“The Abbess of St. Michael’s Monastery restored it from ruins, now they want to take it away”
A month has passed since Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew notified Patriarch Kirill of granting Ukraine a tomos of autocephaly. Adherents of the "new Ukrainian course" triumph. After all, very soon the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be recognized as equal to 14 local Orthodox churches in the world. And most importantly, it will become independent from the ROC. Further developments may develop tragically.
Let us clarify that the UOC refers to the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and several smaller structures that have joined them.
Based on what he heard from the "ordinary believers", the correspondent of "MK" made a number of conclusions for himself. For example, about the fact that those who are not ready to listen to services in the language of Taras Shevchenko, in the case of the transfer of “Moscow churches” into “Bandera hands”, will go ... to the Catacomb Church. Like, we are no strangers; this already happened in Stalin's and Khrushchev's godless times.
In this regard, the pro-Russian politician Vasily Volga cites the appeal of one priest, whom he respects very much, to his parishioners. This priest urges the Orthodox “to react in no way, except for prayer and fasting, to what awaits us all.” An unnamed priest, addressing the "SBU, nationalists, militants and local authorities", promises to voluntarily give the keys to God's Temple and not interfere with his capture.
“Well, they will take the temples,” Mr. Volga continues. They will take over the monasteries. But they can't take away our faith. Who will forbid us to gather even at home, even under open sky, and who will forbid our priests to serve us the Liturgy? For the Lord said: “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.” Rejoice!
Meanwhile, the all-Ukrainian association "Svoboda", tirelessly declaring, they say, "Ukrainian nationalism is first of all love", on September 27 called on compatriots to sign a petition demanding to cancel the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine signed by Mykola Azarov in 2013 on transferring it to the Moscow Patriarchate for free use 79 buildings in the center of Kyiv. All buildings are located on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. As soon as the document collects a sufficient number of signatures and is approved at the session of the Kyiv City Council (in which nationalists usually “push through” almost all their projects), the monks will be overcharged with unbearable sums so that they voluntarily cede the land and buildings that belonged to them for centuries and the buildings of the “correct church”.
Even more radical nationalist groups propose, without waiting for the decision of the Kyiv City Council on the abolition of benefits for the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, on October 14, on the day of the UPA (banned in the Russian Federation), after the completion of traditional events on Sofiyivska Square, move to storm the ancient monastery. And in front of the eyes of the entire civilized world, capture the Lavra.
Similar threats are heard against the inhabitants of the Pochaev Lavra, in connection with which hundreds of Ternopils have already shown their readiness to join the ranks of the defenders of the famous monastery, a stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy in Western Ukraine.
It should be recalled that the Ukrainian security forces have relatively fresh installation data on each of the likely defenders of the Pechersk and Pochaev Lavra. The databases were updated no later than July 27th.
On this day, from all regions of Ukraine, tens of thousands of believers of the UOC-MP annually arrive in Kyiv to participate in the procession on the occasion of the celebration of the Day of Baptism Kievan Rus. In 2018, as the MK correspondent was told by the participants in the mass procession from Vladimirskaya Gorka to Pechersk Lavra, not a single bus was released onto the highways in the direction of Kyiv without police escort. One or two officers, "attached" to each of the vehicles, first transcribed the personal data of each passenger, then - on the way to Kyiv - they had preventive conversations with the Orthodox about ... the dangers of terrorism.
Believers from the regional center Narodichi were not allowed to leave at all! - told "MK" the wife of a priest from the Zhytomyr region. – Bus drivers were visited by some “poroshenko titushki” and promised, in case of disobedience, not only to puncture the wheels, but also to “beat off the heads”. Imagine: every single one of the believers made it to Kyiv with their own money - on a bed-chamber, on an electric train.
Similar "operational measures" were carried out, according to Archpriest of the Ovruch diocese Oleg Dominsky, with other carrier companies. In particular, the Ovruch believers were denied the provision of seats on buses ordered a month and a half before the Procession.
When we turned to the carriers, - says the father, Oleg, - we were hinted that special services were working with them on orders from "above"...
The archpriest from Ovruch is sure that the Ukrainian authorities decided to take such measures in order to “create a picture in which there will be visually more supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchate than supporters of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church».
Actually, that's how it happened. On Procession, organized on July 28 by the UOC-KP, were noticeably more people than to the procession of the Moscow Patriarchate. .
Having acquired the passport details of the most active adherents of the UOC-MP, the security forces can now begin to "prevent" each of them separately. So that people do not try to repair resistance in the event of forcible weaning Orthodox church in favor of a single local church that does not yet exist even on paper.
Abbess Serafima, the abbess of the Odessa St. Michael's Convent, promised in the event of the forced expulsion of monastics from the Pechersk, Pochaev and Svyatogorsk Lavra, to commit an act of collective self-immolation. “Knowing the mood of each of us,” said mother, “I can promise: we ourselves will not leave, we will defend our shrines to the last breath, it will be possible to endure us only in coffins.”
Member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, Dmitry Golubov (known as the most implacable opponent of Mikheil Saakashvili, who worked as governor of the Odessa region), tried to turn what Mother Seraphim said into a joke. And even showed up at the nunnery for a selfie with her.
Most likely, the politician is not aware of how much effort was spent in the 90s on the restoration of St. Michael's Monastery.
Correspondent "MK", who worked at that time in regional newspaper"The Banner of Communism" (renamed after the events of 1991 into "South"), prepared for publication the passionate correspondence of Nadia Shevchik (such are the worldly name and surname of Mother Seraphim) about the need to invest in restoration Orthodox shrines, along with her came along and across the ruins of a monastery destroyed almost to the ground near the Black Sea. Due to the above circumstances, I perfectly understand and fully share the feelings of the abbess, who recreated the present Abode of Christ from the ruins.
