Operation "Monastery"
It was November 1941 of the year. In one of the rooms of the shelter of the Novodevichy Monastery a samovar puffed on the table. The poet Boris Sadovsky who lived here and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna received a guest - Alexander Demyanova, who worked as an engineer in the Glavkinoprokat. The former leader of the Noble Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod, Prince Glebov, was also at the table. He also lived in a shelter. Here, over tea, they gathered to talk about the successes of the German troops advancing on all fronts.
A circle of like-minded people hoped that after reigning in Moscow, the German leadership would again establish a monarchy in Russia, they would argue about who deserves the Russian throne now.
They lived in their own world, as if not noticing reports of atrocities committed by German troops in the occupied lands.
In this circle, monarchists warmly greeted engineer Alexander Demyanov and treated him with full confidence. Here they knew the history of his ancient family. Demyanov's great-grandfather - Anton Holovaty was the first ataman of the Kuban Cossack army. Alexander's mother, who graduated from the Bestuzhev courses, was considered one of the first beauties of St. Petersburg. She was often invited to high-society balls. One of her admirers was Colonel Sergei Ulugay, during the years of the Civil War, distinguished by brutal cruelty to the captive Red Army men. During the years of emigration he lived in France. Unlike his other fellow soldiers, he began to cooperate with the Nazis.
The years of the Civil War, Alexander, together with his mother spent in Anapa. Here he saw the horrors of white and red terror. Their family was in poverty. They received the news: in 1915, he died from wounds received at the front of the First World War, the head of the family - Peter Demyanov. They returned to St. Petersburg. Alexander entered the Polytechnic Institute. But as unreliable he was soon expelled. How frankly told me IA Shchors, the security officers themselves threw his gun in a suitcase, and then "accidentally" found. Since then, Alexander Demyanov began to perform tasks of state security bodies. He was given the pseudonym "Heine." He moved to Moscow. At Mosfilm, where he often visited, he met Tatiana Berezantseva, who worked as an assistant director on many and still famous movies. Young have played a wedding, settling in a new apartment in the center of Moscow. In their hospitable house, they often held parties to which famous artists, athletes, and employees of foreign embassies came.
When the war began, Alexander Demyanov wrote a statement asking him to send him to the front in the cavalry unit. But state security officers told Demyanov-Heine that he was to perform a particularly responsible task.
As early as July 1941, the development of a covert operation, which was given the code name "Monastery", began in the state security organs. “It was decided to create a mythical monarchist underground organization supposedly capable of working in favor of the German army,” Shchors told me. “Why, in such an alarming time as the beginning of the war, was to create in Moscow a secret underground organization that is ready to provide its services to the Germans?” I wondered. “In Moscow and other cities we already had to capture German intelligence officers who landed on parachutes or crossed the front line,” said Igor Alexandrovich. - They had walkie-talkies with them weapon. The management of our intelligence decided in advance to provide them with addresses where the German agents will be met in an appropriate manner. Remember the famous movie "Operation" Trust. " It is based on real events that took place in the 20s. At the beginning of the war, this experience was in demand.
The key role in the operation “Monastery” was assigned to Alexander Demyanov. ” This operation was led by the chief of the 4 State Security Directorate, P.A. Sudoplatov, which today is called the "legend of Soviet intelligence."
Alexander Demyanov had to perform a difficult and risky task. He had to cross the front line, surrender to the Germans and try to convince German intelligence that there really was an underground monarchist organization in Moscow that was ready to provide services to German agents. At the beginning of December 1941, Alexander Demyanov arrived at the orphanage of the Novodevichy Convent in military uniform. He told Boris Sadovsky and his associates that he had received a summons and was leaving for the front. But he is not going to fight - he will go to the Germans at the first opportunity. The residents of the shelter met his plan with approval. Boris Sadovsky even read him an excerpt from his new poem, glorifying the German army.
... In the middle of December 1941, Alexander Demyanov was brought to the front edge of the front near Mozhaisk. He embarked on a ski, took a stick on which he wound a towel, shouting: “Do not shoot! I surrender to captivity! ”Rushed toward the German advanced. German, he knew from childhood.
In the German trench, he was treated like an ordinary prisoner. But the defector insistently asked: he needs to meet with the officers of the Abwehr. He has an important message. Alexander Demyanova was sent to a concentration camp near Smolensk. Here he was led to the officers of the Abwehr. He was subjected to brutal interrogations. And once they said: let him tell the truth - who sent him, or they will immediately shoot him. Demyanova was taken out into the courtyard, set against a wooden wall. Before him are soldiers with weapons. The command and the weapon salvo was distributed.
