Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan was born on February 17, 1924 in Rostov-on-Don in the family of Andrey Vasilyevich Vartanyan, an Iranian citizen, director of an oil mill.
In 1930, when Gevork was six years old, the family left for Iran. His father was connected with the Soviet foreign intelligence and left the USSR on her instructions. Under the guise of commercial activities, Andrei Vasilievich conducted active intelligence work. It was under the influence of his father that Gevork became a scout.
Gevork Vartanyan connected his fate with Soviet intelligence at the age of 16, when in February 1940 he established direct contact with the NKVD station in Tehran. On behalf of the resident, Gevork led a special group to identify fascist agents and German intelligence agents in Tehran and other Iranian cities. In just two years, his group identified about 400 people, one way or another connected with German intelligence.
In 1942, "Amir" (the operational pseudonym of Gevork Vartanyan) had to carry out a special reconnaissance mission. Despite the fact that Great Britain was an ally of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, this did not prevent the British from carrying out subversive work against the USSR. The British created an intelligence school in Tehran, in which young people with knowledge of the Russian language were recruited for their subsequent transfer with intelligence missions to the territory of the Soviet republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. On the instructions of the Center, "Amir" infiltrated the intelligence school and completed a full course of study there. The Tehran residency received detailed information about the school itself and its cadets. Abandoned on the territory of the USSR "graduates" of the school were neutralized or re-recruited and worked "under the hood" of the Soviet counterintelligence.
"Amir" took an active part in ensuring the security of the leaders of the "Big Three" during the work of the Tehran Conference in November-December 1943. In 1951 he was brought to the USSR and graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Yerevan University.
This was followed by many years of work as an illegal intelligence agent in extreme conditions and difficult situations in various countries of the world. Always next to Gevork Andreevich was his wife Gohar, who had come a long way in intelligence with him, an illegal intelligence officer, holder of the Order of the Red Banner and many other awards.
The Vartanyans' business trip abroad lasted more than 30 years.
The scouts returned from their last trip in the autumn of 1986. A few months later, Goar Levonovna retired, and Gevork Andreevich continued to serve until 1992. Gevork Andreyevich Vartanyan's services in intelligence activities were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, many orders and medals, as well as the highest departmental awards.
Despite the fact that Colonel Vartanyan was retired, he continued to work actively in the Foreign Intelligence Service: he met with young employees of various foreign intelligence units, to whom he passed on his rich operational experience.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the legendary Soviet intelligence officer in the Moscow art gallery A. Shilov, People's Artist of the USSR Alexander Shilov presented a portrait of the Hero of the Soviet Union Gevork Vartanyan.
Check out the second series.
The main characters of the film "True Story. Tehran-43" are a married couple, illegal intelligence officers Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan. In the film, the intelligence officers themselves tell about the events in Tehran in 1943. The plot of the film is based on a unique intelligence operation carried out by the Soviet foreign intelligence and prevented the assassination of the leaders of the three powers, members of the anti-Hitler coalition - Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Tehran conference in 1943. By genre, the film "True Story. Tehran-43" - docudrama. The film contains large episodes played by actors, and there is a chronicle and a documentary part, where the Vartanyans comment on the events of those distant days. Sixteen-year-old Gevork Vartanyan receives from I. I. Agayants, a resident of Soviet intelligence in Tehran, the task of creating a small detachment of 6-7 people from his friends and voluntary assistants to identify German agents in Tehran. Gevorg Vartanyan is gathering his team. Among them is a sixteen-year-old Armenian girl Gohar. Between Gevork and Gohar, friendship first arises, and then love. From 1940 to 1945, Vartanyan's group discovered more than 400 German agents in Iran. Service in Iran, which lasted from 1940 to 1951, became the most important stage of life for Vartanyan and his wife. This is the only "page" of their undercover activity, about which one can speak openly so far.
70 years ago, on March 9, 1944, a sabotage group of the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov died in the village of Boratyn, Lviv region. She was captured by UPA militants. Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade, and his companions were shot dead.
Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Kuznetsov began to prepare for work abroad from illegal positions. However, the outbreak of war made adjustments to this preparation. In the first days of the attack of Nazi Germany on our country, Nikolai Kuznetsov filed a report with a request to use it in "an active struggle against German fascism at the front or in the rear of the German troops that invaded our land." In the summer of 1942, having undergone special training, he was enrolled in the special-purpose unit "Winners", commanded by D.N. Medvedev. 
In accordance with the withdrawal plan, Kuznetsov was thrown out with a parachute deep behind enemy lines - in the Sarny forests of the Rivne region.
In the city of Rivne, turned by the Germans into the "capital" of the temporarily occupied Ukraine, Nikolai Kuznetsov appeared under the name of Lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert, holder of two Iron Crosses. Good professional training of the scout, brilliant knowledge of the German language, amazing will and courage were the basis for him to perform the most difficult reconnaissance and sabotage tasks.
Acting under the guise of a German officer, Nikolai Kuznetsov in the center of the city of Rovno carried out the people's sentence - he destroyed the imperial adviser to the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine Gell and his secretary Winter. A month later, in the same place, he mortally wounded the Deputy Reich Commissar, General Dargel. Together with his comrades-in-arms, he kidnapped and removed from Rovno the commander of the punitive forces in Ukraine, General von Ilgen, and the personal driver E. Koch Granau. Soon after that, in the courthouse, he destroyed the cruel executioner, the president of the supreme court in the occupied Ukraine, A. Funk. 
Secret meeting of Kuznetsov (left) with the secretary of the Slovak embassy Krno, a German intelligence agent. 1940, operational filming with a hidden camera.
An interesting episode with the liquidation of the commander of the special troops, General Ilgen. Kuznetsov proposed a plan not just to eliminate the general, but to capture him and deliver him to the detachment. The implementation of this plan, in addition to Kuznetsov, was entrusted to Strutinsky, Kaminsky and Valya Dovger.
General von Ilgen occupied a solid house in Rovno, which was constantly guarded. The moment for the operation to capture Ilgen was well chosen. Four German soldiers, who permanently lived in the general's house and guarded him, were sent to Berlin, where the general sent along with them suitcases with stolen goods. The house was guarded by local policemen.
On the scheduled day, Valya went to Ilgen's house with a package in her hands. The orderly suggested that Valya wait for the general, but she said that she would come later. It became clear that von Ilgen was not at home. Soon Kuznetsov, Strutinsky and Kaminsky appeared there. They quickly eliminated the guards, and the chief lieutenant explained to the batman that if he wants to live, he must help them. The attendant agreed.
Nikolai Ivanovich and Strutinsky selected documents of interest in von Ilgen's office, folded and packed them together with the weapons found in a bundle. Forty minutes later von Ilgen drove up to the house. When he took off his overcoat, Kuznetsov came out of the next room and said that in front of him were Soviet partisans. 
The general was forty-two years old, healthy and strong, he did not want to obey the commands of the scout. I had to deal with him. When the general was “packed”, it turned out that officers were coming to the house. Nikolai Ivanovich went out to meet them. There were four of them. The intelligence officer's mind worked feverishly: what to do with them? Interrupt? Can. But there will be noise. And then Kuznetsov remembered the Gestapo badge, which he had been given back in Moscow. He has never used it before.
Nikolai Ivanovich took out a token and, showing it to the German officers, said that a bandit in a German uniform had been detained here and therefore asked to see documents. After carefully reviewing them, he asked three of them to follow their path, and invited the fourth to enter the house as a witness. It turned out to be Erich Koch's personal chauffeur.
So, together with General von Ilgen, officer Granau, the Gauleiter's personal chauffeur, was also brought to the detachment. 