Patriarch of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret (in the world Mikhail Denisenko), who insists on the transfer of the Kyiv and Pochaev Lavra to the new Local Church, is seriously counting on the post of its head. However, according to several sources in the Phanar, the Patriarchate of Constantinople does not even consider the granting of the tomos of autocephaly to Ukraine and, in the “package” with it, the appointment of Filaret to the highest position even as a hypothesis.
The same sentiments seem to be present in the Administration of the President of Ukraine.
Becoming at the age of 37 (!) Patriarchal Exarch of Ukraine, and 2 years later the youngest of the metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church, a native of the Amvrosievsky district Donetsk region appears in the top leadership of the republic as a "hero of yesterday." And that is at best.
If in the 1990s and in the first half of the 2000s the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate did not have a solid "bench" and Kyiv was forced to give away distant parishes to "priests-deletions" - priests of the Russian Orthodox Church banned from serving (among whom drunkards and homosexuals predominated) - now the staff "Filaret" has changed dramatically. The patriarch himself - a cavalier of the Soviet Orders of Friendship of Peoples and the Red Banner of Labor - cannot, according to the "tops", lead the Local Church also because of cooperation with the KGB of the USSR. In the early 90s, the materials of the Commission for Investigating the Causes and Circumstances of the State Emergency Committee were published, which included priest Gleb Yakunin, later a deputy State Duma RF of the 1st convocation. At one of the press conferences at the Kiev UNIAN agency, Gleb Pavlovich, in the presence of an MK correspondent, confirmed the data of his work: the current ardent opponent of the FSB, Filaret, is listed in the reports of the Soviet secret agency as an informant under the operational pseudonym Antonov.
In response, Filaret recalled: they say that in the USSR not a single bishop was appointed without the consent of the KGB, and he did not have the right to appoint a priest to the parish without the approval of the KGB. To what extent the influence of the SBU will be seen in the new Local Church, one can only guess ...
I believe that in the circles of the intelligentsia, the publication in " Novaya Gazeta» Leonid Mlechin’s article “The State Security Committee has…” (see No. 98 of September 6 this year) - about the Directorate “to Combat the Enemy’s Ideological Subversion” created 50 years ago in the KGB of the USSR. In practice, it was a secret political police that punished dissent and dissidents. That is, they could have been imprisoned for a joke. As academician Nikolai Nikolaevich Pokrovsky told me (6 years in Dubrovlag for participating in an underground Marxist circle), a photographer who took pictures in hometown not the most, shall we say, presentable areas. His verdict read: "Photographing contrived facts"
In an article by Leonid Mlechin, I was struck by a phrase from the report of the Chekists: “Applicants entering the M. Gorky Literary Institute were checked, and several people were not allowed to take exams - they received compromising materials.”
That is, the guys had a dream - to get into the legendary House of Herzen, to the Literary Institute, the only one in the USSR. Passed the creative competition, arrived. And they were not given exam papers at the interview. No explanation. Sent home. Put in a humiliating position in front of friends for years to come. After all, there, in their towns, something needs to be explained. Dobro would not have scored the required points on the results of the entrance exams ... But what can I say?
Therefore, we will define clear boundaries of the conversation. To not spread. The disposition is as follows:
- there were students of the Literary Institute, writers - obviously suspected of deviations from the ideological line;
- there were people in uniform, watching them, called upon to stop, to prevent damage to the Motherland.
And let's move on to statistics.
As far as I know, from 1960 to 1991, before the collapse of the USSR, not a single graduate of the Literary Institute, a writer, was convicted under Article 64 of the Criminal Code “Treason to the Motherland”. There were defectors. The most famous is Anatoly Kuznetsov, a graduate of the Literary Institute, executive secretary of the Tula branch of the Writers' Union. He stayed in London in 1969. Because of what there was a big scandal. And also - Arkady Belinkov (study at the Literary Institute in the 40s, arrest, 12 years in Karlag, amnesty in 1956, remained abroad in 1968) and Sergey Yurienen (defector in 1977).
Others were either expelled or forced to leave. Solzhenitsyn was arrested and ... sent by plane to Germany. Iosif Brodsky, Georgy Vladimov, Vladimir Maksimov, Viktor Nekrasov, Vasily Aksenov, Sergei Dovlatov, Vladimir Voinovich (at one time he was not admitted to the Literary Institute), Naum Korzhavin (entered the Literary Institute in 1945, in 1947 arrested and sent into exile, rehabilitated in 1956, restored at the Literary Institute and graduated in 1959), Anatoly Gladilin (studied at the Literary Institute in 1954-1958). Let us especially note: they are all civilians (civilians), they did not take a military oath, and, in principle, there was and is nothing criminal in their departure to another country.
Did our Motherland feel better from their departure (expulsion)? Or, on the contrary, has the Motherland lost something? The issue is under discussion. But here are the undeniable facts.
Let's take the stronghold of the state (as is commonly believed) - the KGB, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU, military intelligence), foreign intelligence (until 1991 - the First Main Directorate of the KGB) and other similar services. All of the following persons took an oath, all of them were accused and convicted (in person or in absentia) under the article “Treason to the Motherland”.
Major General of the Chief intelligence agency The General Staff of the Ministry of Defense D. Polyakov was a CIA agent for more than 20 years, he surrendered 19 illegal Soviet intelligence officers and 150 foreign agents.
Military intelligence officer N. Chernov handed over to the CIA thousands of documents on the activities of our residencies in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland.
KGB captain Yu. Nosenko turned in several double agents and also confirmed information about listening devices at the US embassy.
Colonel foreign intelligence Hero Soviet Union A. Kulak gave the FBI information about the KGB agents in New York.
Foreign intelligence captain O. Lyalin completely uncovered the intelligence network in the UK.
Illegal foreign intelligence Yu. Loginov worked as a double agent for the CIA.
Colonel of foreign intelligence O. Gordievsky ... Well, everyone knows him, in the West they call him "the second largest agent of British intelligence in the ranks of the Soviet special services."
