss and London banks.
4. Lead a hidden lifestyle and be careful in spending money.
5. Acquire reliable connections among booksellers, establish friendly relations with them and with your neighbors in your place of residence.
6. Before meeting with the head of the illegal residency, maintain contact with the Center through mail correspondence using secret writing. In case of emergency, you can call an employee of the embassy station, for which on any Monday you should place a corresponding signal on the left side of the entrance to the Queens Hall concert hall. The appearance must take place there, but the next day at 17.00.
The terms of the meeting were formulated as follows:
Peter should walk with Helen near Queen's Hall and smoke a pipe. In the left pocket of his coat is a folded newspaper "Figaro". The scout who comes to the appearance must hold Life magazine in his hand and be the first to say the words of the password: “In my opinion, we met in Paris in May of last year!” Answer: “No, my friend, we did not meet in Paris, I was in Rome at that time.”
If you are called to appear in Paris, the meeting should take place at the exit of the Pyramide metro station. The conditions are exactly the same as in London.
The scouts arrived in London just before the New Year, 1955! Immediately after the Christmas holidays, they began implementing the legalization program. Through the hiding place, the Neleils received two brand new Canadian passports: one in the name of James Cilson with a photo of Peter, the other in the name of Jane Smith with a photo of Helen. Along with the passports there was also the following instruction: on April 10, Krogers need to get in touch in Paris at the Pyramid metro station with a communications person arriving from the Center. In the words of the password, which he should have named first, instead of the keyword “Paris” there should be the word “Warsaw”.
Arriving in Paris on April 10, the Krogers stayed at a hotel at the Opera de Paris. The next day, at the appointed time, they went to the Pyramid metro station. At exactly five, as prescribed by the terms of communication, Peter began to light his pipe, awaiting the arrival of the courier from the Center. Five, six, seven minutes passed, but no one approached them. Looking around for the last time, Peter noticed the figure of a familiar man. He did not stand out from the people around him and walked straight towards them, waving a Life magazine in his left hand. It was K.T. Young. Immediately, Arnie, smiling widely, embraced small, fragile Helen in his arms.
God! Arnie! Is that you? I never would have thought that I would see you here! - she was surprised.
Yes I am! Me, of course!
Turning to Peter, “Ben,” smiling guiltily and shaking his hand firmly, said:
Sorry Pete, I'm almost ten minutes late.
Peter Kroger threw up his hands, saying, what can we do with you?
Excuse me too, Arnie, but order is order: please tell me the password. - And again I involuntarily thought to myself: “Now I’ll finally check you, since adjustments were made to the content of the password shortly before this meeting. Instead of the key word “Paris” he should tell me “Warsaw”.
Helen looked reproachfully at her husband: why, little guy, password!
That's right, Pete. “Personal safety comes first,” Ben said with captivating good nature. -
Well... The password is: “I think we met with you in Warsaw in May of last year?”
No, my friend, we didn’t meet in Warsaw, I was in Rome at that time,” replied a satisfied Peter.
Where is your smoking pipe, Pete? - “Ben” laughed. - According to the terms of the meeting, as far as I remember, it should smoke...
While I was waiting for your arrival, it had already gone out. And at exactly five she was smoking like a volcano.
Wonderful! I think we're even now. And now, if you don’t mind, we’ll go to Boulevard Saint-Michel and sit in the cafe “Boulmich” that I know.
With pleasure! - Helen exclaimed and, taking “Ben” by the arm, asked: “Tell us, Arnie, who will we work with now?”
A sly smile appeared on “Ben’s” face:
With one Canadian. In quotes, of course. I think you will work well with him.
What's his name? Maybe we know him?
Gordon Lonsdale! Do you know this one?
“Ben” had permission to inform the Krogers about his appointment to work in England as the head of an illegal station, but decided not to talk about it for the time being.
About a month after “Ben” left for Moscow, the Krogers sent a secret letter to Vienna:
“...On the outskirts of London we purchased a decent brick cottage that meets the requirements of conspiracy. It is located two to three miles from the Norholt military airfield. Its radio stations operate around the clock, and therefore it will be almost impossible to find the direction of a short-term broadcast of an extraneous high-speed transmitter in our house.
Before giving us a loan to buy our own home, representatives of the mortgage bank checked our solvency and came to the conclusion that we could repay the loan without mortgaging our property.
Our address is 45 Cranley Drive, Ruislin, Middlesex.
Krogers."
In May 1956, the Krogers finally received a message from the Center that on the last Tuesday at 15:30 on the 3rd floor of the Lions Corner House they were to meet with the appointed head of the illegal station, Gordon Lonsdale.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Peter and Helen arrived at Corner House. As always, after carefully checking, they only then entered the lobby of the Lions restaurant.
Fearing that one of the familiar businessmen might be in the restaurant hall, Peter held his wife walking in front at the entrance, looked around at the clients sitting at the table - there were only six of them - and suddenly Helen, turning sharply to him, exclaimed joyfully:
Bobzy! Look who I see in the far left corner! This is our friend Arki!
Peter, tightly squeezing her elbow, muttered angrily through his teeth in a half-whisper:
Lona, are you crazy? We're not at a book auction! Who knows, maybe he came here to supervise our meeting with Lonsdale. “Let’s go to the end of the hall,” he added quietly, “and wait for a signal from him.” If he doesn’t give it, that means that’s how it should be. In the meantime, let's go to the corner, take a table and wait for our Lonsdale to arrive.
Before they had time to reach the middle of the hall, “Ben” threw up his head, threw the newspaper on the table and, jumping up, loudly exclaimed:
Who do I see! How many years, how many winters! - He hugged Helen and shook hands with Peter. - Indeed, the ways of God are inscrutable. Please come to my table.
Sitting at the table, Peter lit a cigarette. Hiding his excitement, he said:
Maybe I'm wrong, Arnie, but it seems to me that the Center doesn't quite trust us...
Where did you get this from? - exclaimed “Ben”.
Apparently you are aware that we have received instructions to meet with a certain Gordon Lonsdale. And for some reason you came again...
"Ben" laughed. Having calmed down, he leaned towards the table and said quietly:
This is the same Gordon Lonsdale! Yes, yes. Don't look at me as if you are seeing me for the first time. To make sure of this, I tell you my password: “Excuse me, we didn’t meet you in Mexico City?” Your answer should be: “No, we have never been to Mexico City, and you could only meet us in Ottawa.” So how?
Let’s sum it up,” “Ben” smiled. - Since we will now work together, please call me Gordon from now on, not Arnie. Under the name Lonsdale I will now have to legalize myself in England.
So, from that moment on, an illegal Soviet intelligence station began operating in London, led by illegal intelligence officer Gordon Lonsdale (Konon Molodoy). One of his informants was "The Shah" (Harry Houghton). “Ben” met with him every month. To the meeting, the “Shah” brought from Portland several hundred top secret Admiralty documents: naval intelligence codes and instructions for them, reports, reports, intelligence assignments for the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe. In addition to these documents, the “Shah” gave Lonsdale a huge number of drawings of various types of weapons and devices stored in the armored “safe room” of the KM Center in Portland.
By morning, these “hot” materials should have been in their place in the safe. Therefore, without even getting acquainted with their contents, in order to save time, Lonsdale left “Shah” in the city (usually in a restaurant), and he himself took the materials to Kroger. After the documents were photographed, the originals were returned to the agent.
It should be noted that this method of obtaining and processing classified information was complex and unsafe. Lonsdale tried to persuade “The Shah” to photograph the materials himself in the workplace or at home. However, all Lonsdale’s efforts to convince the “Shah” to prepare and transmit information in undeveloped films were unsuccessful: the agent did not know how, did not like and did not want to take photographs, despite the fact that Gordon gave him a miniature high-class Minox camera convenient for these purposes. Moreover, the “Shah” was afraid to do this: the camera, he believed, was serious evidence, material evidence of espionage activities, especially if it was kept at work, in a safe.
After each meeting between Lonsdale and the “Shah,” the Krogers had a significant increase in work: in the evening they closed the doors and window shutters from the outside and inside, and for several days it seemed as if there was no one in the house number 45 Cranley Drive. And work was going on in the house day and night: films were developed and dried, then they were printed and transferred into dozens of microdots, each of which Peter and Helen carefully pasted into books or under stamps on envelopes for sending to the Center.
In Moscow, the materials received from England delighted the leadership of the KGB and interested allied departments. Much of this information was of paramount importance to the Ministry of Defense: its General Staff was able to get acquainted with many NATO reports on naval maneuvers, as well as the results of tests of new types of weapons in the British navy.
One day Lonsdale arrived at Kroger. He took a piece of paper folded into four from his pocket and handed it to Helen:
This needs to be reported as quickly as possible.
What's here?
Read it.
“Your task on Porton is completed. In the near future, a container with the results of microbiological studies will be sent to you via courier. There are several dozen, or maybe hundreds, of bacteria in the container. When handling them, you must be especially careful and keep in mind that one microbe is worse than the explosion of a thermonuclear bomb.
Having finished reading, Helen looked anxiously at Lonsdale.
Well? - he asked.
My soul sank.
From what?
Out of fear... Is this all true?
What's true?
What is one microbe worse than an atomic bomb?
Yes, ten times more dangerous than what you once hunted for in Los Alamos. As you can see, science is moving forward.
But who needs such science if it is aimed at destroying and killing all life on Earth? This is all being done for the sake of war. And we sit here and remain silent...
No, we don’t remain silent and don’t just sit around. You and I are working here to ensure that there is no war. Our main task is to obtain information, not to look at the possible preparations of the West for a nuclear or any other war.
During the next radio session, a radiogram was received for Lonsdale. It said:
“Containers with products from the Porton laboratory have been received. Please inform us about the results of further work on it by contacting special attention to collect information about bacteriologists.
At the same time, we remind you that in 1960 the validity of the “Dachnikov” passports expires. They need to be reminded about the renewal of documents. For the successful completion of tasks in Portland and Norton, “Ben” and “Summer Residents” were presented with government awards.