The merit of Nikolai Kuznetsov also consisted in the fact that, at the same time, he purposefully collected intelligence information important for the Center. So in the spring of 1943, he managed to obtain extremely valuable intelligence information about the preparation by the enemy of a major offensive operation in the Kursk region using the new Tiger and Panther tanks. He also became aware of the exact location of Hitler's field headquarters near Vinnitsa, which received the code name "Werwolf". Kuznetsov was the first to report on the preparation of an assassination attempt on the heads of governments of the "Big Three", who were going to a historic meeting in Tehran. His task also included collecting information about the movement of military units, about the plans and intentions of the Gestapo and SD services, about the trips of high officials of the Reich, which was successfully used in the fight against the enemy. 
From left to right: Nikolai Kuznetsov, commissar of the partisan detachment Stekhov, Nikolai Strutinsky
At the end of December 1943, N.I. Kuznetsov received a new task - to deploy intelligence work in the city of Lvov. Committing acts of retribution, he carried out the sentence of the people and destroyed the Vice-Governor of Galicia Otto Bauer and Lieutenant Colonel Peters. The situation in Galicia after that became extremely complicated. Kuznetsov and two of his comrades-in-arms - Yan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov - managed to escape from Lvov. It was decided to make their way to the front line. However, on the night of March 8-9, 1944, they were ambushed in the village of Boratin, Lviv region, and died in an unequal battle with Ukrainian nationalists, Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade, and his companions were shot dead. 
Monument to Nikolai Kuznetsov in Tyumen.
On November 5, 1944, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to employees of the special forces of the NKGB of the USSR operating behind enemy lines. In the list of those awarded, along with the name of D.N. Medvedev, was the name of Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov - posthumously.
In 1990-1991 a number of protests by members of the Ukrainian nationalist underground against perpetuating the memory of Kuznetsov appeared in the Lviv media. Monuments to Kuznetsov in Lvov and Rovno were dismantled in 1992. In November 1992, with the assistance of Strutinsky, the Lviv monument was taken to Talitsa.
Vandals repeatedly tried to desecrate the grave of Nikolai Kuznetsov. By 2007, the activists of the initiative group in Yekaterinburg had done all the preparatory work necessary to move Kuznetsov's remains to the Urals.
The case of Nikolai Kuznetsov is stored in the archives of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and will not be declassified until 2025.
Soviet intelligence is the best in the world. None of these structures on the planet can boast of such a number of brilliantly conducted operations in its entire history - one theft of US nuclear technologies is worth something!
Can the CIA, or Mossad, or MI6 oppose anyone to Soviet intelligence officers of the class Artur Artuzov (Operations Trust and Syndicate 2), Rudolf Abel, Nikolai Kuznetsov, Kim Philby, Richard Sorge, Aldrich Ames or Gevork Vartanyan? They can. Agent 007. Operations carried out by Soviet intelligence are studied in all special schools in the world. And among this brilliant galaxy it is impossible to name the most-most. In one article, the idea is substantiated that the best Soviet intelligence officer is Kim Philby, in another they call Richard Sorge. Gevork Vartanyan, who outplayed the Abwehr, according to authoritative and unbiased estimates, is one of the hundred best intelligence officers in the world. And the aforementioned Artur Artuzov, in addition to dozens of brilliantly conducted operations, at a certain time supervised the work of such outstanding Soviet intelligence officers as Shandor Rado and Richard Sorge, Yan Chernyak, Rudolf Gernstadt and Hadji-Umar Mamsurov. Books have been written about the exploits on the invisible front of each of them.
the luckiest
For example, the Soviet intelligence officer Yan Chernyak. In 1941, he managed to get the Barbarossa plan, and in 1943, the plan for the offensive of the German army near Kursk. Jan Chernyak created a powerful intelligence network, not a single member of which was ever exposed by the Gestapo - in 11 years of work, his Krona group did not have a single failure. According to unconfirmed reports, his agent was the movie star of the Third Reich, Marika Rökk. In 1944 alone, his group sent 60 samples of radio equipment and 12,500 sheets of technical documentation to Moscow. He died in retirement in 1995. The hero served as a prototype for Stirlitz (Colonel Maxim Isaev).