And who is the first? Of course, Colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense Oleg Penkovsky. He is considered the most effective agent of the West, and the volume and importance of his information are exceptional in the entire history of enemy intelligence operations against the USSR.
Postcard with encrypted text from the court case of Soviet military intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky
Military-technical intelligence: lieutenant colonel V. Vetrov, S. Illarionov, colonel V. Konoplev.
KGB: Major V. Sheimov, Lieutenant V. Makarov, Deputy Head of the Moscow Department of the KGB Major S. Vorontsov, counterintelligence officer V. Yurchenko, Major M. Butkov, Senior Lieutenant A. Semenov, B. Stashinsky, A. Oganesyan, N. Grigoryan.
Military intelligence: lieutenant colonel P. Popov, colonel S. Bokhan, counterintelligence officer of the Western Group of Forces V. Lavrentiev, lieutenant colonel V. Baranov, major A. Chebotarev, E. Sorokin, major A. Filatov, colonel G. Smetanin, N. Petrov.
Foreign intelligence: Major A. Golitsyn, Major S. Levchenko, Major V. Rezun, employee of the apparatus of the Soviet military attaché in Hungary V. Vasiliev, Washington station officer I. Kochnov, Lieutenant Colonel O. Morozov, Colonel V. Oshchenko, Lieutenant Colonel L. Poleshchuk, Lieutenant Colonel B Yuzhin, officer of the residency in Morocco A. Bogaty, Lieutenant Colonel V. Martynov, Colonel L. Zemenek, Major S. Motorin, Lieutenant Colonel G. Varenik, V. Sakharov, Colonel V. Piguzov, Colonel V. Gundarev, I. Cherpinsky, Lieutenant Colonel V. Fomenko, Lieutenant Colonel E. Runge, Major S. Papushin, Major V. Mitrokhin, Major V. Kuzichkin.
The list is not complete, from publicly available sources, and only for 30 years, from 1960 to 1991. But we can still compare: two graduates of the Literary Institute who remained abroad, several writers who were forced or voluntarily left the USSR, and dozens of graduates of all courses and universities of the KGB, the GRU, the Ministry of Defense, who violated the oath, the sacred military oath to the Motherland, convicted for state treason, for working for foreign intelligence.
And who, one asks, betrayed the Motherland?
Sergei Baimukhametov —
especially for the new
P.S.
In 1989, the 5th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR was renamed the Directorate for the Protection of the Soviet Constitutional System. Now - the 2nd Service of the FSB (Service for the Protection of the Constitutional System and the Fight against Terrorism). For some reason, it is the 2nd Service, according to the press, that conducts operational support for the "economic" case of director Serebrennikov. “Work on creative unions” continues?
In the history of our special services there were not only heroes, but also traitors who worked in the state security agencies. You can consider them fighters against totalitarianism, which the Americans liked to represent the Soviet defectors during the Cold War. It can be assumed that they simply decided to earn extra money on state secrets. Both of these are too easy. Once, former CIA director Helms said: it is unlikely that all these people fled only for ideological reasons or because of money, because the KGB officers were an elite and lived better than anyone else in the USSR. It is likely that they had some psychological problems, that is what prompted them to betray. We will not go into the reasons for these betrayals. Our task is simply to talk about some of them.
Employee of the Intelligence Directorate in Finland A. Smirnov. One of the first Soviet illegal immigrants abroad. At the beginning of 1922, while "at work", he learned that his younger brother was shot for belonging to the organization of "economic wreckers", and his mother and second brother fled to Brazil. Then he went to the Finnish authorities and handed over all the agents known to him in Finland. The Soviet court sentenced Smirnov to death. The Finnish authorities gave him two years in prison. After his release, Smirnov left for Brazil to visit his relatives.
Employee of the Intelligence Directorate in Austria V. Nesterovich (Yaroslavsky). The first to remain abroad "due to political differences with power." Was an illegal immigrant in Vienna, coordinated work in the Balkans. After the explosion in Sofia cathedral by order of the Comintern, he decided to break with the GRU and left for Germany. There he managed to contact representatives of British intelligence, after which the Soviets stopped his "anti-Soviet activities." In August 1925, he was poisoned in a cafe in Mainz.
OGPU agent E. Opperput-Staunitz. He began to work for the Whites in France. In 1927, together with several associates, he crossed the Soviet-Finnish border, intending to blow up houses in Moscow where state security officers lived. Explosions were prevented and Opperput was killed in the shootout.
Cryptographer A. Miller. In May 1927, the British raided commercial organization, which, as they found out, was a "roof" for Soviet intelligence. After the search, some of the documents and the cipher Miller disappeared. The owner of one of the English left-wing newspapers made an inquiry to Parliament about Miller, he was told that it was undesirable for Great Britain to raise this issue. After the search, part of the Soviet deciphered diplomatic correspondence was published, relations with Soviet Russia broken. And the Soviet Union spent a lot of money to change the entire security system of Soviet missions in England.
Secret agent of the OGPU A. Birger (Maksimov). During civil war was the head of the army's economic unit, dismissed for embezzlement. He was very lucky to have cousins Blumkin, who arranged him for the OGPU (the same Yakov Blumkin, who killed the German ambassador to Russia Mirbach and nearly broke the Brest Peace, but was forgiven by the Chekists). Maksimov was assigned to follow former secretary Stalin B. Bazhanov. But instead he decided to flee with him to Persia. Which they did in January 1928. They tried to kill them, but they moved to France. He died in 1935 under strange circumstances, falling from the Eiffel Tower.
Resident foreign department(INO) in the Middle East Y. Blyumkin. After an unsuccessful Social Revolutionary rebellion, he was forgiven by the Chekists. He was instructed to organize a department to combat international espionage. From 1922 he worked in Trotsky's secretariat. Blumkin kept in touch with Trotsky through his son. As later determined by the investigation, Blumkin handed over to Trotsky secret materials of the OGPU Istanbul residency. He was arrested in 1929 and shot "for repeated betrayal of the cause of the proletarian revolution."