On top of it fell wooden chips. Demyanov, already saying goodbye to life, understood - they were shooting over their heads. He endured and this test.
After the alleged execution of Alexander Demyanova placed in a private apartment. Here, the Abwehr officers taught him how to work with a walkie-talkie, a cipher case, and also explain what information he should try to collect in Moscow and transfer to the German intelligence center.
“Really believe?” - Alexander Demyanov doubted. But he had another test. He was transported to Minsk and again settled in a private house. He noticed that the neighbors were watching him closely. Ask questions, careless answers to which could lead to failure. A group of partisans, tortured, in bruises, was led past the windows. The guards mercilessly beat them with whips. Neighbors tried to call Alexander to talk, pointing to a column of prisoners, but he was silent and slid the curtains.
The day came when Alexander Demyanov was announced - he was flying to Russia. The Germans gave him the pseudonym "Max." 15 March, 1942, he landed with a parachute near Rybinsk, Yaroslavl region.
As Shchors told me, kolkhozniks noticed in Demyanov’s field and pounced on him with beatings: at night they heard the roar of an airplane, some saw a parachute canopy. Pushing with a pitchfork, the collective farmers brought Demyanov to the collective farm board.
Demyanov asked to call the Yaroslavl Directorate of the NKVD. Soon, together with the chairman of the collective farm, he went to Yaroslavl by truck.
Demyanov opens the door to the head of the Yaroslavl State Security Directorate. "I need to call Moscow." And calls the phone number. He hears the familiar voice of PA Sudoplatov says only two words: “He reports to Heine. On the same day, he is sent by car to Moscow.
The Germans supplied him with a walkie-talkie, and two weeks later Demyanov went on the air. It transmits “encryption” written under the direction of P.A. Sudoplatova, and agreed with the General Staff of the Red Army. Sending Demyanov to Russia, Abwehr officers gave him such an order: first of all, he should observe the transport of military equipment and military echelons. Such reports will help determine - in which section of the front an offensive is being prepared. According to the walkie-talkie, information about the trains, allegedly loaded, went to the German intelligence center tanks and artillery pieces.
“Composing these“ encryption ”, we had to be very careful, - said Shchors. “We didn’t know, maybe there are German agents near the railways, who also monitor and check Demyanov’s messages.” In order not to let him down, on the day when he allegedly noticed military cargo, trains were launched by rail with platforms on which they loaded logs and covered them with a tarpaulin. These trains were moving at high speed, and the impression was created from the side: guns or tanks were sent. ”
In one of the "encryption" Demyanov conveyed that his batteries are failing. We also need money. “We had to make sure that the German intelligence center trusted Demyanov,” explained I.A. Schors. “And the started radio game is not wasted.” Demyanov was informed that couriers would arrive. The chain of connections was thought out very ingeniously. Demyanov said in one of the “ciphers” that couriers must first come to his wife’s father, a famous neurologist Berezantsev, who had a private practice in Moscow, which was rare then. Couriers must come to him under the guise of patients and call the password. Professor Berezantsev knew about the operation "Monastery" and agreed to participate in it. Berezantsev will have to inform Demyanov about the arrival of couriers.
The first were two couriers - Stankevich and Shakurov. Delivered batteries and money. In the evening, Demianov poured sleeping pills into their tea, and when they fell asleep, he disarmed them. Happy couriers were arrested. One of them, Stankevich, agreed to cooperate with Soviet intelligence. He will transmit "encryption" on the radio, which he brought with him. As for Shakurov, he began to play up, lie. Demyanov handed over to the German intelligence center that Shakurov was behaving carelessly, appearing at train stations, often getting drunk. He can jeopardize the whole operation. From the German intelligence center received an order: "Shakurov must be eliminated."
Now in the operation "Monastery" worked two radio. On one - Demyanov, on the other - Stankevich. The most important stage of the operation was advancing. Demyanov said that he allegedly managed to get a job as a liaison officer in the General Staff of the Red Army. His position is small. But something interesting he manages to learn. So at the beginning of November 1942, he conveyed information that the groupings of Soviet troops were being deployed under Rzhev. By order of the Stavka of the Soviet High Command, G.K. Zhukov arrives on the Rzhev front in those days, who was called: "General, go ahead!"
The German General Staff believed that a major offensive by the Soviet troops was planned near Rzhev. The enemy is transferring his powerful military formations to this combat area.
All "encryption", which at this time passed Demyanov, claimed General Shtemenko, head of the operational department of the General Staff of the Red Army. About this operational radio game "Monastery" there were reports to Stalin.