invisible front
The Soviet intelligence officer Khadzh-Umar Mamsurov, who participated under the pseudonym Colonel Xanthi, served as the prototype for one of the characters in Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Recently, a lot of materials about Soviet intelligence have been declassified, which make it possible to understand what the secret of its phenomenal victories is. It is very interesting to read about this structure and its brightest employees and collaborators. Few people know about many of them. Only recently, the Russia 1 channel launched a project that tells amazing stories about the legendary exploits of Soviet intelligence officers.
Hundreds of little-known and unknown heroes
For example, the film “Kill the Gauleiter. An order for three" tells the story of three young intelligence officers - Nadezhda Troyan and Elena Mazanik - who carried out the order to destroy the executioner of Belarus Wilhelm Kube. Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Fitin was the first to report to the Kremlin about there are a lot of them - heroes of the invisible front. Some remain in the shadows for the time being, others, due to the circumstances, are known and loved by the people.
Legendary Scout and Partisan
Often this is facilitated by well-produced films with talented and charming actors and well-written books, such as, for example, about Nikolai Kuznetsov. The stories “It was near Rovno” and “Strong in spirit” by D.N. Medvedev were read by all children in the Union. The Soviet intelligence officer of the Second World War, Nikolai Kuznetsov, who personally destroyed 11 generals and bosses of Nazi Germany, was known, without exaggeration, to every citizen of the USSR, and at one time he was generally the most famous Soviet intelligence officer. Moreover, his features are guessed in the collective image of the hero of the legendary Soviet film "The feat of the scout", which is still quoted.
Real events and facts
In general, the Soviet intelligence officers of the Second World War are surrounded by a halo of glory, because the cause for which they worked and very often gave their lives ended in a great victory for the Red Army. And that is why films about intelligence officers who penetrated the Abwehr or other fascist structures are so popular. But the scripts were not at all far-fetched. The plots of the paintings “The Way to Saturn” and “The End of Saturn” are based on the story of intelligence officer A.I. Kozlov, who rose to the rank of captain in the Abwehr. He is called the most mysterious agent.
Legendary Sorge
In connection with films about Soviet intelligence officers, one cannot but recall the film by the French director Yves Champi “Who are you, Dr. Sorge?” The legendary Soviet intelligence officer, who was in Japan during the Second World War and created a powerful ramified agent network there, who had the nickname Ramsay, told Stalin the date of the German attack on the Soviet Union. The film spurred interest both in the actor Thomas Holtzman and in Richard Sorge himself, about whom few knew at that time. Then articles about him began to appear in the press, and for a while the Soviet intelligence officer, the head of the organization in Japan, Richard Sorge, became very popular. The fate of this resident is tragic - he was executed in the courtyard of Tokyo's Sugamo Prison in 1944. The entire residency of Sorge in Japan was failed. His grave is in the same place where he was executed. The first Soviet person to put flowers on his grave was a writer and journalist
Traded for Powers
At the beginning of the film "Dead Season" Rudolf Abel addresses the audience. The prototype of the scout, who was perfectly played, was another famous Soviet intelligence officer, Konon the Young. Both he and, as a result of the betrayal of his partners, failed in the USA, were sentenced to long terms and exchanged for American intelligence officers (the famous exchange scene on the bridge in the film). For a while, Rudolf Abel, who was exchanged for the American pilot F. G. Powers, becomes the most discussed intelligence officer. His work in the states since 1948 was so effective that already in 1949 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in his homeland.
Cambridge Five
The Soviet intelligence officer, the head of the organization known as the "Cambridge Five", Arnold Deutsch, recruited major high-ranking officials of British intelligence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work for the Soviet Union. Allen Dulles called this organization "the most powerful intelligence group of the Second World War."
