[on the 40th anniversary of a wonderful film]
How I love this movie! I've watched it since the very first screening, back in August 1973. Available in black and white and colorized versions. Probably ten times. It is impossible to explain this love logically - the film is absolutely unhistorical, its plot is far-fetched, the film language is complete archaic. "And yet, knowing all your faults - I love you, dear..."
.
In this film, the scout is an intellectual, not an iron-headed shooter / pilot / motorcycle racer / boxer / etc. from infinitely monotonous "
action".
Stirlitz here, as a character, is closer to John Le Carr than to Ian Flemming. Wonderful directing by Tatyana Lioznova, excellent play by most of the actors: Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Leonid Bronevoy, Rostislav Plyatt, Oleg Tabakov, Lev Durov! And how many anecdotes spawned series! Still - at the very end of the film, when Stirlitz, walking along the side of the road and pondering whether to return to Berlin - time! and a Zhiguli and a ZIL-131 dump truck with a trailer rush past, reflected in the window of the captured Mercedes - which means victory is very close. And the scene of the meeting of Stirlitz-Isaev with his wife is a classic of cinema, better - only the scene in the shower in Hitchcock's " Psycho ". And Tariverdiev's music in the film - how much improvisation is there!
And yet, my irony is stronger than love:
No. 1. To work is like a holiday!
For most of the film, Max Otto von Stirlitz wears a black uniform. SS , perfectly sitting on the actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov. Well, remember - 100 snow-white shirts, oak leaves in buttonholes. One only" Nein!" is SS -ovsky uniform of the sample of 1934 and go to work in it after the introduction new form after 1939 - it's like wearing a tailcoat to the beach.
Information to think about:
your black uniform SS -ovsky mods stopped wearing after the formation of their own military divisions - the black uniform became a sign of a "rear rat" evading the front line. She quickly changed into a Wehrmacht field uniform in gray-green color of classical German feldgrau, which differed from the rest of the military branches only in buttonholes, the color of the edge edges and the branded skull on the cap. Policemen in the occupied territories were dressed in unclaimed uniforms, insignia were completely disputed from it.
No. 2. UniformSD.
Stirlitz's everyday uniform should be bluish-gray, like that of a very frightened mouse.
True, he appears in it once, but only for a few seconds: "Black is style!"
No. 3. Veterans only.
On the right sleeve of the black uniform of Muller and Stirlitz - V -shaped chevron. Such a chevron relied only on the eagles of the "old guard", who entered into SS until January 30, 1933, Muller enters the SS in 1934, when transferred from the political department of the Munich police to Berlin, he automatically becomes an Untersturmführer.
Stirlitz at the beginning of the 33rd year, according to the documents in general, Maxim Maksimovich Isaev.
No. 4. Party badge.
Both Stirlitz and Müller wear "Golden" party member badges NSDAP , They bigger size and has a rim of bay leaves.
It was given to veterans
NSDAPwho joined the party before 1933 (according to other sources - the first 100 thousand members of the party), less often - for party merit. Stirlitz, based on the novel by Yulian Semyonov, has been in Germany since the 33rd year, but it is known for sure about Heinrich Muller that he entered into
NSDAPin general, in 1939, he hardly wore a similar badge.
No. 5. Iron crosses of Stirlitz.
When Stirlitz is not in civilian clothes, he always wears the Iron Cross. More precisely, on the left pocket we see a first-class cross, a second-class cross was not worn, sometimes it is present in the form of a ribbon threaded through the buttonhole of a uniform, sometimes on an award block.
According to Yulian Semenov: Stirlitz is not a mishandled Cossack with forged documents - Maxim Isaev has been infiltrating Germany since 1933, joining the ranks NSDAP, then to SS , makes a career in intelligence, rises to the rank of Standartenführer (colonel - in our opinion) and it seems like he receives his Iron Cross from the hands of Hitler, which is rare for the 1st class. I wonder when he, fighting at the front, managed to make a career in political intelligence?
Because the Iron Cross is an award given solely for merit on the battlefield, and in order to receive it, you have to kill a bunch of people. The question for the Nuremberg Tribunal is where and for what money did the defendant Max von Stirlitz get his pieces of iron?
