Illegal by the name of Erdberg, aka Alexander Korotkov

July 22 2010 19 708 1

This man the Nazi secret police - the Gestapo - was searching in vain until the final defeat of the Nazi Reich. In Austria and Germany, he was known as Alexander Erdberg, but in fact his name was Alexander Korotkov. His whole life and all his thoughts were devoted to serving the Motherland. He belonged to the few employees of the Soviet foreign intelligence service, who went through all the steps of his service career and became one of its leaders.

TENNISIST-ELECTROMECHANIC

Alexander Mikhailovich 22 was born on November 1909 of the year in Moscow. Shortly before Sasha's birth, his mother, Anna Pavlovna, separated from her husband and left him for Moscow from Gulja, where her husband at the time was working in a Russian-Asian bank. Alexander never saw his father, with whom, after the divorce, his mother broke off all ties.

Despite material difficulties, Alexander managed to get a secondary education. He was interested in electrical engineering and dreamed of entering the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University. However, the need forced the young man to start helping his mother immediately after graduating from high school in 1927. Alexander got a job as an electrician apprentice. At the same time, he was actively involved in sports in the Moscow Dynamo society, taking a great interest in football and tennis.

Having become a very decent tennis player, the young worker from time to time served as a sparring partner for quite well-known chekists at the famous Dynamo courts in Petrovka. It was here, on the courts, in the autumn of 1928 of the year, that Alexander Assistant Deputy Chairman of the OGPU, Veniamin Gerson, approached Alexander and offered him a place of electrician for elevators in the economic department of Lubyanka. So Korotkov began to serve the elevators of the main building of the Soviet state security organs.

A year later, the KGB leadership drew attention to the intelligent and competent guy: he was taken to the clerk's office in the most prestigious department of the OGPU - Foreign (as the Soviet foreign intelligence was called at that time), and in 1930 was appointed assistant to the operational authorized representative of the INO. It should be noted that Alexander enjoyed serious respect among the KGB youth: he was elected several times as a member of the bureau, and then as secretary of the Komsomol organization of the department.

For a couple of years working at the Institute of Foreign Languages, Korotkov fully mastered his official duties. His abilities, education, and conscientious attitude to work were liked by the management of the department, who decided to use Alexander in illegal work abroad.

FIRST STEPS

The famous SHON - Special Purpose Schools - for the training of corps scouts did not exist then. Employees for sending abroad were trained individually, without interrupting their main job.

The main thing, of course, was the study of foreign languages - German and French. Classes were held for several hours in a row at the end of the working day, as well as on weekends and holidays.
The German Korotkov was taught by a former Hamburg-based docker, a participant in the 1923 uprising, a communist political emigrant who worked in the Comintern. He talked about the traditions and customs of the Germans, the norms of behavior on the street and in public places. He even considered it necessary to dedicate Alexander to all the subtleties of the so-called profanity.

The same teacher was French. He brought a novelty to the learning process - records with records of popular Parisian singers and chansonnier.

Then came the special disciplines: classes to identify external observation and care from him, driving a car.

Upon completion of the training, Alexander Korotkov was assigned to illegal intelligence and was sent on his first foreign business trip. In 1933, the young scout went to Paris.

Alexander's path to the French capital lay through Austria. In Vienna, he replaced the Soviet passport with an Austrian passport issued in the name of Slovak Rayonetskogo, and used his stay in the Austrian capital for in-depth study of the German language. In the future, he never mastered the classic German pronunciation and spoke all his life in German as an indigenous crown.
Three months later, the “Slovak Rayonetsky” arrived in Paris and entered the local radio engineering institute. In the French capital, Korotkov worked under the leadership of NKVD resident Alexander Orlov, an ace of Soviet intelligence, a professional of the highest class. He entrusted Korotkov with the development of one of the young employees of the famous 2 bureau of the French General Staff (military intelligence and counterintelligence), attracted to other important operations.
From Paris, Korotkov, on the instructions of the Center, traveled to missions in Switzerland and Nazi Germany, where he worked with two valuable sources of Soviet foreign intelligence. However, soon there was a failure in the illegal residency of the NKVD in France: French counterintelligence became interested in the contacts of the young foreigner in “circles close to the General Staff”. In 1935, Alexander was forced to return to Moscow.