Kim Philby (nickname Stanley) and Donald McLean (Homer), Anthony Blunt (Johnson), Guy Burges (Hicks) and John Cairncross - all of them, due to their high position, possessed valuable information, and therefore the efficiency of the group was high. Kim Philby is called the most famous and most important Soviet intelligence officer.
The legendary "Red Chapel"
Another Soviet intelligence officer, the head of the Red Capella organization, the Polish Jew Leopold Trepper, entered the annals of our country's intelligence. This organization was a horror for the Germans, they respectfully called Trepper the Big Chief. The largest and most effective Soviet intelligence network operated in many European countries. The history of many members of this organization is very tragic. To combat it, the Germans created a special Sonderkommando, which was personally led by Hitler.
Many known, many unknown
There are many lists of Soviet intelligence officers, there are also five of the most successful. It includes Richard Sorge, Kim Philby, Aldridge Ames, Ivan Agayants and Lev Manevich (he worked in Italy in the 30s). In other lists other surnames are called. Robert Hanssen is often mentioned - an FBI officer in the 70s and 80s. It is obvious that it is impossible to name the most, since Russia has always had more than enough enemies, and there have always been a lot of people who gave their lives in a secret fight against them. And the names of a large number of intelligence officers are still classified as "secret".
Like "snow" on the head. Heroes of foreign intelligence: legends with a sequel
http://vpk-news.ru/articles/34372
A year ago, in Chelyabinsk, on the Aloe Field near the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren, a monument was erected to illegal intelligence officer Iskhak Akhmerov. The place soon acquired the name Chekist Square among the people. The monument to the illegal immigrant was perceived as dedicated to all "fighters of the invisible front." This year, deputies of the City Duma renamed the Aloe Field into Scout Square. About those in whose honor it is named, Anatoly Shalagin, the author of the book “And I am proud of it,” told the Military Industrial Courier.
- The history of domestic special services does not begin in 1917, as many believe. Intelligence was born and developed along with the state. Many great people of Russia are involved in it - Alexander Griboyedov, Jan Vitkevich, Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Gumilyov. Foreign or political intelligence is conditionally divided into legal and illegal. If a failure occurs, and no one is immune from it, then a legal intelligence officer has a chance to return to his homeland. The diplomat will simply be expelled from the host country. If there is no diplomatic passport, they can be arrested, but the Motherland will actively fight for its citizen. For illegal immigrants, the fate is more tragic. There are examples in the history of domestic intelligence when its employees were in foreign prisons for years and the USSR could not rescue them.
- Anatoly Vladimirovich, Iskhak Akhmerov is now known to everyone. And what other names are revealed to readers of your book?
- The first one worth talking about is Stanislav Martynovich Glinsky. He was born in Warsaw. His father, a railroad worker, was a Social Democrat and in 1906 was exiled with his family to Siberia for revolutionary activities. The son followed in his footsteps, joined the RSDLP. At the age of 16 he left his parents. I met the October Revolution in Chelyabinsk. When the Civil War began, he volunteered for the Red Army, served in the Ural regiment in front-line intelligence, and visited the rear of the Whites. At the age of 25 he became the military commissar of Troitsk. There he met Terenty Dmitrievich Deribas, who played an important role in the fate of Glinsky, recommending the young Chekist to intelligence.
How did he show himself?
- If we talk briefly about the merits, this is, first of all, participation in the Syndicate operation. Films have been made about her, books have been written, and although Glinsky's name is not mentioned anywhere, it was he who ensured the border crossing for Boris Savinkov. The result of the operation was the defeat of a terrorist organization, on account of which attacks on Soviet diplomatic couriers and ambassadors, terrorist attacks in Belarus and Russia. For this development, Glinsky received his first Order of the Red Banner.
In 1924-1926, he directly participated in Operation Trust, also well known from a feature film. In it, Glinsky played the role of "bait": it was he who transferred photographs to our enemies, including those from Chelyabinsk and Troitsk, confirming the existence of an underground Monarchist Union in the USSR.