No. 6. An excellent sportsman.
On the uniform of Stirlitz, one more sign is visible - the sports sign DR L (Imperial Union of Physical Culture)
.
Wearing a sports badge at the end of the war is the same as hanging a "Ready for Labor and Defense" badge next to the Hero's Star.
No. 7. Muller award block.
If you look closely, the award block, which is above the left pocket of the uniform, on the chief of the Gestapo is assembled incorrectly. Of the 5 (!) Tapes visible on it, two are the first
apparently, for long service (?), then a ribbon of a commemorative medal for a participant in the First World War, then - like for the Anschluss of the Sudetenland and something else striped. The real Heinrich Müller awards were different.
Papa Muller's awards were different: Iron Cross 1st Class (for the First World War, repeated award), Military Merit Cross 1st Class Knight's Cross of Military Merit (with swords). Bar: Ribbons of the Iron Cross 2nd Class (re-awarding), Military Merit Cross 2nd Class (with swords), Cross of Honor of the World War 1914/1918 (with swords), Anschluss of Austria, Anschluss of the Sudetenland, Order of Military Merit "(Bavaria, World War I) and 5 more awards.
By the way, in most German awards in Soviet films 60-70s - authentic, they were transferred to the Mosfilm base after the war.
No. 8. That's the meeting!
When Heinrich Müller, walking along the corridor, meets Walter Schellenberg and Max Stirlitz, he is very surprised - Bah! Still not surprised! The Gestapo is at Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, 8 and 9, and Schellenberg's office is at Berkaerstrasse, 32. This is generally at the other end of Berlin.
No. 9. Information for thought.
In the information about Joseph Goebbels, it is reported that he was appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1944 - for the services shown in the suppression of the "Conspiracy of the Generals". In fact, he held this position from October 26, 1926, long before the Nazis came to power, and remained in it until his death on May 1, 1945.
Further it is reported: "Secondary education". In fact, Goebbels was a doctor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, in 1922 he defended his thesis on the history of drama - this is almost a specialty.
About Goering: "Education is secondary." Well, you know?! He graduated military academy in Karlsruhe and military school in Berlin "Lichterfelde" - with the highest possible sum graduation marks, for which he received personal congratulations from Kaiser Wilhelm.
№10.
This is a failure, Kat!
To the question of an imaginary "insurance agent" in the maternity hospital, where Katya Kozlova (radio operator Kat) ends up after the bombing: "Where was the insurance concluded, Frau Keen?", she answers: "At the corner of Kurfürstendamm and Kantstrasse."
These streets are parallel to each other.
No. 11. What kind of interrogations can there be?
Stirlitz takes the arrested radio operator Kate from the Gestapo. Meanwhile SD , Schellenberg's office did not have the right to make arrests in Germany. Further in the film, Stirlitz is interrogating the radio operator Kat. The political intelligence service, where Stirlitz worked hard, did not have the right to conduct investigative activities at all. Including interrogations of those arrested.
No. 11. Who are you, Pastor Schlugg?
Pastor - this is the name of a Protestant priest and he holds a service in a kirche (Protestant church). However, in Switzerland the pastor meets with his Catholic colleagues, the documents of the Gestapo indicate that the pastor is a Catholic priest. Well, the Gestapo, well, confusion!
No. 12. Come on, put my suitcase down!
The principle of operation of the Reich's special services is that each is engaged in its own narrow area, and no contacts between departments are possible in principle. According to the film, all the special services are sitting in the same building, like spiders in a jar. Stirlitz ( SD ) sees a familiar suitcase with a walkie-talkie carried by soldiers in the corridor and follows him into the office of Rolf (Gestapo): "Sleeping pills, danke schön!". What sleeping pills, all special services moan that they sleep for three hours a day!
No. 13. Secret development of the NKVD?
With a felt-tip pen, Stirlitz draws four caricatures of Himmler, Bormann, Goebbels and Goering. Where did Stirlitz most mysteriously get such a tool in 1945? The first markers go on sale in Japan on March 17, 1960.
No. 14. Doesn't burn, iron!