At one of the meetings, the Krogers expressed their desire to become citizens of the USSR. Gordon assured them that this was possible for them and said that he would report this to the Center.
"Owl" secret
To the Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR
Comrade A.N. Shelepin
Since 1955, internationalist intelligence officers, US citizens, illegal immigrants Leontina and Morris Cohen have been working in Ben's illegal residency in England since 1955.
In addition to fulfilling their main role, they provide constant assistance to Ben in recruiting campaigns and in conducting various intelligence operations related to the receipt and processing of classified information.
In 1950, due to the threat of failure, they were taken from the USA to the USSR, leaving all their property in New York.
The Cohens had long devoted their lives to working for Soviet intelligence. Recently they turned to the KGB with a petition to grant them Soviet citizenship.
Taking into account that they currently have no savings, we would consider it appropriate to set their salary at 800 rubles. per month and go to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a petition to grant them Soviet citizenship.
Please consider.
Head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB under the USSR Council of Ministers, Lieutenant General
A.M. Sakharovsky."
The resolution is superimposed on the report in blue pencil:
"Agree. I ask you to prepare a draft note to the authorities with a petition to admit the Cohens to Soviet citizenship.
A. Shelepin."
Such a document was soon prepared and sent to the CPSU Central Committee. He returned to the State Security Committee with a resolution from the Secretary of the Central Committee:
“The question about the Cohens has been raised prematurely. They may still betray us. When they return to the Soviet Union, then we will consider their petition.
2. XI.60 M. Suslov.”
At the end of 1960, the Director General of MI5 (British counterintelligence. - N.Sh.) Roger Hollis received from the CIA materials from the interrogation of a defector - one of the leaders of Polish intelligence, Colonel Mikhail Goleniewski, who informed the Americans that the Russians have two very valuable agents in England: one in the Intelligence Service, the other recruited 8 years ago in Warsaw by the Polish and Soviet state security agencies. According to “Sniper” (pseudonym of Golenevsky), the first agent was captured in North Korea(it was George Blake- N.Sh.), and the second worked at the British Embassy in Warsaw as a cryptographer for the naval attache.
On the same day, the ransomware was installed from the files of the British Foreign Ministry. He turned out to be Harry Frederick Houghton, born in 1905. At the age of 16 he left to serve in the navy. During World War II he went with convoys to Malta and Murmansk. In 1952 he was sent to Poland as a naval attaché officer. For various frauds and drunkenness he was sent to England ahead of schedule.
And here is what was reported about him in the documents attached to the “Dachnikov” case:
1. “...The ciphers and instructions transmitted by Shah (Harry Houghton) in the last two months are of particular value. Using them, intelligence was able to penetrate many of the secrets of the Admiralty and the NATO military-political bloc.”
2. “...After Shah was recalled to England, he got a job in an institution that tested underwater weapons and various sonar equipment for detecting submarines. This institution is located on the territory of the naval base in Portland. Contact with Shah was restored by an employee of the embassy station.
During his cooperation, he handed over to Soviet intelligence a large number of drawings and documents of various types of weapons and instruments that were equipped with British submarines.
For security reasons, I thought it would be advisable to hand him over to the experienced illegal intelligence officer Ben.”
3. “...With the sanction of the Center, Ben contacted Shah on behalf of Alec Johnson, a captain of the second rank in the US Navy.”
So, having received complete data on Houghton, MI5 Director General R. Hollis gave the following instructions:
1. Establish close surveillance of Houghton.
2. At the place of duty, study all his connections and opportunities for collecting information.
3. Take control of his telephone conversations.
4. Conduct a secret search at your place of work and residence.
After some time, the first message arrived on the desk of the director general of MI5.
“...Houghton works at the Naval Base in Portland. There is a particularly secret, high-security research center for the development of electronic, magnetic-acoustic and thermal equipment for detecting submarines, sea mines, torpedoes and other types of anti-submarine weapons.
His mistress, Ethel Elizabeth Gee, also works there. She holds the position of senior clerk in the Bureau of Registration and Reproduction of Secret and Top Secret Documents. Comes from a fairly respectable family. Sent to civil service in Portland in 1940. Has had an affair with Harry Hout since 1955. Not married.”
The next report to MI5 chief R. Hollis said: “... Scotland Yard recorded a suspicious meeting between Houghton on Waterloo Road and an unknown person, to whom he handed over a package in a plastic bag, and in exchange received a 4x3 inch envelope. We have placed Houghton's connection under surveillance.
Subsequently, it was established: the unknown person is Sir Gordon Arnold Lonsdale - one of the directors of the company “Mr. Switch and Co.”, living in the “White House”, owner of a rich country villa and about a dozen personal numbers in the best hotels in London.
Lonsdale is a millionaire and has an investment in the Mindland Bank branch on Great Portland Street with the right to receive a substantial loan. The title Sir was bestowed upon him personally by Her Majesty the Queen for the fact that he glorified Great Britain at the International Exhibition in Brussels..."
So, MI5 took Gordon Lonsdale and R. Houghton into development. The development plan provided for:
"1. Through the capabilities of the special department of Scotland Yard, continue monitoring Hout and Lambda-2 (this code was assigned to Gordon Lonsdale in MI5, and Lambda-1 to George Blake).
2. Conduct unofficial searches at the places of work and residence of Lambda-2 and Ethel Gee.
3. Encourage Houghton and Ethel Gee to confess to espionage activities by reminding them that if they voluntarily confess, they will be able to count on the leniency of the court in determining the punishment.
4. Inform Houghton to come to the last meeting with Lambda-2 together with Ethel G, which will allow the court to easily prove her involvement in the espionage plot.
5. Together with Scotland Yard, develop a detailed action plan for the Lambda-2 case. The main attention should be paid to identifying his espionage connections in England and collecting material evidence, as well as preparing an operation to capture Lambda-2, Houghton and Gee at the time of the exchange of information. At the same time, prevent their possible use of ampoules with poison.”
After some time, a memorandum of reports of periodic monitoring of Lambda-2 was reported to MI5 Director General R. Hollis:
“- On October 26, Lonsdale left a large leather briefcase at the Mindlensky Bank on Great Portland Street, which contained business papers, films, an expensive camera and a list with street names;
On November 25, Lambda-2 and Houghton met at a pub N.Sh.) on Deaton Road. In the pub they exchanged briefcases, after which “L-2” left in his car. However, on one of the streets of London he was lost by the surveillance service.
The next day his car was spotted in Willow Garden, in the Ruislip area;
On December 18, “L” met Houghton and Ethel Gee outside the Old Vic Theater, where he was given a thick folder. After this meeting he went to Ruislip and long time was located at 45 Cranley Drive, where the Kroger couple Helen and Peter live.”
Having familiarized himself with all these materials, R. Hollis invited Scotland Yard Superintendent George Smith to a conversation and asked his opinion regarding the further development of Lonsdale. His opinion was clear: to stop the subsequent leak of classified information from Portland as soon as possible and arrest Lambda-2, Houghton and Ethel Gee.
“What do we have now for the Kroger spouses?
Nothing yet. “We have no evidence against them,” Smith replied.
But they can exist if you install mobile and stationary round-the-clock surveillance over them... Try setting up an observation post in one of the houses neighboring the Krogers.
But what about Lambda-2 itself? - asked Smith.
We will plan an operation to capture and arrest him. It is best to do this at the time Houghton or Ji transfers classified materials. Their meeting, as we know, should take place on January 7 next year. Then we will carry out this operation. In the meantime, keep working on them. And for Krogers too.
Krogers for lately due to a number of circumstances, they came to the conclusion that they were under surveillance. They reported this to the Center. The answer to Helen Kroger's radiogram came the same day. It stated:
“We don’t see any particular reasons for concern. However, circumstances are such that you need to stop contacting us and Ben. Don't despair. We will take care of you. Happy New Year. I wish you happiness, health and prosperity.
Late in the evening Lonsdale called and coughed three times, as agreed, into the phone - this was an alarm signal, which also meant the urgent need to remove the last reserve cache in Highgate Hill Cemetery (the communication system was designed for all cases of life and death).
At one of the monuments, Lonsdale was supposed to leave an ordinary rusty nail, in the cavity of which there was an emergency message for them.
In the morning, without wasting any time, the Krogers got into the car and drove to the highway leading to Highgate Hall. After checking thoroughly, they arrived at the cemetery. Although there were few visitors to the cemetery on that rainy winter day, for the sake of appearance they stopped at the monuments, read the inscriptions on them, then laid flowers at the grave of Karl Marx, and when approaching the appointed place, Peter deliberately dropped his handkerchief and picked up a rusty handkerchief with it. nail. Returning to the car, Helen hurriedly unscrewed the head of the nail container, pulled out a thin piece of paper tightly rolled into a tube, unfolded it and was surprised: the sheet was clean on both sides.
Strange. How to understand this?
Most likely, the circumstances were such that he was forced to write a message in sympathetic (secret) writing. N.Sh.) ink to protect yourself and us.
Oh yes! I didn't take this into account.
Arriving home, Peter immediately went into his laboratory, moistened the secretly written message with a special chemical composition and, when the text appeared, read it twice. Then he went out to Helen and gave her Lonsdale’s message. Their hopes that he was fine were not justified.
In the note, “Ben” wrote:
“Due to the obvious surveillance of me, the Center has instructed me to temporarily curtail all intelligence work. We are prohibited from going on air until further notice.
In the event of a possible arrest and official search, do not take discovered evidence personally; Blame it all on me or on that same imaginary Polish “provocateur” who sometimes visited your house and left some things, paying you for their safety.
And lastly: try to destroy or hide some of the known evidence.
Happy New. year of you!
On January 2, 1961, Peter and Lona attended a New Year's party hosted by the bookselling association. When they returned home, Peter, opening the door, noticed scratches on the lock that were not there before. Realizing that someone had already opened the door, he carefully walked along the dark corridor to his office, where he always kept some pieces of spy equipment. An ordinary person who has nothing to do with the special services would not have noticed anything, but intelligence officers, especially illegal immigrants, do not do such things. By using “traps” invisible to the eye in advance, a professional can always determine whether anyone has touched his things. Based on one of the signs known to him, he noticed that someone was carefully rummaging through all the drawers of the table. Although everything seemed to be in place. Now Peter was finally convinced that they were not just being watched; and in a hidden way they obtain evidence of espionage activities for the investigation.