In the 30s, Glinsky was transferred to the European direction. The country's leadership was clear that it was necessary to prepare for war. Glinsky managed to introduce two agents into Hitler's entourage, who had just come to power in Germany. And they worked for the USSR for quite a long time. In 1937, Glinsky took part in the defeat of the Russian All-Military Union, a paramilitary organization with twenty thousand members, which was preparing for a campaign against Soviet Russia. In the same 1937, he receives the second Order of the Red Banner, becomes a senior major of state security, which is equivalent to the army rank of major general. This was the first time in Soviet foreign intelligence that an employee was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner.
It seemed that Glinsky had a great future, but ... In the same year, Yezhov called Glinsky from abroad, allegedly for a consultation. He is arrested, accused of collaborating with Polish intelligence, and shot. He was rehabilitated only in 1956.
Speaking about Stanislav Glinsky, it is necessary to say about his wife Anna Viktorovna. She was born in the village of Nizhneuvelsky, Chelyabinsk Region. At the age of 15, she voluntarily joined the Red Army, was also a scout, went to the rear of the Whites. In Chelyabinsk, she was arrested by Kolchak. They were tortured and sentenced to death. And Stanislav Glinsky, her future husband, saved her from certain death. When he was shot, Anna Viktorovna, as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, was sentenced to camps. She served her term in the notorious Karlag, from where she returned ten years later, in 1947, to Moscow. She began to seek the restoration of the honest name of her husband. She is arrested again and sent to Vorkuta. She died on the way, the place of burial is unknown. The only photograph of this steadfast woman has survived.
- The name of Nikolai Kuznetsov is known to everyone. Books have been written and films made about him. In Yekaterinburg, he is an honorary citizen of the city.
- Indeed, the people of Sverdlovsk consider Nikolai Ivanovich their hero. But in fairness it should be said that he was born in the Talitsky district, which until the beginning of the forties was part of the Chelyabinsk region. Even in the fake passport with which Kuznetsov lived and worked when he was a secret NKVD officer, it is written that he was born in the Chelyabinsk region. In books and films, Kuznetsov's sabotage activities are in the foreground. His work as a counterintelligence officer remained in the shadows. And these pages of the biography deserve a separate story.
Let's at least briefly fill this gap.
- It's no secret that the Urals with its industrial potential has always been of interest to the special services of other countries. In the 1930s, when Kuznetsov was invited to work in the NKVD, he became a secret agent to identify foreign intelligence agents. Nikolai Ivanovich had a rare ability for languages, he communicated a lot with the German colonists. By the way, his operational pseudonym at that time was precisely the Colonist. In 1940, Kuznetsov was transferred to Moscow, where he was engaged in the development of German agents. There were many. In the short time before the start of the war, Kuznetsov and his colleagues identified about twenty Abwehr and Gestapo agents.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Nikolai Ivanovich was transferred to the Fourth Directorate, which was engaged in reconnaissance and sabotage activities in the occupied territory. It is here that he becomes known from films and books as Oberleutnant Paul Siebert. The documents made at the Lubyanka were of such quality that he passed hundreds of patrol checks and no one suspected forgeries.
- As a researcher of the history of intelligence, what would you emphasize when talking about the merits of Nikolai Kuznetsov.
- It was he who sent information to the Center about the top-secret object "Werwolf" - Hitler's headquarters in the occupied territory. He was the first to report that an assassination attempt was being prepared on the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition in Tehran and that in the summer of 1943 the Germans would advance near Kursk. On account of Kuznetsov, a dozen liquidated hardened Nazi criminals. He died on the night of March 8-9, 1944 in a battle with Ukrainian nationalists, when, together with his group, he tried to cross the front line. On November 5, 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He became the first Soviet foreign intelligence officer to be awarded the Gold Star.
– I cannot but ask about Iskhak Akhmerov.