Korotkov's stay in his homeland was short-lived, and already in 1936, he was sent to work in the area of scientific and technical intelligence in the illegal residency of the NKVD in the Third Reich. Here he, along with other intelligence officers, is actively engaged in obtaining samples of Wehrmacht weapons. This activity was highly appreciated in Moscow.

In December 1937, a new order is received from the Center. Korotkov returns to illegal work in France to perform a number of specific reconnaissance missions.
After the Anschluss of Austria and the Munich conspiracy of England, France, Italy and Germany, who actually transferred Czechoslovakia to 1938 in the fall to the ravages of the Nazi empire, in Europe, the proximity of large-scale war was felt more acutely. But where would Hitler send German troops: to the west or to the east? Is it possible to conclude another agreement between Berlin, London and Paris on an anti-Soviet basis? What are the future plans of the Western states in relation to the USSR? Moscow was waiting for an answer to these questions. The Soviet intelligence station in France is faced with the difficult task of revealing the true intentions of the ruling circles of the West, including French and German, towards our country.

In Paris, Korotkov works until the end of 1938. For the successful fulfillment of the tasks of the Center, he is promoted and awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

"NEW YEAR GIFT"

Upon returning to Moscow, the scout expected an unpleasant surprise. 1 January 1939, the year Lavrenty Beria, who recently headed the Department of the Interior, invited the foreign intelligence officers to the meeting. Instead of New Year's greetings, the People's Commissar actually accused all intelligence officers who returned from behind the cordon of treason for being agents of foreign intelligence services. In particular, referring to Alexander Korotkov, Beria said:

- You are recruited by the Gestapo and therefore you leave the bodies.

Korotkov turned pale and began to ardently argue that no one can recruit him and that he, as a patriot of the Motherland, is ready to give his life for her. However, Lavrenty Pavlovich was not impressed ...
... Now it is difficult to say what caused this attitude of Beria to Korotkov. Perhaps a negative role was played by the fact that he was accepted to work in the state security bodies on the recommendation of Benjamin Gerson, the former private secretary of Heinrich Yagoda, one of the predecessors of the current Commissar of Internal Affairs. Both Gerson and Berry were declared enemies of the people and shot.

It is also possible that another reason for dismissing an intelligence officer could be his work on his first business trip in Paris under the leadership of NKVD resident Alexander Orlov, who then headed the NKVD intelligence network in Republican Spain. Before the threat of execution, he refused to return to Moscow, fled, and at the end of 1937, he moved to the United States. Apparently, only the high state award received by Korotkov saved him from reprisals.
However, Korotkov did not guess about the reasons for his dismissal and took a step that was unprecedented for those times. Alexander writes a letter addressed to Beria, in which he asks to reconsider the decision on his dismissal. In the message he describes in detail the operational cases in which he had the opportunity to participate, and emphasizes that he did not deserve mistrust. Korotkov bluntly says that he does not know for himself misconduct, which may be the reason for “taking away from him the honor of working in organs.”

And the incredible happened. Beria summoned a scout for a conversation and signed an order for his reinstatement.

AND AGAIN ABROAD

Deputy Head of the Foreign Intelligence Division of the 1 Division, Lieutenant of State Security Korotkov, was immediately sent on short-term business trips to Norway and Denmark. He gets the task to reconnect with a number of previously mothballed sources and successfully copes with it.
In July, 1940, Korotkov went on a business trip to Germany for a period of one month. However, instead of a month, he spent six months in the German capital, and then he was appointed deputy resident of the NKVD in Berlin, Amayak Kobulov, the brother of Deputy People's Commissar for State Security Bogdan Kobulov.

The scout reestablished contact with two of the most valuable sources of residency - the Luftwaffe intelligence officer "Starshina" (Harro Schulze-Boyzen) and senior government advisor to the imperial Ministry of Economics "Corsicane" (Arvid Harnack).

Korotkov was one of the first to understand the inevitability of war. Since Amayak Kobulov did not want to hear about the impending danger, Korotkov in March 1941 of the year sent a personal letter to Beria. Referring to the information of the Corsican on the preparation by the Germans of aggression against the USSR in the spring of this year, Korotkov explained his position in detail, citing data on the military preparations of Germany. The Scout asked the Center to double-check this information through other sources.