“Usually at this time “Ben” came to visit them for the weekend,” Helen was delighted. - Maybe he?
Peter went out into the hallway, then onto the veranda,
Who's there? - With difficulty containing his excitement, he asked politely.
Mr Kroger?
We are from the police. We need to talk to you.
Peter stood there undecided for a few seconds, feeling incredibly tense. Peter opened the door. In an instant, two powerful lamps were directed at him from all sides. Clicking the shutters of their cameras, correspondents and cameramen began to bustle in front of the entrance, aiming their camera lenses at Peter and about a dozen detectives standing in front of him in their traditional English mackintoshes...
Two hours earlier, the same policemen, under the leadership of George Smith, carried out an operation in Waterloo Row to capture and arrest Gordon Lonsdale, Harry Houghton and Ethel Gee at the time of the transfer of classified materials. It happened as follows.
...From Portland, Houghton and Gee arrived by train at Waterloo Station. Then they took a bus around the city to check whether they were being followed or not. At 16.20 we returned back and at exactly 16.30 we were at the corner of Waterloo Road. At this time, Lambda-2 arrived there. He greeted them as if they were old friends, put his arm around Ji’s shoulders, walked with her arm, and then took the basket from her as he walked. At this moment, the signal was given to capture Lambda-2 and its sources.
All three were captured and put in separate cars. The basket contained four Admiralty folders marked “owl.” secret" and "secret", containing information about warships, design drawings of nuclear submarine components and diagrams of the location of missiles on it. Total about 200 pages. In addition, there was a closed metal can in the basket. According to Houghton, it contained undeveloped photographic films.
“We accepted our arrest on January 7, 1961,” recalls Leon-tina Cohen, “without panic because we were to some extent already prepared for this. I remember it was a pity to leave the books and the several thousand dollars and British pounds we honestly earned hidden in them. We were left without a single penny. Then daily interrogations began. We behaved in such a way that the employees of MI5 and Scotland Yard themselves revealed their cards to us, and we, depending on this, developed a line of behavior for ourselves.
***
As Gordon Lonsdale expected, during a second search of the Kroger house, very significant evidence and items of spy equipment were discovered:
Device for high-speed transmission of magnetic recordings;
Lenses for making microdots, Minox and Exakta cameras;
A microscope and two glass slides, between which there were microdots that were not fully processed;
Fine print codes, cipher pads, radio plans, control tables;
A Ronson lamp and table lighter with hidden cavities identical to those found in Ben's apartment;
Sewn into a high quality leather folder are care passports for James Cilson and Jane Smith with photographs of Peter and Helen Kroger.
On March 7, 1961, exactly two months after their arrest, the Krogers were taken under heavy security to the trial court on Bow Street. Here, a preliminary hearing of the “Portland case” was to take place - a kind of dress rehearsal at which only one issue was to be decided: does the prosecution have enough evidence to take this case to the Central Criminal Court - Old Bailey.
The trial of the Portland Five was to be the most important criminal case for the Justice Department in recent decades. Of course! After all, the “five” accused included representatives of three nationalities: two Americans - Peter and Helen Kroger, two Englishmen - Harry Houghton and Ethel Gee, and Canadian Gordon Lonsdale (Konon Trofimovich Molody), who led all operations to penetrate the Admiralty and the Research Center biological methods of warfare.
The upcoming hearings in the highest court caused a great stir not only in England, but throughout the world: the newspapers were filled with sensational reports about the arrest in London of a Canadian millionaire businessman who turned out to be a Russian spy. His large photographs and huge article headlines fueled the curiosity of not only ordinary London residents, but also representatives of even the entire high society of Great Britain.
Finally the day arrived for the opening of the trial in the Old Bailey itself, in room number one. Security brought a group of defendants into the hall - Lonsdale, Houghton, Gee and Kroger. Exactly at 10.00, three gaunt judges - in wigs and bright red robes trimmed with ermine - solemnly walked to their throne chairs. As soon as they sat down, a tense silence immediately established itself in the hall.
The court clerk read out the indictment: an exact copy of the one that had been read at the preliminary hearing in Bow Street. Then the Attorney General Reginald Maningham-Buller delivered an indictment.
The Attorney General was followed by Superintendent George Smith. The next two days of the trial were filled with gray, faceless testimony from witnesses. Houghton then testified as a witness for the accused for a day and a half. Trying to shield himself, he admitted that he had given Lonsdale many secret documents from Portland. His testimony was confirmed by Ethel Gee, but then she “drowned” both Houghton and herself by declaring that she had indeed violated the non-disclosure agreement she had given and handed over about two thousand secret documents through her lover.
The questioning of Gordon Lonsdale began with the question: would he plead guilty to conspiracy with Houghton, Gee and Kroger? Lonsdale, grasping the barrier separating him from the hall with his hands, looked around at the people present in it, then, turning to Chief Judge Parker, made a statement from which it followed that the Krogers were not in a secret conspiracy with him and that even if the court found the charge against proven, then only he should be considered guilty of everything, no matter what consequences this may personally threaten him with.
Scout Young firmly decided for himself, even before the trial, to do everything possible so that Krogers and all those who continued to provide secret assistance to Russia in England and other countries of the world would once again, as after the trial in America of R. Abel, be convinced of that you can rely on Soviet intelligence officers. The Chief Justice then addressed Helen:
Defendant Kroger, do you know a man named Emil Goldfuss?
The issue struck Kroger like a lightning strike.
No, I don't know Emil Goldfuss.
Do you know Martin Collins?
No, your honor.
Then perhaps you know Colonel Abel?
“No, your honor, I don’t know any Colonel Abel,” Helen answered calmly.
The chief judge asked Peter the same questions and in the same sequence. He was already psychologically prepared for these questions. He answered casually, as if he really didn’t know Abel. And suddenly a new unexpected question:
Defendant Kroger, what can you say about the name Cohen? Is she known to you? - Lord Parker began a new round of interrogation.
There are many such surnames in England,” Peter answered.
What do you know about Morris and Leontyne Cohen? Is she Patke?
Unfortunately, your honor, I don’t know anything about them either.
At this time, the Prosecutor General stood up and announced that the day before the trial was closed, significant evidence of the Krogers’ connection with Soviet intelligence had fallen into the hands of the prosecution. Looking to the end of the hall, he invited “Super-Smith” to join him.
Prosecutor: What is your position, witness Smith?
Smith: Superintendent of Scotland Yard's Special Investigations Department.
Prosecutor: What do you, Mr. Smith, have to say to the high court?
“Super-Smith” said that he had documentary information about Krogers received from the US FBI. Ten years ago, in order to search for two American citizens who suddenly disappeared from New York, the FBI sent their photographs, as well as signs and fingerprint samples, to many countries around the world. After the defendants were arrested in England, their fingerprints were taken. The examination established that the defendants Peter Kroger and Helen Kroger are not the people they claim to be. The real names of the Kroger defendants are Morris Cohen and Leontine Teresa Cohen, née Paetke. Both are US citizens. The FBI was looking for them because, according to the Americans, the Cohens were involved in the spy case of Colonel Abel. During Abel's arrest in the United States, a photograph of the Cohens was found with Abel's inscription on the back: "Morris and Leontyne."
After his speech, the chief judge announced a break. The defendants were taken to cells. Journalists and lawyers present at the trial began to wonder how many years each of the Portland Five could be given. Many of them agreed that Lonsdale, as the head of the spy network, would be given 14 years, Houghton and Ethel Gee -10, and the Kroger couple, according to all the canons of English legal proceedings, 3-4 years in prison.
Half an hour later the defendants were again brought into the courtroom. In accordance with the rules of British procedure, the final word was given to Superintendent Smith. Having a copy of the document provided to the jury and the prosecution, prepared based on the results of the examination and received from the FBI additional materials, Smith disclosed Kroger's real biographical information obtained from the FBI.
After this, it was the turn to announce the previously prepared verdict. The Lord slowly rose from the judge's chair and, feeling almost like the savior of Great Britain from foreign spies, felt that the hour of his great glory had come, with which he would now go down in the history of English justice, and began to read the verdict. He ended it with florid phrases:
- ...Since the Kroger conspiracy with Lonsdale lasted about five years, each is sentenced to twenty years in prison. That is, a year of their illegal activity is equivalent to 4 years of serving their sentence.
In total, the Portland Five received 95 years (Gordon Lonsdale - 25 years, Harry Houghton and Ethel Gee - 15 each, and Krogers - 20). But the chief judge considered that this was not so much, and therefore made another decision: to impose on the defendants the payment of legal costs and all expenses of the prosecution in this case.
Lonsdale reached out to Peter and loudly said to him goodbye:
There's nothing to be done, Morris: when prices rise in England, then, quite naturally, the sentences also increase. So brace yourself, old man! I think the Motherland will not forget us!
The famous Soviet intelligence officer George Blake served his sentence in prison with Peter. He was a career employee of MI6 (British intelligence service. - N.Sh.) and collaborated with Soviet intelligence. He was arrested and sentenced to 42 years in prison at the Old Bailey. When Lonsdale was transferred to Strangeways Prison, he optimistically told Blake: “I, George, am sure that the 50th anniversary October Revolution we will meet together on Red Square in Moscow.” (This is how it later happened: Blake escaped from prison and on November 7, 1967, they stood together on the guest podium of Red Square.)
As soon as the Krogers were put on trial, Moscow immediately began studying the question of how to rescue them now. Many options were offered, but the Center made the only decision: through the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs, to challenge the assertion of American citizenship of the Cohen spouses and insist to the British government on their Polish citizenship.
On October 22, 1966, George Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrub Prison. Peter was happy for him and was very sorry that he had not expressed his firm intention to take a similar step at the time. He wrote about this in his diary. This immediately became known to the prison authorities. Peter realized that he had made a mistake and lost his vigilance for a while while making such notes. And after some time, an order came from Scotland Yard to transfer Peter Kroger to the Parkerst maximum security prison on the Isle of Wight.