He has been overseas twice. The first business trip to the USA was in the pre-war period. The next - already during the Second World War. Through Akhmerov's intelligence network, which was very wide and reached the Oval Office of the White House, more than 2,500 photographic films with secret documents from various US government agencies - the State Department, the Ministry of Defense, and intelligence passed. In 1940-1941, Akhmerov was directly involved in the development and implementation of Operation Snow. Its purpose was to involve the United States in the war on our side. America then fenced itself off from the whole world with the so-called neutrality law. It was not hidden - let the Germans fight with the Russians, and then we will come to Europe as masters. Therefore, it was important that the coalition against Hitler, which Stalin aspired to, take shape. For this, Operation Snow was developed. What Akhmerov wrote, then, almost word for word, formed the basis of the so-called Hull note, the then US Secretary of State. When the Japanese got acquainted with it, the final decision was made in Tokyo - not to attack the USSR. Then came the raid on Pearl Harbor, and the United States had no choice but to enter the war. Our country got the opportunity to transfer significant forces from the Far East to the West.
In 1943-1945, materials on the uranium project, which would later be called Manhattan, passed through the network of Iskhak Abdulovich. His agents received samples of materials that American and Canadian nuclear scientists were working on. Through Akhmerov's group, drawings were obtained, which undoubtedly accelerated the process of creating atomic weapons under the guidance of academician Kurchatov.
In addition, Akhmerov and his associates revealed many fascist agents in the United States. When, at the end of the war, Hitler dreamed of a weapon of retaliation, he was convinced that with the help of new missiles it was possible to bomb any city in the world. They tried to launch rockets across the Atlantic, but they fell into the ocean. For accurate guidance, the installation of radio beacons was required. And two German agents were abandoned on a submarine in the US. One FBI grabbed quickly, and the other "dissolved." They expected something terrible, but thanks to Akhmerov's agents, they also managed to neutralize it. The plot for a real movie, which may someday be made.
Akhmerov and his network were involved in the declassification of separate negotiations between the Nazis and the Americans in Bern. This story is well known to us from Seventeen Moments of Spring. At the end of the war, Akhmerov's group reported on the operation "Crossword", during which the Americans secretly exported from Germany scientists involved in the development of new weapons.
For work in foreign intelligence, Iskhak Abdulovich was awarded two orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star.
- Who else among the famous scouts comes from the Southern Urals?
- Colonel Boris Nikodimovich Batraev. He is from the Nagaybak region. He talked about his work as much as he could. In particular, about participation in the operation "Archive B", associated with the return to the USSR of the archive of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Batraev was a resident in many countries - India, Pakistan, Ceylon, worked in the line of scientific and technical intelligence in Italy and France. There were several agents in his practice whom he attracted to work on an ideological basis. And this is considered aerobatics in intelligence.
A native of the city of Asha, Colonel Vadim Nikolaevich Sopryakov worked in the residencies of our intelligence in the countries of Southeast Asia and Japan.
He was one of the first leaders of the legendary special forces detachment of the KGB of the USSR "Cascade". He and his subordinates did a lot of good deeds in Afghanistan - thousands of lives saved, and not only Soviet citizens. Unfortunately, Vadim Nikolaevich is also no longer with us.
I cannot fail to name one more of our fellow countrymen - Vladimir Ivanovich Zavershinskiy. He, colonel-general of foreign intelligence, was born and raised in the Chesme district in the village of Tarutino. So far nothing can be said about Vladimir Ivanovich's work, everything is classified, and our generation is unlikely to find out anything. Even the list of his awards is still a mystery.
Vladimir Ivanovich is more familiar to us as a local historian and author of books on the history of the Southern Urals, including “Essays on the history of Tarutino”, “On the creation of the first Red Cossack named after Stepan Razin regiment in Troitsk” and others. He is one of the creators of the fundamental "Nominal Directory of the Cossacks of the Orenburg Army, awarded with state awards of the Russian Empire."