There was no reaction from Moscow. A month later, Korotkov initiated a letter from the Berlin residency to the Center with a proposal to immediately begin preparing reliable agents for an independent connection with Moscow in case of war. With the consent of the Center, he handed over the radio equipment to a group of German agents led by Corsicans and Starshina. They will later become known as the leaders of the Red Kappella branched intelligence network.
17 June in Moscow, a telegram arrived, made Korotkov on the basis of information received from the "Starshina" and "Corsican". In particular, it said: "All of Germany’s military preparations for the preparation of an armed attack against the USSR are completely completed and a strike can be expected at any time."

On the same day, State Security Commissar Vsevolod Merkulov and the head of foreign intelligence Pavel Fitin were received by Stalin, to whom they reported a special message from Berlin. Stalin ordered to thoroughly double-check all information coming from the German capital regarding a possible German attack on the USSR.

Three days before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the operational staff member of the Berlin residency, Boris Zhuravlev, met with another valuable source — the Gestapo employee Breitenbach (Willy Lehmann). At the meeting, an agitated agent said that the war would begin in three days. An urgent telegram went to Moscow, the answer to which was not followed.

Alexander Mikhailovich Korotkov

IN THE PORUS OF MILITARY BOLS

War Korotkov met in Berlin. Subjected to serious danger, he managed to get out of the Soviet embassy, blocked by the Gestapo, and twice - 22 and 24 June - conspiracy to meet with "Corsican" and "Starshina", give them updated instructions on the use of radio ciphers, money for the anti-fascist struggle and make recommendations regarding deployment of active resistance to the Nazi regime.

Arriving in Moscow in July 1941 in transit through Bulgaria and Turkey with a train of Soviet diplomats and specialists from Germany, as well as Finland and other countries of the Third Reich satellites, Korotkov was appointed head of the German foreign intelligence department, who was engaged in conducting operations not only in the Nazi empire, but also in the European countries it occupied. With the direct participation of Korotkov, a special reconnaissance school was created to train and smuggle illegal intelligence officers into the deep rear of the enemy. Heading the department, he was at the same time one of the teachers of this school, who taught students in intelligence skills. During the war, Korotkov repeatedly flew to the front. There, disguised as a German uniform, under the guise of a prisoner of war, he entered into conversations with Wehrmacht officers captured by our troops. In the course of these conversations, he often managed to obtain important information.

In November – December 1943, Colonel Korotkov, as part of the Soviet delegation, was in Tehran, where the meeting of the “Big Three” - the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill - was held. Since the Soviet intelligence received reliable information about the attempted assassination of the meeting participants by the German special services, confirmed by British intelligence, Korotkov, leading the task force in the Iranian capital, was engaged in ensuring the security of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain.

In the same year, Korotkov twice visited Afghanistan, where Soviet and British intelligence services liquidated Nazi agents who were preparing a pro-fascist coup and intending to drag the country into a war against the USSR. In the years of the Great Patriotic War, Korotkov flew several times to Yugoslavia to send messages of the Soviet leadership to Marshal Josip Broz Tito. He also had to repeatedly go over the front line or into the front line in order to sort out the complex situation on the spot and provide practical assistance to reconnaissance groups abandoned to the rear of the enemy.

At the very end of the war, when the rout of the Third Reich became apparent, Korotkova summoned Deputy State Security Commissar Ivan Serov and assigned him an important task. He said to Alexander Mikhailovich:

“Go to Berlin, where you will lead the security team of the German delegation, which will arrive in Karlshorst to sign an act of unconditional surrender to Germany. If its head, Field Marshal Keitel, throws out a number or refuses to sign, you will answer with your head. During contacts with him, try to feel his moods and not to ignore important information that he might drop. ”

Korotkov successfully coped with the task. On the famous photo, which captures the moment when the Nazi Field Marshal signed the Act of the unconditional surrender of Germany, he stands behind Keitel. In his memoirs written in the prison of Spandau, awaiting the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal, Keitel noted: “A Russian officer was attached to my escort; I was told that he was chief quartermaster of Marshal Zhukov. He was driving in a car with me, followed by the rest of the escort cars. ”

Let me remind you: from the time of Peter I, the quartermaster general of the Russian army headed its intelligence service.