Meanwhile, Moscow was already exploring the possibility of exchanging Krogers for the Englishman Gerald Brooke, convicted in 1965 in the USSR. British Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart was the first to raise the question with the Soviet Foreign Ministry about the possibility of releasing Brooke, who was serving a prison sentence in the USSR.
The USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent his request for consideration to the Chairman of the KGB of the USSR V.E. Semichastny. The State Security Committee proposed exchanging Brook for the Summer Residents. The message from USSR Foreign Minister A. A. Gromyko sent to Michael Stewart said:
“...We are ready to positively consider your proposal if the British government, for its part, positively resolves the issue of the release of two persons of Polish origin, the Kroger spouses.” However, Great Britain did not agree to negotiate on such terms. US pressure was felt on the London government. This issue was discussed again with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson during his visit to the USSR in 1966 on the terms of the Soviet side: Brooke - Kroger. The British did not agree this time either. While visiting the Soviet Union in 1967, the new British Foreign Secretary George Brown, during negotiations with A.A. Gromyko raised the issue of Bruk’s release for the third time and asked the Soviet side to approach this problem from the standpoint of humanity and mutual interests. But Gromyko was adamant this time too.
Our position on this issue, he said, was stated to you earlier, and it remains in force at the present time. As for Mr. Brook, according to the competent authorities, he behaves in places of detention, to put it mildly, far from the best.
Sorry, Mr. Gromyko,” Brown stopped the Soviet minister. - Could you tell me what exactly this means?
We will inform you about this as soon as possible through our embassy in London.
Gerald Brooke, along with other prisoners, participated in developing a plan to escape from the camp, which gave rise to a new criminal case against him.
Only after the British Foreign Office became familiar with the information from the Soviet embassy about the upcoming increase in D. Brooke's sentence for his improper behavior in a Soviet prison, did the British again begin negotiations on exchanging Krogers for Brooke.
A long, fruitless correspondence between the two diplomatic departments began again. Seeing this, the Soviet side invited the British, in addition to Brook, to release from prison two more of their compatriots who were serving sentences for drug smuggling. Under these conditions, the British side immediately agreed to make an exchange.
Having learned about this, London newspapers began to write about Peter and Helen as two major spies with extensive experience and seniority. That the agreement reached on their exchange for Brook and two some criminals is far from equivalent, that this cannot but cause indignation. That it is not in the interests of England to give away “large sharks” for “sprat”. Therefore, the agreement on the early release of the Krogers was regarded in England as a serious victory for Moscow.
In the following days, the attention of the English press and television was focused on the Kroger exchange and their departure from London. This attention was greater than that paid to many heads of state arriving in England. The send-off for Peter and Helen was organized as if they were sending off the “treasures of the British crown.” Then start appearing in the newspapers critical articles. The Times of London, for example, reported this: “A foreigner arriving in England on Friday (October 24, 1969) would have thought that the Krogers were national guests rather than spies who had harmed the security interests of Great Britain... The departure of the Krogers had to be arranged differently, and not in a way that resembles the departure of the royal couple,” wrote the Daily Telegraph.
With the hype around the early release and seeing off the Krogers from London, the English media created excellent advertising for Soviet intelligence, convincing the Western public that our intelligence never abandons agents and personnel loyal to it in trouble.
The day after arriving in Warsaw, the Cohens took a regular flight to Moscow. At Sheremetyevo airport they were greeted as modestly and discreetly as all intelligence officers returning from abroad. There were many bouquets of bright flowers, there were warm hugs from workmates. Leontina carefully looked at the faces of those who met her, hoping to see people especially dear to her - Twain, Lonsdale, Johnny, Claude, Mark. But they were not there. And it couldn’t be, they weren’t supposed to appear in public places in the company of other intelligence officers. Recognizing one of those who supervised their preparation for work in England, she rushed to him with an exclamation:
Sasha! Is that you?
Colonel Koreshkov, hugging and kissing her, babbled joyfully:
Of course I am! Lona, you have no idea how happy I am for you! I already thought I wouldn’t live to see this meeting with you.
Yes, Sasha, if Brooke hadn’t been caught by your counterintelligence, Bobby and I’s stay with Her Majesty could have dragged on for another eleven years. We are so grateful that he got caught.
The Cohens were immediately invited to the parking lot. Morris and Leontyna were put in the service "Chaika". She drove ahead of the other cars.
Let's gather our old friends. I I haven’t seen them for so long,” Morris turned to Leontyne.
She, of course, didn't mind.
After some time, they arrived at a secret illegal intelligence facility, where their closest associates from work in the USA and Great Britain, who were not at the meeting in Sheremetyevo, were waiting for them. These are Mark, Ben, Johnny, Claude, Twain and Leonid Kvasnikov.
A few days later, a closed secret Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR appeared.
“For the successful completion of tasks through the State Security Committee in the difficult conditions of capitalist countries and the courage and fortitude shown, award the Order of the Red Banner to Cohen Morris Cohen Leontyna
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
N. Podgorny
Secretary
M. Georgadze
Moscow, Kremlin
After the issuance of this decree, a petition from the State Security Committee was sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU for the second time to admit the Cohens to Soviet citizenship. However, the Secretary of the Central Committee M.A. Suslov still considered them “failed” intelligence officers and did not want to impose any resolution on the document, having decided to first discuss this issue orally with Yu.V. Andropov.
At the meeting, Andropov, turning to Suslov, explained to him:
You are right, Mikhail Andreevich, not to trust the Cohens. The internationalist Cohens were involved in many dangerous Soviet intelligence operations in the United States and Great Britain. And they did them well. All the more incomprehensible to me are your doubts and hesitations after you have already once put your signature on the proposal to award them the Order of the Red Banner.
Suslov, staring with cold gray eyes at Andropov, said sharply:
You forget, Yuri Vladimirovich, that that award decree was closed. No one will ever know about it except your subordinates. But the decision to accept the American Cohens as Soviet citizens may immediately become known to the press.
“I don’t see anything reprehensible in this,” Andropov disagreed with Suslov. - Why do you think that Americans cannot become Soviet citizens?.. I would like to remind you, dear Mikhail Andreevich, we know our people better than you and the rest of the Politburo members. As for the Cohens, believe me, they deserve much greater gratitude from our Motherland for the complex and dangerous work they have done in intelligence. These people deserve the highest respect in our society for their dignity, courage and ability to work. Which, unfortunately, was often lacking for those who, going on business trips abroad, remained there, betraying their Motherland. Although, you know, they all had Soviet citizenship. But the Cohens, during interrogations, trials and nine years of imprisonment, did not reveal secrets to the British and, despite provocative threats and numerous promises of a better life, they did not betray us and nevertheless returned to our country, choosing it as their second homeland. I'm not even talking about the Americans whom they refused to meet at all during their stay in prison.
Without saying anything in response, Suslov silently took the document and placed his own next to the signature of the USSR Foreign Minister A. A. Gromyko.
In 1964, the British authorities agreed to exchange Konon Molodoy for British intelligence agent Greville Wynne, who was arrested for espionage in the USSR. He was arrested in Budapest by Hungarian counterintelligence and handed over to the Soviet authorities. A corresponding agreement between the USSR and Hungary on the extradition of state criminals existed at that time.
On September 23, 1969, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain signed a Decree, which, in particular, stated: “...In relation to Helen Joyce Kroger, who on the 22nd day of March 1961 was found guilty by the Central Criminal Court of secret communication of information... and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
We most graciously announce that, in view of certain circumstances presented for the highest consideration, we deign to extend Our mercy and forgiveness to the said Helen Joyce Kroger. And we grant her pardon and release from the remaining sentence under the above sentence on the twenty-fourth day of October 1969.
“At our desire and good pleasure, we command her to be released from custody, for which this Decree will be sufficient grounds.”
A decree of the same content was signed by Queen Elizabeth II in relation to Peter Kroger.
On October 25, 1969, Leontina and her husband Morris arrived in Moscow. At the beginning of 1970, they were accepted into Soviet citizenship.
After returning to his homeland, Konon Molody worked in the Central Office of Foreign Intelligence. In one of his interviews with Soviet journalists, the illegal intelligence officer emphasized:
“I did not steal English secrets, but with the methods and means that were at my disposal, I tried to fight against the military threat to my country. I I know firsthand what war is. I After all, I went through the Great Patriotic War from beginning to end.”
Unfortunately, Konon Trofimovich Molody passed away early. In October 1970, he died suddenly at the age of 49 while picking mushrooms in the Moscow region (stroke).
“Throughout his entire service in the KGB of the USSR, K.T. The young man is characterized as an exceptionally conscientious, capable, honest and courageous employee who devoted himself entirely to the cause of ensuring the security of our state. He was distinguished by great love of life, high culture, a genuine sense of camaraderie, love for the Motherland and deep faith in the rightness of the cause he served,” noted the obituary.
The British created a feature film about the activities of K. Molodoy as an illegal intelligence officer. I had a chance to watch this film at one time. The film turned out to be believable and very interesting. To the credit of the creators of the film, they showed K. Molodoy as the highest professional intelligence officer, a lover of life, a charming and friendly person.
Once, when English television journalists met with K. Molodoy’s son, Trofim Kononovich, they told him: “Your father is still very popular in England. Because he didn’t betray anyone.”
And now about some additions to the biography of Konon Trofimovich, which were made by his son Trofim Kononovich.
“My father died when I was 12 years old. The family did not know what the father actually did. Even mom found out that dad was an intelligence officer when the British had already sentenced him. He served three years in prison. I remember how I came home from school, and my sister Lisa said: “Mom left for three days, and will return with dad.”
And then the apartment rang, he came in - I immediately recognized him from the photographs, and then for some reason he blurted out: “Dad, I know your mother.”
The scene of Stirlitz’s meeting with his wife in the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring” was copied specifically from my parents. My father met Vyacheslav Tikhonov because Tikhonov himself wanted it. This scene is real: father sometimes came to Moscow, but more often mother was taken to meet him in socialist countries.