Illegal INO NKVD in the Middle East G. Agabekov. At the end of January 1930, Agabekov turned to the British authorities in Istanbul with a request to grant him political asylum, giving his real name and position and promising to provide all the information he knew about Soviet intelligence. On his tip, in 1930, more than four hundred people were arrested in Iran alone, of which four were shot. Agabekov surrendered the entire intelligence network known to him, not only in Iran, but throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. The hunt for him lasted nine years and ended in the summer of 1938. The circumstances of Agabekov's death are still not exactly known. According to the version spread in the West, he was thrown into the abyss on the Franco-Spanish border.
R. Switz. He worked for the GRU from the early 1920s. In 1930 he became an illegal immigrant in the United States. He handed over the intelligence network in France to the Americans. The fact of Switz's betrayal was revealed only in 1938, when one of the Soviet illegal immigrants in France gained access to the secret files of French intelligence.
Illegal INO NKVD I. Poretsky (Ludwig, Reiss). The most famous intelligence officer, firmly convinced of the triumph of communism. In 1936, he learned about secret negotiations and the preparation of an agreement between the Soviets and Nazi Germany. He was shocked by this and decided to break with the Soviet Union in 1937. What he honestly wrote in a letter to his superiors. In Paris, where Poretsky was then, a liquidation group arrived. At first, his wife's friend Gertrude Schildbach tried to poison him, but she could not overcome friendly feelings. The Poretskys were shot at point-blank range by members of the liquidation group.
A close friend of Poretsky, an illegal immigrant from the INO NKVD in The Hague, V. Krivitsky (Ginzburg). In 1937 he declared himself a defector for the same reasons as Poretsky. A special group was also sent to eliminate him. But the French authorities, where Krivitsky fled, put guards on him. He went to the USA, where in 1938 he made public the plans of Stalin-Hitler. What attracted the attention of British intelligence to him. In one of his conversations with the British intelligence officers of the SIS, he said that a young Englishman was working for the NKVD, serving as a journalist in Spain. It was not about anyone, but about Kim Philby. Krivitsky did not know his last name, and this saved the most brilliant Soviet agent in the entire history of the USSR from failure. In 1941, Krivitsky's body was found in a hotel room, shot through the head. Nearby are farewell notes. Despite this, Western analysts believe that Krivitsky was killed by agents of the Soviets.
Head of the UNKVD Far Eastern Territory Commissar of State Security III rank G. Lyushkov. He became the first high-ranking Chekist who was afraid of the purges and fled abroad. He crossed the state border of the USSR and surrendered to the Japanese. He gave Japanese intelligence information about the Far Eastern Army, the economic situation in the Far Eastern regions, and the Soviet intelligence network in Manchuria. The Japanese spread the rumor about his departure to Europe. Lyushkov became a citizen of Japan Yamoguchi Toshikazu. When Soviet troops entered the territory of Manchuria, the Japanese decided to offer Lyushkov to voluntarily die. He refused. Lyushkov was killed, and his corpse was cremated.
GRU officer I. Akhmedov. He was one of those who carried out pre-war purges in the foreign residencies of the Intelligence Directorate. After 1940, he became a resident in Turkey, and in May 1942 he unexpectedly appeared at the Turkish police, said that he wanted to surrender, as he was outraged by the repressions Crimean Tatars in the USSR. He told everything he knew about the work of the GRU and INO residencies in Ankara and Istanbul. Moscow demanded that he be extradited, but Turkey refused and sent Akhmedov to the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. After the end of the war, he converted to Islam, in 1948 he ended up in the United States. He worked as a consultant at the CIA intelligence school. Wrote the book "Escape of the Tatar from the intelligence of the Red Army."
Agent of the group "Red Chapel" R. Bart (Beck). The Berlin intelligence network "Red Chapel" was formed back in the 30s. In August 1942, the Scouts received a coded message from the Center containing the exact home addresses of the agents. And several members of the Capella were arrested. Including Beck. He could not stand the torture in the Gestapo and went to betrayal. Beck continued to work for the Germans in the occupied territory Western Europe. In the spring of 1945, he came to the Americans, who handed him over to the NKVD. By the verdict of a military tribunal in 1945, Beck was shot.
GRU cryptographer I. Gouzenko. He became the first defector to the West after the victory over Germany. He was sent to work in Canada. In August 1945, they tried to recall him, but he did not leave, he turned to the editors of a Canadian newspaper with a proposal to talk about Soviet espionage in Canada. He told so much that the Canadian government set up a special Royal Commission on espionage. The commission identified the names of fourteen people who were part of the GRU agent network. Nine of them were convicted. Moscow tried to convince Canada to extradite Guzenko, but he was given away. Guzenko died in 1982 by his own death.
GRU officer V. Shelaputin. Born in the family of a theater actor, but went to study at a military institute foreign languages. At the institute, he received the nickname "Vaska Shelaputin - an international rogue." In 1948 he finished his studies and went on his first business trip to Austria. He liked it there and decided to stay. In 1949, he contacted American intelligence. Who betrayed the agents known to him. In the Union, he was sentenced in absentia to death. At the end of the 50th year, he began working for the British intelligence SIS. In December 1952, he received English citizenship, documents in the name of Victor Gregory, moved to London and got a job on the Russian service of BBC radio, and then on Radio Liberty. In the early 90s, he retired and settled somewhere in Ireland.