The "Siemens" brand recorder used by Stirlitz when recording his chatter with Bormann is actually a poorly disguised Soviet recorder "Electron-52D" of 1969, it is transistorized. The first transistor was created in 1947, after the war. Stirlitz burns in the kitchen a magnetic tape with records of the informer Klaus - in the tape recorders of that time, the recording was made on a wire coated with a magnetic composition.
No. 15. You will never be accepted into the SS.
Blonde "SS" Barbara Krain could not serve in the rank of Unterscharführer SS in the 4th department of the RSHA. Women were involved in the service only in special auxiliary units of the Wehrmacht, with their own rank system. No female officers or female sergeants in SS it didn’t even exist to imagine a situation where a woman orders a man, even lower in rank ...
When the film was shown in the GDR, they say that the Germans fell off their chairs in this place.
No. 16. What time is it Gruppenfuehrer?
The clock hanging in Muller's office is easily recognizable. Soviet brand "Slava", apparently captured. Stirlitz also has a craving for domestic products - he kills agent Klaus with a Makarov pistol. Of course, the German "Walter" is not suitable for an accurate shot.
No. 17. Edith Piaf.
On a trip with Pastor Shlag Stirlitz in a car, a song performed by Edith Piaf - "My Lord" sounds from the radio. The song was written in 1959, but the filmmakers, knowing this, deliberately went to distort the truth - it sounds very appropriate there.
"This singer will outlive herself. She will be remembered even after death."
Just like the movie itself.
Original.
Yulian Semyonov's book "Seventeen Moments of Spring", on the basis of which the television series was filmed, was largely a fiction of the writer, rather than any historically reliable story. First of all, because of this, there are many errors in the film - serious logical errors.
non-science fiction
Yulian Semyonov in many episodes showed ignorance of the topic. For example, all the Germans in the film (including those depicting the couple Stirlitz and Kat when crossing the Swiss border) wear wedding rings on the right hand, as they were all worn in the USSR, but real Germans wear them on the left. Completely invented "dossier". Personal affairs in the Third Reich in the form shown in the film did not exist, as well as expressions like "Nordic character", "merciless to the enemies of the Reich." And all SS documents were printed in Gothic, not Latin. The "dossiers" themselves are filled with distortions. For example, about Goebbels, the voice of Efim Kapelyan broadcasts behind the scenes: "Education is secondary." In fact, he was a doctor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, in 1922 he defended his thesis on the history of drama. Kapelyan's statement that Goebbels was appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1944 (for the valor shown in suppressing the rebellion) is also incorrect: he was appointed to this position on October 26, 1926 and remained in office until his death on May 1, 1945. About Goering Kapelyan too says: "secondary education", although he graduated from the Military Academy in Karlsruhe and the military school in Berlin Lichterfelde - with the highest possible sum of graduation marks, for which he was personally congratulated by Kaiser Wilhelm. Why did Semenov need to hide higher education Goebbels and Goering is incomprehensible, because the negative attitude of the people towards these individuals is based not on their education or lack of education, but on the crimes they committed.
strange neighbors
When Heinrich Müller, walking along the corridor, met Walter Schellenberg and Max Stirlitz, he was very surprised. The head of the Gestapo should not be surprised: after all, the 4th Directorate (Gestapo) and the 6th Directorate (political intelligence) were located in different buildings, the distance between which exceeded 10 km. Gestapo - at Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, 8 (Müller's office was in a neighboring building - in former hotel"Prinz Albercht" at Prinz-Albrechtstrasse 9), and Schellenberg's office was located in a building at Berkaerstrasse 32 - on the other side of the city. For this reason, the scene is also absurd when Stirlitz, leaving his office, meets soldiers carrying a suitcase with a walkie-talkie to Rolf's nearby office. Rolf served in the Gestapo - and therefore his office could not be adjacent to Stirlitz's office. The interrogations conducted by Stirlitz are also ridiculous, as is his arrest of Katya Kozlova (Kat), since the Schellenberg department did not have the right to make arrests in Germany. Moreover, the political intelligence service, where Stirlitz worked, did not have the right to conduct investigative activities at all, including interrogations of those arrested.