They met there, and as a result, by the way, I was born. Father was informed about this in code, which for some reason came through in fragments: “Trofim... 53 cm... congratulations...” Dad didn’t understand anything: what kind of nonsense? What 53 cm? Finally, his assistant Lona Kroger calmed him down and said: “You idiot, your son was born!”
When my father was released from prison, he hoped to still work abroad. He even offered to undergo plastic surgery for these purposes, although it was clear that this was unrealistic...
And most of all, of course, he was wounded by the incident with Aunt Tanya, who for six years replaced his mother when he lived with her in America. She came from Paris to visit us. Aunt Tanya already knew everything about her father from the Western press. She was very rich, loved “Kanya” and came just to see us all. But her father was forbidden to meet with her. And so she came to our house with gifts, but he was not at home...
My father was allowed to write his memoirs, which were published in England and America, as an exception. The British made this offer to him while he was still in prison. And later V. Semichastny (at that time the chairman of the KGB of the USSR) brought this issue to the Politburo. The ideologist Suslov began to boil: “What a hero he is, this young man of yours! He failed, he was arrested, he was given 25 years...” And then the cunning V. Semichastny says: “But intelligence will earn more with this money, you can buy 75 Volgas.” Leonid Brezhnev, a big fan of cars, nodded when he heard: “75 Volga is good!” Let him write."
Well, what did K. Young do for his country? After his arrest, Her Majesty's Admiralty declared: “We have no more secrets from the Russians!”
Trofim Kononovich answered this question like this: “SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service. - N.Sh.) has not yet opened her archives for us. But I know that my father was instrumental in our country obtaining the technology of Polaris missiles launched from submarines. And these are millions of dollars saved by Moscow.”
This is how Trofim Kononovich briefly spoke about his father, Young Konon Trofimovich, an illegal intelligence officer.
Most of us have watched, and some of us even more than once, the film “Off Season”. Donatas Banionis, who played main role in this picture, advised by K. Young. And he even thought that they looked alike. K. Young was the prototype of the intelligence officer Ladeinikov from the “Dead Season”. His friends and colleagues knew about this. Everyone liked the film - except the hero himself.
And finally, one more touch. According to the legend developed by the Center for K. Young, G. Lonsdale’s father was a Scot with some Indian blood, and his mother was Finnish. The father allegedly abandoned the family when his son was only one year old.
And there was an Irishman, K. Young’s business partner, who fell onto his chest with tears on his chest: “Gordon, I met your father Jack in Burma!” And over time, the Irishman became convinced that he remembered Gordon in infancy.
Another acquaintance, a French anthropologist, examined Young from all angles and said: “Without a doubt, you have an admixture of Indian blood. Everything points to this!”
Well, in fact, there were no foreigners in the Young family who moved to Moscow from the Far East. And, therefore, one is not born an Anglo-Saxon - one becomes one when life forces one.
For the positive results achieved in intelligence work, Colonel K.T. The young man was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Red Banner of Labor, and the badge “Honorary State Security Officer.” His military exploits during the war were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degree, the Red Star, as well as many medals.
K.T. The young man is buried at Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow. By the way, the illegal intelligence officer R. Abel - V. Fischer is also buried there.
Name K.T. The young one is listed on Memorial plaque Foreign intelligence services Russian Federation.
And the last thing about K. Molodoy’s assistants at work in London. Unfortunately, they are no longer with us either. Leontyne Cohen died on December 23, 1992. Morris Cohen died on June 23, 1995. The couple were buried at the Novokuntsevo cemetery in Moscow. On the day of Morris's funeral, one of the central newspapers wrote: “He loved Russia passionately and optimistically.” These same words could rightfully be applied to his wife Leontina Cohen.
For their outstanding contribution to ensuring the security of our country, Leontina and Morris Cohen were posthumously awarded the high title of Hero of the Russian Federation. Morris Cohen was awarded the title in 1995, and Leontine Cohen in 1996.
...In February 2000, a group of our cosmonauts visited the Foreign Intelligence History Cabinet. USSR pilot-cosmonaut V. Afanasyev handed over the book “Gordon Lonsdale: my profession is intelligence officer” to the Cabinet. Members of the book's author's team - N. Governors, A. Evseev and L. Kornetov - repeatedly met and talked with K. Molody in the last years of his life, and on the basis of these conversations a book was published.
This copy of the book was in space from January 14, 1991 to August 28, 1999, and from January 16, 1991 to August 27, 1999 - on the Mir space complex.
And the former head of the Central intelligence agency USA Allen Dulles, in his book “The Art of Intelligence,” lamented the fact that the American secret agency does not have intelligence officers like Rudolf Abel (William Genrikhovich Fischer): “Everything that Abel did, he did out of conviction, and not for money. I would like us to have three or four people like Abel in Moscow.”
Fortunately, in the ranks of Soviet intelligence there were a number of Abel-class intelligence officers. They were modest, inconspicuous people who, in the most difficult conditions of the Cold War, in the deep underground, did everything possible to prevent the Cold War from turning into a hot one. Among the “fighters of the invisible front”, illegal immigrant spouses Mikhail and Anna Filonenko also occupy a worthy place.
For a long time, these illegal intelligence officers remained “in the shadows” and the general public knew nothing about them, although Anna was the prototype of the radio operator Kat from the wonderful serial television film “Seventeen Moments of Spring.”
Anna Kamaeva (by her husband - Filonenko) was born on November 28, 1918 in the village of Tatgatsevo near Moscow into a large peasant family. She graduated from a seven-year school, then studied at a factory school, where she learned the secrets of weaving.
In 1935, a 16-year-old girl went to work at the Moscow weaving factory "Red Rose", which produced silk fabrics.
Soon Anna Kamaeva becomes a Stakhanovite, servicing a dozen machines at once.
The road to life opened before her, which was described in the popular film of that time called “The Shining Path”: the team of the Red Rose weaving factory nominated A. Kamaeva as a candidate for deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and she was destined for a leadership position. However, fate decreed otherwise. The Election Commission rejected her candidacy because Anna was not yet 18 years old. And she continued to work as a weaver in the same factory.
A sharp turn in Anna’s life occurred at the end of 1938, when, on a Komsomol ticket, the 20-year-old girl was sent to work in the Foreign Department (INO) - foreign intelligence.
During the mass repressions of the 1930s, foreign intelligence also suffered greatly among state security officials. By 1938, approximately half of the Soviet intelligence personnel had been repressed: dozens of employees of the central and peripheral apparatus of the INO were arrested and shot. As a result, the external intelligence of the state security agencies was extremely weakened, in some of its residencies there were only one or two operatives left, and other residencies were closed altogether. The repressions wiped out much organizational work to create an illegal apparatus abroad.
In 1938, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considered the issue of improving the work of foreign intelligence. A decision was made to strengthen and expand its staff. Considering the acute shortage of personnel in intelligence, it was decided to create the School of Special Purposes (SHON) of the NKVD for the centralized training of intelligence personnel.
So in October 1938, Anna Kamaeva became a SHON student. As she later recalled, intense and exciting studies began. She mastered the radio business, trained in pistol and machine gun shooting, and intensively studied foreign languages - Finnish, Spanish, Polish. After graduating from SHON in 1939, Anna was enlisted in foreign intelligence. She managed the operational affairs of illegal intelligence officers working in European countries.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Anna Kamaeva was included in the Special Tasks Group under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. This group, which was actually a “parallel” intelligence service and reported directly to the People’s Commissar, was alternately led by Yakov Serebryansky, Sergei Shpigelglas and Naum Eitingon. To carry out tasks, the group created 12 illegal residencies abroad. In 1940, Eitingon's group, in particular, carried out Operation Duck to physically eliminate Leon Trotsky.
It should be noted that all the leaders of the Special Assignments Group had a tragic fate. So, in 1938, Yakov Serebryansky was arrested and sentenced to death. Only with the beginning of the war, at the request of the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, Pavel Sudoplatov, was he released from prison and reinstated in his previous position. In August 1953, after the execution of L. Beria, Ya. Serebryansky was again arrested and died during interrogation at the prosecutor's office in 1956.
In November of the same year, the first head of the Special Tasks Group, S.M., was arrested. Spiegelglass. The court sentenced him to the “tower” and executed him in January 1941. Rehabilitated in 1956.
Eitingon, who led Operation Duck, was the deputy of General P. Sudoplatov during the war, will be arrested in 1951 as a participant in the “Zionist conspiracy.” Then he was released, and in 1953 he was arrested again, this time in the “Beria case”.
He was released from prison only in 1964. He will work as a senior editor at the Foreign Literature publishing house.
Meanwhile, in the fall of 1941, the situation at the front began to become critical. In November, Guderian's tanks came close to Moscow, and the evacuation of government offices to Kuibyshev began. A state of siege was introduced in Moscow. To raise the spirits of the German troops, invitations were issued to participate in the parade on Red Square.
The security officers began preparing and implementing a sabotage plan in the event that Hitler’s troops captured Moscow. They proceeded from the fact that in this case Hitler and other leaders of the Third Reich would certainly take part in the planned “celebrations.” Such events could take place in two places - the Kremlin or the Bolshoi Theater.
The practical combat training of the security officers was led by Yakov Serebryansky. Sabotage groups were created in conditions of absolute secrecy, and some intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers went underground. State security officers mined adits and deep underground tunnels in the central part of Moscow, using several cars with explosives for this. Mines were laid both in the Kremlin and under the Bolshoi Theater. Anna Kamaeva, on the personal instructions of L. Beria, was assigned a key role - to carry out an attempt on Hitler himself. Various execution options were tested, but they all clearly showed that the scout had no chance of surviving.
But, fortunately, this plan remained on paper. Moscow survived. The Western Front, under the command of Army General Zhukov, managed to stop and then push back the Nazi invaders several hundred kilometers from the capital. At that time, Anna was behind enemy lines in her native Moscow region through the 4th Directorate of the NKVD. As noted in the report of the commander of the Separate Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Brigade, Colonel Gridnev, “Kamaeva was to take part in special large-scale sabotage actions against Nazi troops on the near approaches to Moscow.”