GRU Lieutenant Colonel P. Popov. In 1953, he began to cooperate with the CIA, was the first CIA agent in the special services of the USSR - a "mole". In 1951, Popov was working in Vienna and fell in love with an Austrian. This love cost Popov too much, and he decided to surrender to the CIA. Popov worked for the CIA until 1958. During this time, he gave the Americans information about the Austrian agents of the GRU, about Soviet policy in Austria and East Germany. In December 1958, Popov was arrested by the Soviet secret services. They tried to force him to continue contacts with the CIA, but he managed to warn the Americans about his arrest. In January 1960 he was tried and sentenced to death penalty. The Western press wrote that, as a warning to other GRU officers, he was burned alive in the furnace of the crematorium.
Illegal, radio operator Lieutenant Colonel R. Heihanen (Vic). Since 1951 he worked in Finland, then in the USA. He squandered $5,000 and turned himself in at the local American embassy during another trip to France. He spoke about one of the most famous Soviet agents, Abel (Fischer). In 1964 he died under strange circumstances. CIA officials said he died in a car accident.
Illegal military intelligence M. Fedorov (Shistov). He worked in Mexico, where he began to cooperate with the CIA. Reported to the United States data on the Soviet space program. The CIA chief Alan Dulles himself considered Fedorov a particularly valuable agent. In 1958, Fedorov was summoned to Moscow, and the CIA never saw him again. They say he was also burned in the furnace of the crematorium.
Military intelligence officer Colonel Oleg Penkovsky. In 1960, he was not allowed on a business trip to India on the pretext that he hid his father's White Guard origins. According to Penkovsky, this prompted him to cooperate with foreign intelligence services. In 1961, he signed a commitment to work for the American and British governments. According to official data, in 1962 alone, he transferred 5 thousand photographs and more than 7.5 thousand pages of top secret materials to the West. It was information about the nuclear program of the USSR, data on air force, and Khrushchev's plans in foreign policy. Some analysts believe that it was thanks to Penkovsky that World War III did not start: during the Caribbean crisis, Kennedy did not order the bombing of Cuba, because he knew for sure that the USSR was not able and did not want to wage war. Penkovsky was arrested in October 1962 and convicted. According to rumors, he was also burned in the crematorium.
Military intelligence officer, Major General Dmitry Polyakov. The reasons for his betrayal are still unclear. He himself said that he simply loves risk. In 20 years, he turned in 19 illegal Soviet intelligence agents, 150 foreign agents, and approximately 1,500 GRU and KGB officers in Russia. He talked about the Sino-Soviet differences, allowing the Americans to improve relations with China. He gave the Americans data on new weapons Soviet army, which helped the Americans destroy the weapon when it was used by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. It was passed by the most famous American defector, Aldridge Ames, in 1985. Polyakov was arrested at the end of 1986 and sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in 1988. At a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, US President Ronald Reagan asked for Polyakov. But Gorbachev replied that the man the American president was asking for was already dead. It is Polyakov, and not Penkovsky, that the Americans consider their most successful spy.
GRU operational photographer and photo technician International department Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolay Chernov. Since 1963, holding the position of a modest technical employee of the photo laboratory of the 1st Special Department of Military Intelligence, he handed over to the Americans thousands of photographic documents about the activities of our residencies in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, as well as the organization and results of the work of the strategic military intelligence service. On his tips, the best Soviet agents were arrested in the USA and England. For his betrayal, he received only 20 thousand Soviet rubles. In 1972, Chernov was expelled from the GRU for drunkenness, he tried to commit suicide, after which military intelligence began to check him. He was arrested only in 1990. In 1991, Chernov was imprisoned for 8 years, but was pardoned six months later. He soon died of stomach cancer.
Captain Yu. Nosenko, officer of the Main Directorate of the KGB. Remained in Switzerland in 1962, from 1964 he worked for the USA. Handed over several large double agents, and also confirmed information about listening devices at the US Embassy. In 1963, CIA officers took Nosenko to Germany, and in the USSR he was sentenced to death in absentia. Until the late 80s, he worked as a consultant to the CIA, and then retired.
Member of the New York Foreign Intelligence Station, Hero of the Soviet Union A. Kulak. Offered his services to the FBI in 1962. Until now, someone considers him a traitor, and someone - a double agent. He worked for the USA from 1962 to 1970. He handed over to the FBI information about KGB officers in New York, information about the interests of the KGB in the scientific and technical field and in the field of arms production. There is evidence that he received about $100,000 for his work. In 1977 he returned to Moscow, and in the 80s, when Kulak was already retired, a secret investigation into his case began in the state security agencies. But they couldn't prove anything. Fist died of cancer in 1983, and in 1985 defector Ames reported his betrayal.
Foreign intelligence captain O. Lyalin. In 1971, he began working for the British intelligence service MI5. He handed over the plans of Soviet sabotage in London to the British, fully opened the intelligence network in England, and in other Western countries, the search for illegal immigrants began on Lyalin's tips. In the USSR, he was sentenced to death. Lived with his wife in England for 23 years and died in 1995.
Foreign Intelligence Colonel O. Gordievsky. He began to work against Soviet intelligence since 1974, being a resident of the USSR in Denmark. Gave SIS information about the plans for terrorist attacks and the upcoming political campaign to accuse the United States of violating human rights. In 1980 he was recalled to Moscow. He was instructed to prepare documents on the history of CCGT operations in England, Scandinavian countries and the Australian-Asian region, which gave him the opportunity to work with the secret archives of PSU. During Gorbachev's visit to the UK in 1984, he personally supplied him with intelligence. Even earlier they were received by Margaret Thatcher. Ames issued him in 1985. While in Moscow, under the strictest supervision of the authorities that checked him, Gordievsky managed to escape during morning run- in shorts and with a plastic bag in his hands. Lives in London, became very popular thanks to his books.
Colonel of military intelligence S. Bohan. From 1976 he worked for the CIA. Surrendered KGB agent to the CIA, William Kampalais. In 1985, Ames again spoke about his work for the CIA. Bohan, who was on a business trip in Greece at the time, felt he was being followed and, with the help of the CIA, fled to the United States, where he still lives.