Amateur Stirlitz
I don't understand myself professional training scout Isaev, who, having passed during the air raid into the special communications center and called Bormann, began to grab the pipes with his bare hands (and not through a handkerchief). There are only two explanations: either Stirlitz had never heard of the existence of fingerprints in his life, or Stirlitz did not have a handkerchief in his Russian habit. By the way, it is also unclear why the special communications center was suddenly left without a single person on duty, although nearby in the corridor the sentries remained at their posts.
Parasite Stirlitz
The film demonstrates a complete rush in the RSHA: work through the roof, everyone works without sleep for several days, sleeps only a couple of hours. Muller, summoned on the "case" of Stirlitz, admits in Kaltenbrunner's office that his eyes are red because he has not slept for several nights. Then Aisman (Kuravlev), already called by Muller on the same Stirlitz "case", says the same thing about himself - he did not sleep for three days, his dream is to sleep for 7 hours. Muller, as a reward for Eisman's guarantee for Stirlitz's honesty, allows him to sleep for 5 hours. He is extremely happy. Against the background of this total emergency, Stirlitz looks like a complete parasite. It seems that he also casually complained a couple of times that, they say, there is not enough time. But at the same time resting in country house while cutting spruce branches, plays with street dogs, hangs out every day in bars where he drinks beer and cognac, reads newspapers and plays chess, just brings home the ladies he knows from the bar, where he drinks with them and dances. In general, he has fun as much as he can, while his workmates do not sleep for three days. Moreover, Stirlitz is so tired of rest and entertainment that he, it turns out, has “sleep problems”! When he sees a suitcase with a walkie-talkie carried in the corridor and follows him into Rolf's office, he finds nothing more stupid than asking for sleeping pills as an excuse. Efim Kapelyan's voice-over: "Now if someone asks Rolf why Stirlitz came to him, he will answer that he came for sleeping pills." The most awkward pretext in the period of emergency in the RSHA. On the contrary, such an “excuse” will alert everyone, because people don’t sleep for three days and are happy to sleep at least 5 hours on the fourth, and Stirlitz alone in the RSHA, you see, goes to Rolf for sleeping pills ...
The Adventures of the Yellow Suitcase
The whole intrigue of the plot revolves around a suitcase with a walkie-talkie, on which Stirlitz's fingerprints allegedly remained. But where could they come from, if the film clearly shows that Stirlitz was wearing gloves all the time during the last out-of-town communication session? Here, perhaps, the filmmakers did not watch. But here is a flaw already of Yulian Semenov himself: Stirlitz builds his alibi on the fact that he allegedly helped some unknown lady to carry a stroller and supposedly some suitcases. The film shows that Stirlitz was wearing gloves at that time. Why on earth could his prints be on those things? Suppose Stirlitz understood this and just wanted to fool Muller. But in this case, Mueller appears - at the suggestion of Yulian Semenov - a complete blockhead, believing in the stories of Stirlitz, because Stirlitz was that day in the form of an SS officer, and in February she provides for the mandatory wearing of leather gloves along with a leather coat. But since Stirlitz was dressed in uniform, then how could he leave fingerprints on the things of a certain lady, whom he helped to move her belongings?
"Heil Stirlitz!"
This flaw of the author with fingerprints makes the book and the film unconvincing, and the very ability of Stirlitz to extricate himself from suspicions under stupid pretexts became the basis for numerous anecdotes, because the people feel these abnormalities. Moreover, one of the anecdotes about himself is stated by Stirlitz himself in a conversation with his radio operator: they say, when entrusting such tasks, there in the Center they think that Stirlitz is well received by Hitler; they say, it’s not bad to break into the Fuhrers - “Heil Stirlitz!”. Apparently, Yulian Semenov himself understood the anecdotal nature of this fictional character (and his entire work), when the desire to show the successes of Soviet intelligence as high as possible as a scout in the camp of the enemy leads to absurdity - this is already in its place in the Reich not a scout, but one of the leaders fascist state.