In November 1941, at the height of the Battle of Moscow, Anna was invited to the headquarters of the commander Western Front G.K. Zhukova. In the reception room she met her future husband, Mikhail Filonenko. Here he was to receive from the hands of the commander an order for leading a detachment of scouts who carried out a raid behind enemy lines. Koshcha Mikhail, flushed with pride and embarrassment, left G.K.’s office. Zhukov, he caught the curious glance of Anna, who was sitting on a large leather sofa. Having looked at the buttonholes on her tunic, he thought: “How pretty, and we work in the same department - the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs.”
Even while studying at school, and then at the institute, teachers predicted to Mikhail that he would find his true calling in the field of exact sciences. And famous chess players had no doubt that he would become a world-famous grandmaster.
However, fate decreed otherwise: after college, he went into foreign intelligence for the state security agencies. During the war, Mikhail, like Anna, served in the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, which was involved in organizing and conducting reconnaissance and sabotage operations behind enemy lines. In the reception room of General Zhukov, his first date with Anna Kamaeva took place. But their paths immediately diverged for many months. Anna became a radio operator in one of the partisan detachments operating in the Moscow region, and Mikhail was appointed commissar to a partisan detachment that fought deep behind enemy lines.
Mikhail fought in Ukraine. In Nazi-occupied Kyiv he led a reconnaissance and sabotage group. Thanks to the information Mikhail obtained about the situation on the right bank of the Dnieper, the command of the Red Army was able to find optimal areas for our units to cross the river in November 1943. Mikhail knew well about the partisan detachments of Kovpak, Fedorov and Medvedev. During a sabotage operation in Poland, Mikhail was seriously wounded. Doctors managed to save the life of the brave scout, but he became disabled in the second group. The scout left the military hospital with a cane, which he never parted with throughout his life.
He met Anna again only after the war. In the meantime, she fought in a partisan detachment. When the immediate threat of the capture of Moscow had passed, Anna was recalled to the capital and began working again in the central apparatus of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD. From July to December 1942, the girl studied at the Sverdlovsk NKVD school, and then was sent to foreign language courses at High school NKVD of the USSR in Moscow. Here she improved her knowledge of Spanish and studied Portuguese and Czech. The intelligence leadership planned to use her for illegal work abroad.
In October 1944, Anna was sent to an illegal residency in Mexico, where, together with other intelligence officers, she prepared to carry out a daring operation to free Ramon Mercader from prison, who liquidated Leon Trotsky and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Together with her fellow residents, she developed a plan to attack the prison. However, at the last moment the operation was canceled. In 1946, Anna returned to Moscow. And Ramon Mercader was released from prison in 1960 and became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, Anna and Mikhail got married. The leadership decided to send them to study at the Higher Intelligence School (or, as it was also called, School No. 101), which trained personnel for foreign intelligence. For three years Intensive preparation of future illegal immigrants for work in Latin America continued. From October 1948 to August 1964, they made regular trips to various countries in the region under the guise of foreign citizens. At the same time, their son was studying Spanish. By decision of the leadership of illegal intelligence, he had to go abroad with his parents in accordance with the biographical legend developed for them. Pavlik was a capable boy, and Spanish was good for him.
The “run-in” of illegal intelligence officers before they were sent on a long-term business trip took place in difficult conditions. Before being transferred to Latin America, they first had to, posing as “refugees” from Czechoslovakia, legalize themselves in Shanghai, where many Europeans settled after the war. In November 1951, the Filonenko couple, together with their four-year-old son, had to cross the Soviet border waist-deep in snow. At that time, Anna was pregnant again. However, they reached Harbin, where the first and most dangerous stage of their legalization took place, they reached quite safely. Here their daughter was born. According to legend, the “refugees from Czechoslovakia” were zealous Catholics, therefore, in accordance with the traditions of Europe, the newborn was baptized in the local Catholic cathedral.
The journey to Latin America took several years. From Harbin, the couple moved to the largest port and industrial center of China - Shanghai. A vast European colony numbering up to a million people settled here for a long time. Europeans lived in separate quarters called settlementmen. These quarters enjoyed extraterritoriality and were governed by foreign consuls - British, French, Portuguese and American. With the victory of the people's revolution in China, all privileges of foreigners in that country were abolished. The outflow of Europeans from mainland China began.
On the eve of leaving for an interim business trip, which was supposed to be a test of the strength of their legend and the reliability of their documents, the Filonenko spouses were received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov, who at that time simultaneously headed the Information Committee, which united military and political intelligence under its roof.
V.M. Molotov slowly walked along the office, looking around at the huge political map peace. “We, the Soviet leadership, attach exceptional importance to your upcoming mission,” said the minister, admonishing the intelligence officers. He added that penetration into the highest government and military echelons of power in a number of leading Latin American countries should become a springboard for organizing large-scale intelligence work in the United States.
Such parting words from the minister were, of course, not accidental. After the end of World War II, the paths of the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition radically diverged. The United States, which used an atomic bomb against already defeated Japan in 1945, began to consider itself the masters of the world and openly prepared a nuclear war against the USSR. The course towards military confrontation with the USSR was openly proclaimed in the famous speech of retired British Prime Minister W. Churchill, which he delivered in the American town of Fulton on March 5, 1946. The West fenced itself off from the USSR and other people's democracies with an "iron curtain" and introduced restrictions on the free movement of diplomats from the East, the exchange of scientists, athletes, and trade union delegations.
At the same time, as a result of the betrayal of the agent-group leader of the Soviet intelligence station in the United States, Elizabeth Bentley, work in this country in the post-war period was complicated. In 1948, the Soviet consulates general and other representative offices of the USSR in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York were closed.
In September 1950, the United States passed the Homeland Security Act (the McCarran-Wood Act), which established prison sentences for espionage in peacetime was increased to ten years. Under this law, ten million Americans - government officials and employees of private firms - were subject to loyalty tests. The US Congress created the notorious commission of Senator McCarthy to investigate un-American activities, the victims of which were more than one hundred thousand people.
Anti-Soviet hysteria intensified even more after the atomic bomb was tested in the Soviet Union on August 29, 1949. The US authorities were so frightened by the end of their monopoly on this deadly weapon that they announced this event only two weeks later, having previously inspired a special request from journalists. As a result of the investigation, the US FBI came to the conclusion that American atomic secrets were revealed to the Soviet Union by the English pacifist scientist Klaus Fuchs. By that time Fuchs was already in England. The Americans passed on the data on Fuchs to the British. In England, Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years in prison, although at the time of Fuchs's arrest, neither the British nor the Americans had any specific information to charge him. Until the moment when Fuchs himself admitted, no one could really prove anything.
On February 2, 1950, K. Fuchs was arrested and formally charged. The American authorities asked the British government to extradite Fuchs, but the British authorities refused.
On June 24, 1959, after nine and a half years in prison, Fuchs was released for exemplary behavior. He immediately headed to East Berlin, although he had many offers from universities in England, Canada and Germany. He lived in the GDR until his last days.
As a result of E. Bentley's betrayal, the Soviet intelligence network in the United States was destroyed and had to be created anew. To solve this problem, illegal intelligence officer V.G. arrived in the United States in 1949. Fischer, who later became known as R. Abel. Filonenko’s illegal immigrants were assigned to work in parallel with him in Latin America. Having previously made several trips to a number of Latin American countries in order to consolidate the biographical legend and check documents, in January 1955 they left for Brazil, where Mikhail Ivanovich, posing as a businessman, was to engage in commercial activities. Anna Fedorovna fell on the shoulders of the worries of carrying out promptly -technical tasks - ensuring the safety of secret documents, “insurance” for the husband when he goes to meetings in the city. At first, everything seemed to be going well, but Mikhail’s first attempt to become a businessman failed. The commercial company he created went bankrupt: his inexperience in matters of this kind took its toll.
However, this was not something unusual for Brazil at that time: years of prosperous economic conditions gave way to years of protracted depression. Every day, several dozen large and small firms went bankrupt in the country. “There was a time when I gave up, it seemed that it was better to give up everything,” recalled Anna Fedorovna. But even the first sad experience of entrepreneurship brought benefits to the scouts. Mikhail managed to successfully play on the stock exchange several times. The money earned was more than enough to open a new company and start commercial activities with clean slate. Gradually, Mikhail’s business began to bring tangible dividends, and commercial affairs took off sharply.
A year later, Mikhail had already gained a reputation as a serious and successful businessman, often traveled around the continent, made connections among major officials, representatives of the military and aristocratic elite of Latin America, and in business circles.
When their legalization in the New World ended, the Filonenko spouses began carrying out intelligence tasks for the Center.
The main task of the intelligence officers was to identify the real US plans regarding our country, especially military-political ones. In Latin America, it was easier to obtain such information than in the United States itself: Washington shared its plans with partners from the Western Hemisphere, meaning their use in a future war against the USSR.
On September 4, 1945, the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up a memorandum for President Harry Truman, which identified twenty targets for atomic strikes in the proposed war against the USSR. This plan was not implemented, because at that time the United States was not yet ready for a large-scale war against our country.
In 1946, a new, refined plan, “Brider,” was developed. And in 1948, a whole series of plans for war against the USSR were born: “Grabber”, “Eraser”, “Doublestar”, “Loughmin”, “Intermezzo”, “Fleetwood”, “Sizzle”.
The next year, 1949, was marked by the adoption of new plans for the total destruction of our country: “Drotshop” and “Offtekl”. This is how Washington reacted to the appearance of atomic weapons in the USSR. The US plans for a nuclear attack on the USSR and people's democracies were deliberately given meaningless names in order to “mislead the enemy.” And every plan, every development of a global catastrophe scenario only increased the number of targets for nuclear bombing. Now we can say with complete confidence that the world was saved from a nuclear disaster only because the USSR, not yet recovering from the terrible destruction of the war, was able to mobilize all its forces and create its own atomic weapons, and in the 70s - achieve nuclear parity with the United States. States.