Military intelligence officer V. Rezun (Suvorov). Since 1974, resident in Geneva. In 1978, together with his wife and young son, he disappeared from home. It soon became known that all this time Rezun worked for the SIS. Never hid behind ideological motives. Today he is known as the writer-historian Viktor Suvorov, the author of the sensational books "Icebreaker", "Aquarium", etc. He did not give out any special data.
Foreign Intelligence Major S. Levchenko. Since 1975, he served in the residency of the PGU KGB in Tokyo through the PR (political intelligence) line under the roof of a correspondent for the Novoye Vremya magazine. In 1979, he was recalled to Moscow due to the fact that the Center had certain doubts about the advisability of continuing his business trip. Levchenko, who by this time had already established contacts with the Americans, decided not to return. It was quickly shipped from Japan to the USA. As a result, he surrendered all the agents known to him, and also handed over to the Americans the entire staff of the Tokyo KGB Residency. In 1981, in the USSR, he was sentenced to death. Levchenko has published several books in the US and today works for the American newspaper New Russian Word.
Major of the KGB V. Sheimov. Since 1971, he worked in one of the most secret departments of the KGB, dealing with encryption systems for intelligence and counterintelligence. In 1979, in Warsaw, he made contact with CIA agents. And in 1980 he was taken to the United States. Moscow searched for him for five years, believing that Sheimov was missing. Only in 1985 did it become known that he had fled to the west. All these five years, the encryption systems in the KGB did not change, and the CIA knew about them. Sheimov lived in Washington, he was awarded a medal. In the late 1980s, he made allegations of KGB involvement in the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
V. Vetrov, a high-ranking employee of the scientific and technical intelligence of PSU. He began working for French intelligence on his own initiative in 1980. Vetrov handed over to the French more than 4,000 documents marked "top secret." In 1982, while drunk, Vetrov killed a man and sat down for 15 years. While in prison, he unexpectedly confessed to espionage. He was tried again, sentenced to death and carried out in 1985.
Foreign Intelligence Major V. Kuzichkin. In 1977, he began working as an illegal immigrant in Tehran. In 1982, on the eve of the arrival of the commission from PSU, he suddenly did not find secret documents in his safe, got scared and decided to flee to the West. He was granted political asylum by the British. On a tip from Kuzichkin, the Tudeh party, which collaborated with the KGB, was crushed in Iran. Kuzichkin was sentenced to death in the USSR. In 1986, they tried to kill him. At the same time, Kuzichkin's wife, who remained in the USSR, received a death certificate from the KGB about her husband's death. But in 1988 Kuzichkin "resurrected". He wrote petitions for clemency - to Gorbachev, people's deputies, and in 1991 to Yeltsin. His petitions went unanswered. At the end of 1990, Kuzichkin wrote a book that did not become popular in the West.
KGB lieutenant V. Makarov. He worked in the KGB encryption department. In 1982, through an intermediary, he tried to sell some documents on the "black market" in Moscow. The mediator was arrested, but Makarov was never found out. In 1985 he went to SIS. While the British were considering whether to believe Makarov, he was arrested. Since he did not manage to hand over any documents to the British, he was sentenced to 10 years. In 1992, Makarov was released under an amnesty and emigrated to England. There he tried for a long time to get a pension from the SIS, but could not. According to the latest data, he worked as a gardener and received an allowance. Makarov had a depressive psychosis, and he was repeatedly treated in mental hospitals.
Deputy Head of the Moscow Department of the KGB, Major S. Vorontsov. Contacted CIA agents in Moscow in 1984, wanting to make money. He gave the Americans information about his management, received about 30 thousand dollars for his work. He was arrested in 1985 red-handed and agreed to play a double game. With his help, in 1985, an American resident in Moscow was detained, who was immediately expelled from the country. And Vorontsov was convicted and shot in 1986.
Foreign counterintelligence officer V. Yurchenko. As a resident in Italy, in 1985 he made contact with the CIA in Rome. Was shipped to the USA. He provided data on the investigation into the case of Oleg Gordievsky, as well as on new technical means ah Soviet intelligence, issued 12 KGB agents in Europe. Unexpectedly, in the same year, he fled from the Americans and appeared at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. He said that in Rome he was kidnapped, and in the USA under the influence psychotropic drugs downloaded information. In Moscow, they were very surprised and took Yurchenko to the Union. At home, he was awarded the badge "Honorary Chekist" and in 1991 he was solemnly retired. This story is still not completely clear. It is possible that Yurchenko was a double agent and played leading role in cover the most valuable source KGB in CIA Ames. And for the sake of Ames, the KGB sacrificed a dozen of its agents in Europe.
Employee of the legal residency of foreign intelligence in Bonn G. Varennik. In 1982, he began working in Bonn under the guise of a TASS correspondent. In 1987, he spent 7 thousand dollars and turned to the CIA with a proposal for cooperation. Gave the CIA information about three Soviet agents in the German government. In 1985 he was recalled to East Berlin and arrested. In 1987, Varennik was shot.
An employee of the apparatus of the Soviet military attaché in Hungary, V. Vasiliev. In 1984, he contacted CIA agents in Hungary and began to cooperate with American intelligence. On next year was arrested and then shot.
S. Illarionov, an employee of the PGU KGB on the scientific and technical line. In 1981 he began to work in Italy. Since 1990 - in the position of vice-consul. Then he began to cooperate with the CIA, and in 1991 he decided to hide in the United States. He told the CIA about 28 KGB agents in Italy. Illarionov received political asylum in the United States.