Stirlitz's wife
Another fantastic fiction of Yulian Semenov is that Stirlitz somehow managed to rise to the rank of SS Standartenführer (similar to the rank of colonel in the Wehrmacht), while remaining a bachelor. This is ABSOLUTELY excluded, because SS officers, strictly following Hitler's order to reproduce the population (elite SS bloodlines), were OBLIGED to marry by the age of 30 and have as much as possible more children. This, of course, Semyonov knew perfectly well, but somehow "didn't go to bed" in moral character Soviet intelligence officer, his German family with a German woman and a pack of kids from the Hitler Youth. Therefore, I had to lie - they say, in the entire SS system, only one person was a bachelor - Stirlitz. Although it was precisely for this sign that he would have been immediately exposed. The sentimental scene of a meeting in a bar with a wife brought from the USSR is no less stupid. What's the point of sitting and looking at each other for 10 minutes in front of everyone? There is no surveillance of Stirlitz in 1935, he is beyond any suspicion - and he may well retire with his wife anywhere (after all, he retired to kill the provocateur Klaus). And retire not for 10 minutes, but for several days. And most importantly: why do other intelligence officers conduct subversive work as a family - Kat and her husband, a radio operator, and for Stirlitz, the Center did not pick up a spy wife? This seems illogical and inconsistent - precisely from the point of view of the Center, for who knows, this Stirlitz-Isaev: he will starve for female body, fall in love with a German woman - and the collapse of everything. In order to avoid this, the Center was OBLIGED to give him a wife, also a scout. But again - this "spoils" the image of the Soviet intelligence officer in the eyes of the audience. It is much more profitable to present him as such a loner.
Killing Klaus
Stirlitz takes the provocateur Klaus into the forest and shoots him there. Question: why did you have to kill him at all? According to the idea of the book and the film, Semyonov was supposed to show that Stirlitz not only worked in the RSHA, but also did something anti-fascist. For example, he killed a provocateur. In fact, Stirlitz was introduced into the RSHA not so that he would shoot provocateurs there - because the System itself breeds them and you can’t shoot them all. And the murder of a provocateur threatens with exposure, failure. Therefore, spies are not allowed to take such risks. This act of Stirlitz, purely emotional (judging by the film and the acting of the actor) is senseless and dangerous. But if Stirlitz's task is to kill the Nazis, then why didn't he kill Bormann at a personal meeting with him - in Bormann's car at night, in the gateway? And no one would have caught Stirlitz, because only two people knew about the meeting - Bormann and Stirlitz. Instead, Stirlitz grovels before Bormann, greets him helpfully, takes off his glasses to show his face, and recalls what remark Bormann said when Stirlitz was awarded the Iron Cross (about the face of a mathematician). Yes, a real communist, rejoicing at such an opportunity, would have immediately discharged a pistol clip into Bormann - and by doing this he would have fulfilled his duty to the Motherland in excess. But Stirlitz for some reason takes a huge risk of failure, killing some useless provocateur Klaus, but when he meets Hitler's right hand - Bormann himself - he considers it an honor to meet him. Okay, even if in this situation, Stirlitz needed to use Bormann as a counterbalance to Himmler, but he could have lured Bormann out for a “personal meeting” with some kind of disinformation before - and killed right hand Hitler: did not, although he could have. With Bormann, this is only one episode, but with the leaders of the SS, Stirlitz has been engaged in familiarity for many years, although he could have poisoned everyone for a long time without any suspicion. He is a regular visitor to the offices of Schellenberg, Kaltenbrunner, Reichsführer SS Himmler (being everyone's favorite). According to the film, he walks with Schellenberg even on football matches, and with the rest constantly drinks at receptions. Why didn't he poison them all? In parallel with obtaining intelligence? Finally, Stirlitz, a member of the NSDAP since 1933, hundreds of times participated in party events and meetings with the participation of Adolf Hitler. And had huge opportunities destroy Hitler: and plant a bomb, or even go up and shoot him. Stirlitz would have shot him at the beginning of 1941 - and there would have been no Great Patriotic War. Why didn't he shoot? After all, one shot of Stirlitz could save tens of millions of lives? In this understanding, Stirlitz looks like a sinister figure: he could save the peoples of the USSR from German aggression, but did not do this, although, being an SS Standartenführer, he knew about the impending war and could kill Hitler, preventing the war itself. Instead of Hitler, he only kills the provocateur Klaus - with his capabilities as an SS Standartenführer!