The offensive near Rzhev began on the day exactly passed by Demyanov on the radio. But it was just a diversion. In those days, a decisive offensive of our troops was being prepared at Stalingrad, as a result of which the 300-thousandth enemy grouping would be routed and captured by its commander Field Marshal Paulus. In this great Victory there is merit of Demyanov, whose radiograms helped mislead the enemy. The German forces concentrated near Rzhev could not be redeployed to Stalingrad in a short time.
“Has the German intelligence never tried to test Demyanov?” I tried everything at Shchors. “They constantly tried to check. Couriers came, sending a pre-radiogram, and appeared without any warning. Stopped him on the street: "Allow me to smoke?". And they called the password. In total, we detained 50 couriers who knew the addresses of Demyanov and Professor Berezantsev. A few were sent back to the front line, so that they could confirm that the monarchical organization in Moscow is operating and is ready to meet the Germans. We carefully guarded Demyanova. Let's say a romantic couple is standing near a tree, next to his porch. And in fact - these are our employees. And so on to his door. We usually met in a taxi. In the car they gave him new tasks and took German messages from him.
Once, in order to maintain the authority of Demyanov in the eyes of the German command, they even set off a fire at a defense plant in the Urals.
They set fire to an old empty warehouse, which they were going to demolish. There was a lot of smoke and noise in the newspapers: “Enemy sabotage” ”and so on.
“But what about the monarchists who lived in the Novodevichy Convent?” I asked Shchors. “They, too, were guarded and would not let German saboteurs go to them,” said Igor Alexandrovich. - Yes, and what could they tell? What are waiting for the Germans and accession to the throne of the new king? This Demyanov reported in the Abwehr. In addition, these monarchists were elderly and frail people. Boris Sadovsky, for example, could not even move independently. He was taken in a wheelchair. And the Germans, if they penetrated beyond the gates of the Novodevichy Convent, could be convinced of this. ”
Operation Monastery continued until the very end of the war. In 1944, it acquired a new form.
As written by PA Sudoplatov in his memoirs, in April 1944 of the year, together with Deputy Eitingon, were summoned to a meeting by I.V. Stalin. General Shtemenko was also present here, he read the order, which instructed state security officers to arrange a false “German camp” in Belarus. To create the impression that the surrounded German unit makes its way to the west and asks to supply it with weapons, ammunition and uniforms. The task was set in general terms. It had to be carefully designed.
And again an important role was assigned to Demyanov. He told the German intelligence center that he was being sent on a business trip to Belarus. There, in the Minsk region, during the interrogation of a prisoner of war, he allegedly learned that a large German group, being surrounded, was trying to break through to the west. Among them are many wounded, who are being taken on carts. German soldiers are asked to deliver food, medicine, weapons, Soviet uniforms and money to them on airplanes.
“It was necessary to find the commander of this legendary German unit,” said I.A. Schors. - To this end, I was sent to Krasnogorsk, where the camp of German prisoners of war officers. I went through the file cabinet. He stopped his choice on Lieutenant Colonel Sherhorn, who served in the rear forces. There was another circumstance that influenced my choice. Sherhorn, like me, was fluent in French. It was easier for me to talk to him. Sherhorn was 50 years old. He said that he was tired of the war, he would like to return to his wife and children. My mistake in choosing a German officer could have cost me a head. But I decided to introduce PA Sherhorn. Sudoplatovu. At that harsh time, we had modest opportunities. Let's say I could not send the car. How to get to Moscow? I made a risky decision. Led Sherhorn in a regular train wagon. Imagine the indignation of passengers who saw a German lieutenant colonel next to a Soviet officer. From us all scared shy.
P.A. Sudoplatov thoroughly questioned Sherhorn and approved his candidacy. In general terms, it is dedicated to our plan.
... In August, 1944, around the village of Glukhoe, Minsk region, strange events began to occur. German tents were set up on the former partisan base. Soldiers and officers appeared in German uniform. Gathered dozens of our warriors who spoke German. So the operation began under the code name "Berezino". In those days, as a result of the successful operation "Bagration", many cities and villages of Belarus were liberated.
Thousands of German soldiers who had fallen into the environment roamed the forests. The German command lost contact with them.
The Soviet radio operator, who was near Sherhorn, handed over the coordinates of the “Sherhorn Camp” to the German command. Soon a German plane appeared over this area. Three domes opened in the sky. No sooner had the Germans rolled up their parachutes, as they were called out in German and led to the "staff tent" where Sherhorn was located. He was sitting on a map freaked out.
Arriving paratroopers were offered lunch at the “dining tent”. Here they were arrested. In a war in such a situation, there is only one choice: life or death. The senior group arrived turned out to be a radio operator. He agreed to pass encryption dictation Sherhorn. Soon his radiogram went to the German intelligence center: “The camp of Sherhorn was found.” Then followed a solid list - what the inhabitants of this camp need.