Military counterintelligence officer of the Western Group of Forces V. Lavrentiev. Since 1988 he has been working in Germany. In 1991 he was recruited by the German intelligence BND. In 1994 he was arrested. It has not yet been disclosed what kind of information he gave to the Germans. It is known that these were documents constituting the state. secret. He was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Lieutenant colonel of military intelligence V. Baranov. In 1985 he was sent to work in Bangladesh. Recruited by the CIA in 1989. He told the CIA about the composition and structure of the GRU and about the GRU and PGU residents in Bangladesh. Then he returned to Moscow and, since 1990, sought information for the Americans on bacteriological preparations at the disposal of the GRU. In 1992, Baranov decided to leave the country. But he was arrested at the airport. During the investigation, he said that all the secrets he had given out were out of date. In 1993 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Major PGU KGB M. Butkov. Worked in Norway. In 1991 he and his wife decided to stay in England. Most likely, Butkov was a very valuable agent - in England he was granted the status of a pensioner of the British special services and a pension of 14 thousand pounds. However, in 1996, the couple was arrested for fraud. Butkov received three years in prison, and his wife a year and a half.
Colonel of the SVR V. Oshchenko. In the 70s he worked in England, and since 1985 in France. He was supposed to return to Moscow in 1992, but disappeared with his family. Oshchenko asked for political asylum in England. On his tip, three major KGB spies in France were arrested. Four Russian diplomats were also expelled from Paris. And in England, several agents were arrested.
Foreign Intelligence Lieutenant Colonel O. Morozov. From 1988 to 1991, he worked in Italy, and then in Moscow, in a commercial firm that was in fact the “roof” of Russian counterintelligence. He probably appropriated some of the money from this company, after which in 1995 he decided to flee with his family to the United States. He first flew to Switzerland and offered his services to CIA agents there. It has not yet been revealed what he might have told the CIA, but his disappearance is said to have shocked Moscow. A criminal case was initiated against Morozov.
Lieutenant Colonel of the GRU Space Intelligence Center V. Tkachenko. Lieutenant Colonel Tkachenko, as well as former employees of the Central Intelligence Committee Volkov and Sporyshev, have been selling secret photographs taken by Russian satellites to Israeli intelligence since 1993. And they helped out about 300 thousand dollars. In 1995, they fell under the suspicion of the FSB and were soon arrested. It was possible to prove guilt only Tkachenko. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Tkachenko's lawyers later stated that, most likely, having convicted Tkachenko, the special services were covering for their agent, who supplied disinformation to MOSSAD.
It seems to many that now we know literally everything about the activities of the Soviet special services. On the Internet, it is easy to find lists of educational institutions where intelligence officers have been and continue to be trained; you can read about the specifics of undercover work in the memoirs of both those who retired on a well-deserved seniority and those who fled to the West. The feeling is that there are no more secrets left, if not books, then newspaper articles have been written about all aspects of the activities of domestic special services. But one page in the annals of the secret war will not open soon - the one that tells about the 13th department, which was engaged in sabotage and murder. The correspondent of Nasha Versiya tried to at least slightly open the veil lowered over the most secret division of Soviet intelligence.
Very little is known about the department that dealt with the liquidation of objectionable persons on the territory of the USSR and abroad. There is some information in the memoirs of KGB officers who fled to the West. A little more information was obtained thanks to the employees of the special services, who in the early 90s found themselves on the territory of the former Soviet republics, who began to talk in their old age. Many of these people felt left to fend for themselves and, no longer feeling obligated to keep the secrets of the Soviet era, shared them with journalists.
We will never know the whole truth: by decree of the President of Russia of January 14, 1992 “On the protection of state secrets Russian Federation» All documentation relating to the activities of the "retribution department" is classified for 75 years. Our material is based on the author's conversations with several former high-ranking KGB officers who, by the will of fate, survived last years life in the Crimea, as well as on the memoirs of the historian of special services and writer Georgy Seversky, the author of the well-known "Adjutant of His Excellency".
The dropout rate was quite large: as a rule, no more than 50% of the graduates completely coped with the task. Many of those who perfectly mastered the theory simply could not physically kill a person. Naturally, such people were not fired from the KGB, they were simply given other work.
Until the beginning of the 1990s, the West did not even imagine that there was a whole department in the State Security Committee, whose tasks included assassinations and other acts of intimidation and retribution. Of course, it was known that the Soviet special services were engaged in the physical elimination of objectionable people. But no one could even imagine that a specialized structure was engaged in this, which included schools, a huge staff of scientific, technical, medical and other service staff.
The KGB major Oleg Lyalin, who left for the West in September 1971, told the world about the 13th department. The officer fled from the London residency, fearing exposure and reprisals. By his own admission, he was shocked by the story of Oleg Kalugin about how the famous defector Oleg Penkovsky actually died. The traitor was allegedly not shot, but burned alive in a crematorium oven.
In fact, Lyalin was by no means a timid man: a specialist in hand-to-hand combat, a wonderful sniper and parachutist, he conscious life engaged in the physical elimination of opponents of the Soviet regime, mainly in Western countries. Lyalin himself said that he happened to liquidate more than a dozen people. At that time, Lyalin was listed in department "B" ("Retribution") of the First Main Directorate (PGU) of the KGB of the USSR, which was formed in 1969 instead of the old 13th department, disbanded after the flight of officers Khokhlov and Stashinsky (the latter is known due to his direct participation in the murder of Stepan Bandera).
Why, in fact, the 13th? There was a legend about this among the committee members. In total, PSU had 17 departments. From the 1st to the 10th inclusive, as well as the 17th, they were engaged in specific countries: someone in the USA and Canada, someone Latin America etc. 11th - connections with intelligence agencies of the countries of the socialist camp, with the Romanian Securitatey, the German Stasi and others. The 12th was called "veteran", it was staffed by experts who had several decades of service in the authorities. As a rule, all these people were registered in various research institutes and were considered ordinary scientists in the world. The 14th department was in charge of the development of technical means for carrying out operations: weapons, cryptography, cameras, poisons and antidotes were also prepared there. The 15th department was the archive of the PSU, and in the 16th there were cryptographers and decryptors.