Anti-fascist underground
The same questions for me, as for any sane person, arose in connection with the scene when Stirlitz arrives at the church for the funeral of Professor Karl Pleischner (a specialist in the treatment of kidney diseases). The voice-over tells that the professor was one of the leaders of the German Resistance, and Stirlitz worked with him. But then the head of the RSHA Ernst Kaltenbrunner (chief of the Gestapo and SD services) arrives at the professor's funeral, who, as it turns out, was also a kidney patient treated by the professor. The question arises: what kind of “Resistance” is this, where its leader Karl Pleischner, at the suggestion of Stirlitz, treats the sick kidneys of the head of the RSHA? He had to heal and kill him. Instead, the peppy and cured Pleischner Kaltenbrunner comes to the funeral to thank his savior. Absurd and pret. In fact, Kaltenbrunner was never a kidney patient, all this was invented by Yulian Semenov only for the purpose of bringing the head of the RSHA here and showing how Kaltenbrunner pats the professor's son on the cheek (they say he adopted Hitler's gesture). That's all. For the purely fictional and art scene patting a child on the cheek Yulian Semyonov discredits the German Resistance itself, making him Kaltenbrunner's healers.
Iron Cross Stirlitz
"17 Moments of Spring" is, of course, complete non-historical fiction. It is precisely this fantasticness that the film fell in love with the people. The most obvious main question: since Stirlitz only does what frustrates all the plans of the SD and SS (thwarts the destruction of Krakow, releases German physicists from prisons, etc.), then HOW HE GENERALLY RELEASED to the rank of SS Standartenführer (that is, colonel)? For what such merits? Or was he promoted precisely for his failures at work? The peculiarity of the situation is that Stirlitz does not pretend to be an SS veteran (he is not a mishandled intelligence officer with fake SS documents, such as in the film “Shield and Sword”), but he himself SERVED to his rank, with his work for the good of Germany he got it. And besides, Adolf Hitler personally handed him the Iron Cross (an analogue of the “Hero of the Soviet Union”) - which they don’t give to anyone anyway. It is clear that only the most notorious Nazi and scoundrel, whose hands are up to the elbow in blood, can become an SS Standartenführer. And if an SS veteran also has an Iron Cross, then this is generally complete scum. And it turns out that under the guise of such a geek all these years a Soviet intelligence officer was hiding. Who for years competed in his career with hundreds of other Nazis, no less willing to advance through the ranks and demonstrating their Nazism in practice. It is absolutely impossible to make a career in the SS, almost reaching the rank of general (SS Brigadeführer), but at the same time not be involved in the crimes of the SS. Yes, the history of intelligence knows examples when intelligence colonels became traitors. But they were RECRUITED, having already gone up the career ladder to this rank, being honest and zealous patriots of their country in their careers. And here Julian Semenov comes up with the unheard of: Maxim Isaev in 1933 joins the ranks of the NSDAP, joins the SS, rises to the rank of colonel, receiving from the hands of Hitler the highest award Nazis - Iron Cross. For what exactly Hitler gives this award to Stirlitz - Semenov prudently keeps silent, because here his imagination is already powerless: this is not the Order of Friendship of Peoples, but an award for Nazi crimes. And clarifications will reveal the truth: Stirlitz is a Nazi. If a random bomb had killed Schellenberg, then Stirlitz (the most promising employee and "favorite" of the leadership) would automatically take his general position, entering the leadership of the SD apparatus. A little more zeal - and would have taken the place of Kaltenbrunner or, you see, the Reichsführer SS Himmler himself. As I wrote above, this is already in its place in the Reich not a scout, but one of the leaders of the fascist state. And here is the situation: Stirlitz is going to be judged at the Tribunal in Nuremberg as an SS general and head of the SD, and he confesses to the dumbfounded allies - yes, I am mine, I am a Soviet intelligence officer! Have to let go. And since not only the intelligence of the USSR was actively working, but the intelligence of the allies did not cool off, then after that it turns out that Muller is a British intelligence officer, Goebbels is a US intelligence officer, Bormann is a French spy, and Adolf Hitler himself is a recruited agent of the New Zealand intelligence services . The tribunal has to be closed due to the absence of the defendants themselves... So the whole history of the Second World War, at the suggestion of Yulian Semyonov, turns into a joke.