Why was this whole operation conceived? Her script was complex and multifaceted. First of all, Sudoplatov and his deputies wanted to mislead the German officers who led the troops in those areas where the "Sherhorn group" was stationed, which allegedly grew steadily. It poured new "surroundings".
Sherhorn transmitted a radiogram that his group would fight their way to their own. Indicated the village, where the planned breakthrough. I asked for a meeting - to strengthen this area, to wait for its signal flares. German officers said they were waiting for the signal of Sherhorn. But he sent a new radiogram - “The breakthrough location was chosen poorly. Powerful Russian fortifications were discovered here. In order not to suffer heavy losses, the group is moving north. ” And so several times Cherhorn changed places where, allegedly, a breakthrough of his “group” across the front line was planned. The enemy was spending money, moving his troops to save Sherhorn. Soon, Sherhorn announced that he had divided his grouping into nine parts in order to make it easier to make his way through the Soviet rear. Each group had its own radio. Many radiograms sent from different regions of Belarus brought confusion to the actions of the German headquarters, which received an order to save the group of Sherhorn, which breaks through with fights, blows up bridges, arranges sabotage. These radiograms were composed by the state security officer MB. Maklyarsky, who became a famous writer after the war. He will write the scripts of the movies "The feat of the scout", "Secret Mission" and others.
Of course, the German intelligence center in Belarus tried to check Demyanova and Sherhorn. They received a radio message demanding to name the names of the officers in the camp of Sherhorn. Shchors traveled to the Krasnogorsky camp of German prisoners of war, rewrote 300 surnames, the numbers of the units in which they served. This solid radiogram was transmitted to the German intelligence center.
The performance, invented by Soviet intelligence, continued successfully. Sherhorn in radiograms asked me to bring them weapons, foodstuffs, medicines.
At his request, parachutes dropped hundreds of sets of Soviet military uniforms, as well as two million rubles of Soviet money, and not fake, but genuine banknotes. All containers were carefully selected by the fighters of the special purpose brigade. Meanwhile, Sherhorn reported that no containers were found, they fell into a swamp, crashed during a fall and asked to help his grouping again, because the soldiers are in distress.
“Let the German factories work for the Red Army,” smiled PA Sudoplatov. “I remember how the whole bales of cotton wool and bandages, as well as medicines dropped by Germans from airplanes, were sent by our officers to hospitals and medical battalions,” Schors said.
After the war, Otto Skorzeny published a book, saboteur No. 1, as he was called in Germany. He became known for having disarmed guards, took out of imprisonment the leader of the Italian fascists, Benito Mussolini, and brought him to Berlin. It was Otto Skorzeny who received the order: “To save the Sherhorn grouping, to help it unite with its troops. Otto Skorzeny wrote in his book: “The Magnificent news: a Sherhorn squad exists and was found! ”In Otto's book, Skorzeny wrote about the scale of supply for Sherhorn's squadron:“ The 200 squadron sent several planes to supply the camp lost in the forest. Now we had to satisfy the most urgent needs of the Sherhorn squadron, which had been completely isolated for almost three months and was deprived of literally everything. ” The air bridge, which was used to supply the Red Army, acted with German precision.
The fantasy of Soviet intelligence officers, leaders of the Berezino operation was inexhaustible. Day after day they beat the enemy.
Using radiograms, they sculpted the image of a brave hero. It was, of course, Sherhorn. A radiogram arrived: he was promoted to rank. He became a colonel.
For a successful radio game Demyanov was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Almost simultaneously, a message came from the German intelligence center that Demyanov-Max, as the Germans called him, was awarded the German Iron Cross.
Once, back in 1943, Churchill warned Stalin: British intelligence learned that there was a “mole” in the General Staff of the Red Army, which works in favor of the enemy. Stalin himself approved of the operation "Monastery" and "Berezino" and knew about them in detail.
After the war, A.P. Demyanov worked in one of the research institutes in his specialty. During his lifetime, not a single line was published about his participation in legendary operations. He died in a 1975 year of a heart attack while riding a boat.
The blockade around this topic was interrupted by PA. Sudoplatov. Despite the post-war arrest, unfair condemnation and the years spent in prison, shortly before his death, he made his last feat: he wrote the book Intelligence and the Kremlin, in which he spoke about Demyanov and many other unknown heroes.
Lt. Col. IA Shchors said this about Demyanov: “During the operations, I had to make sure that A. P. Demyanova. He was a soldier in danger. In war, as in war. He had an extraordinary memory, concentration, instant reaction. He was a strong, handsome, charming man. ”
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