So, the legend said that they were going to make the “liquidators” the 1st department, but allegedly Yuri Andropov, who was directly related to the formation of the PGU, a man not without humor, offered the 13th number to the assassins-murderers. Like, to devilry kept. But it turned out the other way around: the 13th was considered the most unfortunate unit of the PSU, the department had the highest turnover of personnel, and here cases of defections became more frequent. In general, the department was disbanded.
The training of assassins and saboteurs was taken up by the newly formed department (department) "B", later transformed into the 8th department of department "C" ("Illegals"). Department "B" had a broader specialization than its predecessor, which was behind the eyes called the department of mokrushnikov. Its functions began to include the preparation and conduct of sabotage in various utilities, transport and communications facilities within the country and abroad, the recruitment of especially valuable agents and many other previously unusual functions.
Training of employees has become more targeted. Was completely refocused on their training The educational center in Balashikha, and the period of study of a specialist has increased from six months to three years. True or not, it is difficult to say, but the veterans also recalled such a specific moment: all graduates who were supposed to work as “liquidators” in the future were facing “exams”. It was necessary to successfully carry out one liquidation, after which the graduate was considered a full-fledged employee. Operations were carried out both within the USSR and in the West.
Oleg Lyalin was recruited by the British from Mi-5 about six months before his flight. recruited him as ordinary employee embassy, unaware of the special form of its activity. And only after Lyalin transmitted the first information, it became clear who the Mi-5 was really dealing with.
The agent announced plans to carry out sabotage in London, Washington, Paris, Bonn, Rome and other capitals of Western states, and also that in almost every European capital employees of department "B" were ordered to "keep at gunpoint" not only individual politicians, businessmen and public figures, but also former defectors, emigrants of the first and second waves, as well as ... employees of Soviet embassies and even fellow agents, so that in case of critical situation eliminate them immediately.
The information so shocked the British that at first they did not believe in them and dedicated their American colleagues to them - which Mi-5 always did only in special cases. The Americans, in turn, immediately not only offered Lyalin a colonel's rank and a well-paid position in Langley, but also promised to resolve all issues related to moving his relatives to the West. Lyalin refused: he had no intention of fleeing to the West, apparently hoping to work as a double agent for as long as possible. But the nerves passed after six months.
The British got hold of such information that they did not possess for at least a quarter of a century. Based on the data received from Lyalin, 105 (!) employees of the Soviet embassy, as well as Soviet citizens who constantly worked in the United Kingdom, were expelled from the UK. 90 KGB and GRU officers in London were expelled from the country. Another 15 people who were on vacation in the Soviet Union were notified that they were not allowed to re-enter. Neither before nor after such a large-scale expulsion was carried out.
Moreover, Lyalin spoke about agents recruited by him and his colleagues from among British subjects who could provide support to illegal immigrants from department "B". In addition, the British side was given a list of sabotage organized by ours: plans to flood the London Underground, blow up an early warning station about missile attack at Fylingdale (North Yorkshire), destroying class V strategic bombers on the ground and attacking other military installations. But that's more! Soviet agents under the guise of messengers and couriers were supposed to scatter colorless ampoules of poison in the editorial offices of newspapers, offices of parties and ministries, which killed everyone who stepped on them.
When it came to granting Lyalin British citizenship, the United Kingdom prosecutor's office informed the House of Commons that the fugitive major had told a lot of useful things about "organizing sabotage in Great Britain and preparing to liquidate persons who were considered enemies of the USSR." After the flight of Lyalin, department "B" was again disbanded, and its employees were recalled from foreign residencies to in full force. An unprecedented event for the KGB.
The department was disbanded, but the training of assassin agents continued. On the basis of the 13th and Department (Department) "B", the 8th Department of the Department "C" of PSU was created. We know even less about the activities of the new structure than about its predecessor units. It is known, perhaps, only about one of the operations, which received the code name "Tunnel". It was carried out in 1984. Student students were entrusted with the preparation and execution of the murders of 10 citizens of Poland, the USSR and Czechoslovakia suspected of spying for the United States and Israel.
There has not been such a massive number of murders of espionage outside the court record in the Soviet Union since the late 40s. Usually, suspects were either immediately arrested, tried and sent to Soviet prisons, or exchanged for captured Soviet agents, or - if they had diplomatic immunity - expelled abroad. But within the framework of the "Tunnel", it was decided to carry out several demonstrative "liquidations" in order to consolidate the knowledge gained by the agents in practice.
Selected 12 potential victims convicted of spying for the United States and Israel. They were ordered to liquidate "students". As a result, 10 people were killed, and two who operated in the USSR managed to escape (later they were arrested, tried and shot). During the operation, one special agent died - he crashed, falling from the roof of a nine-story building.
The Balashikha Training Center is still operating today, now it is located there training school anti-terrorism department.
The plan for illegal border crossing was developed with the participation of British intelligence. On July 20, 1985, this plan was successfully implemented. British diplomats met him at the border with Finland and transported him through checkpoints in the trunk of their car. Thus he safely reached the UK. After 6 years, after several attempts to take his wife and two children there, the family was reunited. A year later, his wife filed for divorce.
After a series of investigations, KGB officials found that Gordievsky had been passing valuable information to British services for more than 10 years. According to former chairman, Gordievsky inflicted Soviet country huge damage, opening access to secret materials that contained information about the plans of the Soviet leadership. Many researchers attribute to him key role in preventing nuclear war.
During the Able Archer military exercise in 1983, the Soviet leadership was concerned about the possibility that NATO members were preparing for nuclear strike. In the USSR, they immediately reacted to this information and concentrated all their forces to attack first. According to the leadership of the Soviet Union, only such tactics could resist the West. It was Gordievsky who helped prevent the attack, informing the British about the tension from the USSR. Thanks to the information received, the American intelligence services made adjustments, preventing the course of events.
For treason, Gordievsky was sentenced to death. Having fled to the UK, he managed to escape punishment.