From whose biographies the prototype of the most beloved Soviet intelligence officer was formed
Elusive Stirlitz ( Maxim Maksimovich Isaev) - the most adored intelligence officer in the Soviet and post-Soviet culture. None of these characters even come close to his fame. Anyone who has ever watched the movie Tatyana Lioznova"Seventeen Moments of Spring", the question arose: was Stirlitz there? And if so, how was his fate?
Who are you, Maxim Maksimych?
Unanimous opinion about who could serve as the prototype of the famous Standartenfuehrer for Yuliana Semenova, the author of the epic about Stirlitz, is still not there. In the late 60s, the writer was given an honorable task: to write an ideologically inspiring work about the feat of a Soviet intelligence officer.
In order for the plot to correspond to reality as much as possible, by personal order Yuri Andropov(at that time the chairman of the KGB) the writer was allowed to enter the holy of holies, was allowed to see the documents, which, as they say, must be burned before reading. Thus, in the biography of Stirlitz, facts from the life of several Soviet residents were intertwined.
Or a spy or a champion
Stirlitz, as you know, was the tennis champion of Berlin. Among the Soviet intelligence officers, only one professionally owned a racket, and also played football very well -. But to be a spy and at the same time a real champion in any sport is simply impossible - an athlete needs constant training, and the best among them is always under the most close attention various organizations, press and just curious.
For Alexander, the path to intelligence began precisely from the tennis court, where he was noticed by representatives of domestic special services. Soon, on the recommendation, he came to work at the Lubyanka. He began his journey in a very unusual way - as an elevator operator, and only then “went upstairs”.
At first there was a boring position of a clerk in the foreign department. But the guy liked it and was sent for individual training: he learned to wield several types of weapons, perfectly studied German, completed a course in driving a car and after a few years was sent abroad.
Korotkov led a group created to eliminate traitors to the motherland, and worked in France. Already in the late 30s, his name was well known to those who were supposed to. But before the onset of the new year, 1939, Korotkov, along with several colleagues, was obliged to appear at Beria, who informed the agents that they were no longer needed.
Korotkov was furious. He decided on the unprecedented: he wrote Lavrenty Pavlovich a letter in which he dared to demand, without unnecessary "curtseys", that he be reinstated at work. To everyone's amazement, no tragic consequences did not happen: on the contrary, Korotkov was returned and sent to serve in Berlin.
There is a version that it was he who first transferred Germany to the USSR back in March 1941. In the early 40s, being under close surveillance, Korotkov managed to establish contact with the underground group "Red Chapel" and sent their valuable information to the USSR and the allied countries.
Good guy in a hat
Another prototype of Stirlitz is considered to be a scout who worked under the pseudonym Breitenbach. It was he who, on June 19, 1941, transmitted information to the USSR that in three days Germany would attack Soviet Union. It was, at one time he himself expressed a desire to work for Soviet intelligence - he categorically did not share the fascist ideology. Like Stirlitz, Leman was a Gestapo officer, an SS Hauptsturmführer, and of all intelligence officers, he held a position most similar to that prepared by Yulian Semenov for his Stirlitz.
But Leman certainly looked strikingly different from the handsome Tikhonov. The bald little kind man with poor health did not arouse suspicion in anyone; it was impossible to think that he was an enemy agent.
Meanwhile, the information transmitted by him was the most valuable: it concerned the production of self-propelled guns, the development chemical weapons And newest species fuel, as well as changes in the personnel of the German intelligence services and secret plans Gestapo.
Leman sewed his reports into the lining of his hat. Another Soviet agent, whom Leman met in a cafe, had exactly the same one. There was an imperceptible exchange of headdresses, and, as they say, it's in the hat.