Covering the policies of the United States and its allies in the international arena occupied an important place in the activities of illegal intelligence officers. On the eve of each session of the United Nations General Assembly, documents containing detailed information about the position of the main countries of the world community were placed on the table of the Soviet delegation. These documents were obtained by Filonenko’s illegal immigrants.
Anna Fedorovna was a reliable friend and assistant to her husband. During the frequent complications of the situation in a country in which military coups were not uncommon, she showed restraint and self-control. This was also facilitated by the strong position of illegal immigrants on the continent. Mikhail Ivanovich managed to penetrate the circle of the President of Brazil, making acquaintances with many government ministers of the country, whom he often invited to dinners at his villa.
Mikhail even became friends with the Paraguayan dictator Stroessner. Being a former officer of the German Wehrmacht and an expert in small arms, the owner of Paraguay once saw how accurately an elegant businessman shot, and was indescribably delighted. Subsequently, he repeatedly invited Mikhail to hunt crocodiles. In conversations with the intelligence officer he was extremely frank. Only a select few were awarded such an “honor.”
As a result of well-established intelligence work, relevant political information was regularly received from illegal immigrants. Soon another child was born into the family, son Vanya.
But not everything always goes smoothly. Already in Moscow they recalled such an incident. The Center sent a young employee to help the couple raising three children. The meeting with him took place in a small restaurant. Before he had time to inform Mikhail Ivanovich of the Center’s instructions, this employee began to actively try strong drinks, then ordered the orchestra a popular dance tune, began to hum it, dance on the dance coin and thereby attract the attention of others.
This behavior is unacceptable for an illegal worker. According to legend, Mikhail Ivanovich was supposed to meet a young, promising businessman in a restaurant and establish a partnership with him in the future. Seeing that the behavior of the Center's envoy went beyond all the limits established for intelligence and threatened to be deciphered, Mikhail Ivanovich hastened to deliver the guy to the hotel where he was staying, and sent a telegram to the Center with a request to urgently recall the reveler to Moscow.
In 1957, illegal intelligence officer William Fisher was arrested in New York, who identified himself as Rudolf Abel during his arrest, while the Filonenko spouses worked in parallel with him. In order to avoid their decryption and preserve the intelligence network they created, which had access to the United States, the Center decided to change the conditions of communication with illegal intelligence officers. Communication with the Center was now maintained only by radio. The scouts were given a short-wave, high-speed radio station that “fired” information in seconds. Anna Fedorovna had to remember her military specialty as a radio operator.
In those years, satellite communications did not yet exist. Therefore, as part of the Soviet whaling flotilla fishing in Antarctic waters, there was a special ship disguised as a whaling vessel. Its powerful communications center was used as an amplifier and repeater of radio signals coming from illegal immigrants. These were the years of the Cold War, and the information transmitted by intelligence officers was of an alarming nature: war drums were blaring with all their might in Washington.
There were also dramatic moments in the lives of illegal intelligence officers. One day, Mikhail Ivanovich went on a business trip across the continent. Soon the radio reported that the plane on which he was supposed to fly had crashed. One can imagine the state of Anna Feodorovna, who heard a message on the radio: an illegal widow with three young children in her arms! Fortunately, Mikhail Ivanovich was late for the flight: before the plane took off, he had a meeting with his source of information and was delayed.
Constant stressful situations, of which the scouts had many, affected Mikhail Ivanovich’s health. At the beginning of 1960, he suffered a massive heart attack and could no longer work with the same workload. In July of the same year, the Center decided to recall illegal spouses to their homeland. They drove home with a whole suitcase of money. These were party contributions, which they carefully saved abroad in order to hand over to the party treasury upon returning to Moscow. The agent network created through their efforts was transferred to another illegal intelligence officer and continued to operate for many more years.
The journey home took a long time. Spouses and children moved from one country to another in order to hide their true route from enemy counterintelligence. Finally they reached Europe, and from there they crossed the Soviet border by train. They could not hide their tears of joy and sang: “My only country is wide...” And the children listened in amazement to the Russian language they were unfamiliar with, probably thinking that their parents had gone crazy.
Then the eldest son Pavel shouted: “I understand everything: you are Russian spies!” Apparently, he remembered how in not so distant 1951 they crossed the Chinese border, wandering waist-deep in snow. Subsequently, the children took a long time to get used to their new home, the Russian language, and even their real surname.
After rest and treatment, the scouts returned to duty. Their merits were noted with high awards from the Motherland. Colonel M. Filonenko became deputy head of the department of the Illegal Intelligence Directorate. Anna Fedorovna, a state security major, also worked in the same department. During her years of work in intelligence, she was awarded the Order of the Red Star, two medals “For Military Merit”, and many other awards, badges“Honored Worker of the NKVD” and “Honored State Security Officer.” In 1963, the Filonenko couple retired.
In the early 70s, director Tatyana Lioznova began filming the wonderful television series “Seventeen Moments of Spring.” Experienced consultants were required for the shooting. The leadership of the then KGB allocated the Filonenko spouses to help her. Sometimes T. Lioznova, fascinated by the stories of illegal immigrants, stayed at their house long after midnight. She was interested in the experiences of intelligence officers, the psychology of the Western man in the street, and the smallest details of everyday life. Therefore, many episodes of this wonderful film were suggested by illegal immigrants Filonenko.
For example, a story about the birth of a child. True, Anna, unlike radio operator Kat, did not scream in Russian during the birth of her daughter in China. The director introduced this episode to enhance the drama of the plot.
V. Tikhonov, who played the role of Stirlitz in the film, also became friends with the illegal immigrants. This friendship continued until the death of the scouts. Although the prototypes of Stirlitz in the story were the pre-war foreign intelligence agent German Willy Lehmann, aka “Breitenbach”, and a number of other foreign intelligence officers of the KGB of the USSR, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, who created a convincing image of an illegal Soviet intelligence officer, borrowed a lot from the illegal Mikhail Ivanovich.
As a rule, we learn about such wonderful people as Filonenko’s scouts only after their death, and even then not always. Mikhail Ivanovich died in 1982. Anna Fedorovna, who became the prototype of radio operator Kat, outlived her husband by 16 years and died in 1998. After the death of the intelligence officers, the Foreign Intelligence Service declassified their names. Publications appeared in the Russian press revealing some episodes of their combat biography. However, the time has not yet come to talk about many specific cases of these foreign intelligence officers.
People of this rare profession follow Nietzsche's commandment: live dangerously. They don't risk their freedom for money, career or fame. They like an adventurous life full of extraordinary adventures, exciting meetings and thrills! They enjoy their ability to overcome any obstacles, get out of hopeless situations, and fool entire intelligence agencies by the nose. There are only a few people in this profession. These are illegal intelligence officers.
An illegal intelligence officer does not have a diplomatic passport, which saves him from arrest. The consul will not come rushing to his rescue. A helicopter with special forces will not arrive to pull you out of captivity. The state will not intervene. They will most likely renounce him altogether. He's outlawed. He acts alone and has no one to count on. His own or someone else’s failure, betrayal, which happens more often, and he will face prison...
What qualities does an illegal intelligence officer need?
“There was a lot of pride, pride. I had a high opinion of myself. I am very grateful to intelligence. It will always attract those who want to achieve something in life.
Vitaly Shlykov served in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, in military intelligence. Colonel, order bearer. His life, judging from the outside, is a continuous adventure. Travel, meetings at resorts, beautiful women. Sometimes the most beautiful.
Vitaly Shlykov. Photo: RIA Novosti
Confessions of an illegal immigrant
Shlykov completed a course of disciplines provided for in the training program for illegal immigrants, acquired an American accent for his English and mastered the basics of his future profession: “I had to go on relatively short (several months) business trips to maintain contact with agents recruited by the GRU from among local residents. I had to receive information from them, help them master intelligence skills (for example, secret writing), transfer money and instructions from the Center. I had to leave the documents received from the agents in hiding places for GRU officers working under the cover of Soviet official missions.”
This is what the travel itinerary looked like to meet the agent in Madrid. From Moscow to the capital of Senegal, Dakar. It's 25 degrees below zero in Moscow. In Dakar it is also 25, but above zero. There is a festive atmosphere around - Christmas Eve. At traffic lights, half-naked beauties look into the car with the inviting “Cupid, sheri.”
From Dakar to the Canary Islands. Next - with a new passport. Traces of his stay in Moscow and Dakar have been destroyed. After meeting the agent in Madrid, take the night train to the port of Algeciras in southern Spain. From there, take a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier. In Tangier, transfer to a train to Rabat, from where by plane to Moscow.
Colonel Shlykov: “Once I stayed in Mauritius longer than I expected, and I realized that if the GRU had offered me a choice of a country where to spend a dozen or even more years as an illegal resident, I would have chosen Mauritius without hesitation. True, as a condition, I would demand permission to have a permanent girlfriend nearby. For sexual abstinence on the island, even for a short time, is practically impossible.”
This is life in the style of James Bond, who is usually perceived ironically.
Shlykov: “I liked Bond for his devotion and contempt for danger. And I liked his firmness. A worthy role model in youth... Adventures, women - how can you be a scout without this? I think with horror about my colleagues who sit within four walls at the embassy, whispering, afraid to drink too much.
“But another integral part of life in the James Bond style is constant danger, real, not imagined. Have you ever felt fear?
- Fear? Of course, when I discovered that I was being watched. And then the fear disappeared. The stage of self-discovery has begun. Intelligence is also a means of knowing oneself.
How to avoid surveillance?
During a business trip to the United States, Shlykov had with him materials received from agents, which he was supposed to leave in a cache. In case of arrest, this is the most reliable evidence against him. But it would be worse if counterintelligence officers managed to quietly follow him and discover the hiding place. Then they could then take the person for whom the materials were intended.
He discovered that in conditions of acute danger, a person reveals qualities that under normal conditions he would not even suspect... What else does an illegal immigrant need?
— First of all, intuition. An illegal immigrant must be nervous, otherwise you won’t feel the surveillance. I was on the bus, dozing. A man got in at the bus stop. He looked at me strangely. Something shuddered in me... The anxiety inside was strong, unusual, incomprehensible... He gets off the bus and is met by another man. He turns around and points at me. I see all this surveillance...