When Leman was exposed in 1942, the top of the SS was in shock: for 13 years they were led by the nose by a Soviet agent! Leman was hastily shot by order Himmler, and his case was urgently destroyed before it reached the Fuhrer. The Lehman family found out about true reasons his death only after the end of the war.
rich heir
Another prototype of Stirlitz -. Having won for the Spanish Republicans in the mid-30s, he returned to Moscow and received an offer to become a scout. His specialization was encrypted radio communications.
Gurevich started the case in Brussels, where he received a pseudonym Vincent Sierra. Then he became a member of the famous "Red Chapel", where he acquired the call sign Kent. While working in Brussels, Anatoly married the daughter of a local wealthy industrialist and, probably, the only real Soviet people, became a wealthy heir to "unearned income".
It was thanks to the information transmitted by Gurevich that the Red Army was able to win several important victories autumn 1941. But almost at the same time, evil fate overtook Gurevich: his transmitter was located, the codes were hacked, and the German counterintelligence was connected to the radio game. The scout and his wife managed to escape to France, but they were soon arrested. Only then Margaret found out that her husband was a Soviet spy. The lady was not pleased at all.
Miraculously, the couple managed to survive, but their marriage was doomed. When the war ended, Anatoly broke up with his wife and returned to Russia. Here again a prison was waiting for him - the leaders of Soviet intelligence were not going to stand on ceremony with a failed agent. Gurevich was “weighed out” for 25 years for treason, but nevertheless he was released a little earlier, in 1960. All charges against the intelligence officer were dropped only after 30 years, and Gurevich himself lived to be 96 years old and died in Moscow in 2009.
Yulian Semenov himself repeatedly said that one of the main prototypes of Stirlitz was, whom the writer knew personally. Norman's father Mikhail Borodin- ally Lenin- he himself was a Soviet intelligence officer, worked in diplomatic mission in China, served as adviser to the then Chinese leader Sun Yat Sen. When Sun Yat-sen died, it became very dangerous to stay in the East. Soviet diplomats managed to take Borodin out of the country, and his son, 16-year-old Norman, was transported to the USSR as part of ballet troupe Isadora Duncan who was touring in China at the time. The handsome young man was dressed as a girl.
Norman spoke English like a native. Already at the age of 19, he worked in the foreign department of the NKVD, and the first task was entrusted to him when the guy was 25 years old: he went to the USA as an illegal resident, receiving a pseudonym Granite. Despite such a nickname, the position of the agent was extremely vulnerable: he could not even count on the help of the Soviet embassy. After the betrayal of one of his colleagues, Borodin was urgently recalled from the States, but upon his return to Moscow he was fired from intelligence. He managed to return only with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
He was sent to Berlin where he established a reliable network. At the same time, under the guise of a volunteer, Norman worked in the Swiss branch of the Red Cross.
After returning to Moscow, Borodin became a correspondent, and in vain! He was completely disillusioned with Soviet reality. Former spy even wrote to Stalin: does the great leader know what is going on around him? The "answer" was the arrest of his father, who, unable to bear the torture, died in prison.
Then it was the son's turn. But Borodin Jr. was lucky: he was sent to Karaganda. There he met Yulian Semyonov and the brothers Weiners. Hearing incredible story life of Borodin, Semenov asked permission to use part of Norman's biography in a new novel about Stirlitz.
Some time after Stalin's death, Borodin was able to return to Moscow, all charges against him were dropped, he again worked in the KGB. Borodin took an active part in the work on the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" as a consultant. But the credits indicate his fictitious name: Andropov ordered to be classified.
From tragedy to anecdote
Some researchers also consider the prototypes of Stirlitz Mikhail Mikhalkov, brother famous writer, as well as a young employee of the Cheka Yakov Blyumkin whose activities in Soviet intelligence also ended with arrests, and in the case of Blumkin, with execution.
As a prototype of Stirlitz is often mentioned Richard Sorge, who became Soviet intelligence officer No. 1. But a detailed study of his biography casts doubt on this version, there are practically no coincidences in the biographies of the real and literary intelligence officers, except that they both worked in Shanghai for some time.
The invented Stirlitz with recognition of merit was a little more fortunate than real intelligence officers. There is a legend that Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, being a big fan of the film about Stirlitz, somehow asked if Isaev was given a Hero. Having received no answer to the question, Brezhnev ordered that this be done immediately.