He realized that he had walked into a pre-prepared ambush. I decided to accept the arrest and everything that follows with dignity.
Shlykov: “And as soon as I came to terms with this end of my intelligence career, I suddenly calmed down and, paradoxically, even congratulated myself that I discovered the surveillance relatively in time. And this consoled my vanity a little and even opened up some opportunities for reducing the damage from failure. Shlykov: — The head began to work very calmly. There is no chance to leave, but you can try. A man came up at the station, saw me, turned around in fear and left. And I began to think: did he report or not? Didn't report! It is shameful for a counterintelligence officer to report that he himself was spotted by the target of surveillance... I left.
He decided to return to New York, where he knew every corner, and try to have a blast in the huge city. Stayed at the Ambassador Hotel.
— I took out a spare passport. He took all the documents taken from the agents. I tried to destroy the microfilms, but it didn’t work. I put on my coat - December. And to the subway.
And again I spotted the outside! The Federal Bureau of Investigation wanted to understand where he was going, identify his connections and capture him at the time of his meeting with an agent.
— At one of the subway stations... I was healthy. He opened the door and jumped out. I got on the train in the other direction. Then he dived into a taxi. I threw away my hat and bought new clothes. I didn’t sleep for four days. But in the end he hid the materials and left. Since then I believed in myself...
But in Switzerland, where he was scheduled to meet with an agent, he was detained by the police. Betrayal. He didn't say anything about himself. Served time in a Swiss prison.
The world of extraordinary people
A reveler and a drinker, a lover of the fairer sex and social life, an adventurer and adventurer - this is Richard Sorge. American intelligence officers who studied Sorge's case after 1945 came to the conclusion that he had three dozen mistresses in Japan. He was a real man, women felt it.
However, not only women, but also men fell in love with Sorge. He didn't deceive anyone. He was unusually charming. And all this helped him become one of the most outstanding intelligence officers of the twentieth century.
What else helped him? Analytical mind, energy, determination, ability to make connections, love of adventure, resourcefulness and resourcefulness.
Richard Sorge. Photo: RIA Novosti Why was Soviet military intelligence the strongest in the world in the twenties and thirties? The first generation of intelligence officers consisted of people who were born abroad or were forced to live there for many years: they felt at home abroad. It was a world of strange, extraordinary, extraordinary people. Romantics who easily killed their recent colleagues, finding peace in the thought that they were serving a great cause. Unmercenaries who were engaged in counterfeiting treasury notes.
The twenties and thirties were a time when people went into reconnaissance for the thrill, running away from the gray and empty everyday life. There were very few of them, but they achieved incredible success. Military intelligence was led by Jan Berzin (real name Peteris Kyuzis). He created a strong team in the center and powerful residencies abroad. But a series of failures (inevitable in this profession) led a suspicious Stalin to the idea that Berzin should be replaced. And then mass repressions began.
“Commanders are afraid to go on reconnaissance”
An employee of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Konstantinov, served in Japan in the military attache before the war. In 1938 he was imprisoned. Shortly before the arrest, Voroshilov was summoned to the People's Commissar of Defense.
“I reported for about twenty minutes on the work carried out in Japan,” Konstantinov recalled. - Voroshilov sat silently, without looking in my direction and without interrupting. When I completed the report, after a pause, he asked me one question: “Well, tell me honestly, have you ever slept with a Japanese woman?” I cheerfully answered: “No, Comrade People’s Commissar!” “What a fool,” Kliment Efremovich summed up affectionately. “You can go.”
Under such leaders, intelligence will deteriorate.
At a meeting of the army's commanding staff in April 1940, the commander of the Leningrad Military District, Army Commander 2nd Rank Kirill Meretskov, said that officers refused to travel abroad on reconnaissance missions:
“Commanders are afraid to go on such reconnaissance, because they say that later they will write down that they were abroad. The commanders are cowards.
The head of the 5th (intelligence) directorate of the General Staff, Hero of the Soviet Union, Ivan Proskurov, agreed with him:
“The commanders say that if it is written down in your personal file that you were abroad, then this will remain for life. Sometimes you call wonderful people, good people, and they say - do whatever you want, just so that in your personal file it is not written down that you were abroad.
Stalin pretended to be surprised:
— We have several thousand people who were abroad. There's nothing to it. This is a credit.
Proskurov spread his hands:
- But in practice it is not perceived that way.
Stalin, of course, understood what the officers were afraid of. Almost everyone who went to study in Germany was arrested as German spies.
Quality criteria
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Lieutenant General Philip Golikov, three months before the start of the war, on March 20, 1941, presented a document indicating that Germany was preparing to attack the Soviet Union. But he himself added:
“Most of the intelligence data concerning the possibility of war with the USSR in the spring of 1941 comes from Anglo-American sources, whose task today is undoubtedly the desire to worsen relations between the USSR and Germany... Rumors and documents speak of the inevitability of war against The USSR must be regarded as disinformation emanating from British and even, perhaps, German intelligence.”
Professor-historian Viktor Anfilov asked Marshal Golikov 20 years after the war:
- Why did you draw a conclusion that denied the likelihood of Hitler’s plans as outlined by you being carried out? Did you believe these facts yourself or not?
— Did you know Stalin? - Golikov asked a counter question.
— I saw him on the podium of the mausoleum.
“And I obeyed him,” said the former head of military intelligence, “I reported to him and was afraid of him.” He formed the opinion that until Germany ends the war with England, it will not attack us. We, knowing his character, adjusted our conclusions to his point of view.
Three criteria determine the quality of intelligence information - secrecy, reliability and relevance.
The flow of intelligence information entering the center was enormous. Its disadvantage was the reluctance of the residencies to report anything that could displease the Center. Therefore, the picture of what was happening in the world was distorted.
The agents wrote what the officers supervising them wanted to see. The officers obtaining information, in turn, took into account the wishes of the resident. And he was guided by the mood of his superiors.
It was not intelligence information that was the source material for the analysis of political processes, but the leader’s own ideas about the world order. Intelligence was required to confirm the correctness of his conclusions.
The boss liked illegal work so much because he wanted his subordinates to not only collect and analyze information, but also to deliver tangible blows to the enemy. It was believed that the Cold War could be won through covert operations. And the ability to conduct subversive operations on foreign territory gives rise to the illusion of preserving a great power and compensates for the decline in the country’s economic power.
Photo: Photoxpress "Spines"
In late Soviet times, intelligence service became enviable because it opened the door to going abroad. Relatives or those who fit the questionnaire were sent to “study to become a scout.” Intelligence has changed: instead of the few who were born for it, there are many officers transferred from different branches of the military; they were just serving the number.
The “backbones”, sons and sons-in-law of high-ranking persons, went to the residencies, with whom it is very difficult, because no one wants to quarrel with their parents. The resident has the right, of course, to remove a weak employee who is inclined, for example, to drink. But when he does this, he spoils relations with everyone who signed the decision to send this employee on a business trip abroad, and on paper there are a dozen signatures assuring that the employee is a wonderful worker who will strengthen the work of the residency.
One former resident recalled how the son of a major boss was among his subordinates. One night he disappeared and his wife made a fuss. The next morning the officer was found and confusedly explained to the resident that he was in a bad mood, drove around the city all night, and fell asleep in the car in the morning. Close your eyes so as not to quarrel with an influential person? But the resident thought that he could not trust an officer capable of pulling such a trick, he reported to Moscow, and he was recalled. But not everyone is so decisive.
The military system of relations also left its mark on intelligence. It eliminates discussions and doubts regarding the boss's orders. A smart boss encourages debate. Not very smart prohibits. What interferes with the fulfillment of the main task - to supply the country's political leadership with objective and meaningful information about what is happening in the world. The favorite command among the military is “don’t reason!” It is not encouraged in intelligence, but few question the orders of their superiors.
The documents of a Wehrmacht officer for the legendary intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov were prepared by the future colonel Pavel Gromushkin, a friend of the brilliant intelligence officer Kim Philby and an artist by vocation. I knew Gromushkin. He headed the department that provided illegal immigrants with documents. When an intelligence officer is sent illegally to another country, they come up with a reliable biography for him. It must be supported by well-made documents. Professionals of the level of Colonel Gromushkin will not send an illegal immigrant on a mission with a legend and documents that will not withstand the simplest check, and, of course, they will check before departure what is in his pockets.
Sentence to the enemy
In the fifties, after a scout escaped to the West, the defector was sentenced in absentia to capital punishment, and the order was given to destroy the traitor. But committing murder in another country is not at all easy. In the late Soviet years, such orders were no longer given, so as not to risk their intelligence capabilities, and even the reputation of the state.
Photo: RIA Novosti On February 13, 2004, in the capital of Qatar, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev's jeep was blown up using a radio-controlled device. Yandarbiev, a poet and ideologist of the Chechen national movement, became vice-president of General Dzhokhar Dudayev, and after the death of the general he led Ichkeria. Yandarbiev was the main ideologist of separation from Russia. He has lived in Qatar since 2000.
The police accused the first secretary of the Russian embassy, as well as two Russian citizens who were temporarily in the country, of murder. The first secretary, who had diplomatic immunity, urgently returned to his homeland. Police arrested the other two. They said that they were both bombers from military intelligence.
Those who disagreed with this version objected: professionals would not have fallen into the hands of the police. To which the intelligence veterans responded bitterly: the current bosses apparently do not know the outside world well and sent military officers abroad without experience in illegal work, and the police in Qatar have good English training.
At the trial, the prosecutor demanded the death sentence. Lawyers argued that the accused gave confessions under torture. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. They were rescued by the Secretary of the Security Council Igor Ivanov. They served less than a year. On December 23, 2004, those convicted in the Yandarbiev murder case were taken to Moscow by Rossiya Airlines. No one has seen them since then.
Historians consider the story of the murder of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev to be a turning point: it turns out that intelligence, after a long break, is again carrying out death sentences imposed on enemies of the state.