IN THE POST-WAR YEARS

Immediately after the war, Korotkov was appointed a resident of foreign intelligence throughout Germany, divided into four occupation zones. In Karlshorst, where the station was located, he held the official position of deputy adviser to the Soviet military administration. The center assigned him the task of finding out the fate of the pre-war Soviet intelligence agents, and with those who survived in the war years, to resume work. The scouts, led by Korotkov, managed to find out the tragic fate of the “First Lady”, the “Corsican”, the “Breitenbach” who died in the dungeons of the Gestapo, and also to meet the German military attache in Shanghai with the Friend and many other former sources. Soviet intelligence also restored contact with an agent in Field Marshal Liszt’s immediate circle, who had been expecting contact with the NKVD courier throughout the war.

In 1946, Alexander Mikhailovich was recalled to the Center, where he became deputy chief of foreign intelligence and at the same time headed its illegal administration. He was directly involved in sending an illegal “Mark” resident (William Fischer) to the United States, known to the general public under the name of Rudolf Abel. Korotkov objected to the residency radio operator Karel Renault Heyhanen in the United States with him, distrusting him, but the foreign intelligence leadership did not agree with his arguments. Operational flair did not let Alexander Mikhailovich down: Heikhanen really turned out to be a traitor and betrayed Mark to the American counterintelligence (in the beginning of the 1960s, Heikhanen died in the USA under the wheels of a car).
Veterans of intelligence who personally knew Aleksandr Mikhailovich recall that he was peculiar to non-standard operational thinking and a desire to avoid the usual cliches in his work. So, communicating on duty mainly with the heads of departments and offices and their deputies, Korotkov at the same time continued to be friends with ordinary intelligence officers. Together with them, he went fishing, mushroom picking, went with the families to the theater. Aleksandr Mikhailovich has always been interested in the opinion of ordinary intelligence officers about management measures to improve its activities. And it was precisely friendships, devoid of servility and adulation. Korotkov did not boast of his general rank, was simple and at the same time demanding in communicating with subordinates.

Recalling her first meeting with Alexander Mikhailovich, the wonderful illegal intelligence officer Galina Fedorova wrote:

“I entered the office of the chief of illegal intelligence with extraordinary excitement. A tall, broad-shouldered middle-aged man rose energetically from behind a large table in the back of the office, and with a friendly smile went to meet me. Drew attention to his courageous, strong-willed face, strong chin, wavy brown hair. He was dressed in a dark suit of impeccable cut. The piercing glance of the gray-blue eyes is fixed on me. He spoke in a low, pleasant voice, with goodwill and knowledge of the matter.

The conversation was thorough and very friendly. I was impressed by his simplicity in communication, disposed to the frankness of the way to talk, humor. And, as it seemed to me, whenever he wanted, he could win over any interlocutor. ”

In 1957, General Korotkov was appointed to the position of authorized by the KGB of the USSR under the Ministry of State Security of the GDR for coordination and communication. He was entrusted with the leadership of the largest representative office of the KGB abroad. Alexander Mikhailovich managed to establish a trusting relationship with the leadership of the MGB of the GDR, including Erich Milke and Markus Wolf, whom he met during the war in Moscow. He contributed to the fact that the intelligence of the GDR has become one of the most powerful in the world.

The KGB office was traditionally housed in Karlshorst. The West German counterintelligence, taking advantage of the purchase of furniture for representation, tried to introduce the eavesdropping equipment into Korotkov's office, camouflaging it in a chandelier. This attempt was stopped in time thanks to a high-ranking source of Soviet intelligence, Heinz Völfe, who held one of the leading posts in the West German counterintelligence. Later on, this tab was used by the KGB representation for disinformation of the enemy’s special services.

General Korotkov repeatedly met with Heinz Völfe and conducted his briefings. Their first meeting took place in Austria in the summer of 1957, and was held in a country restaurant near Vienna on the territory reserved for picnic lovers. The conversation of the scouts lasted almost the entire day. Korotkov asked the agent in detail about the domestic political situation in West Germany, the distribution of forces within the government and political parties of the country, the influence of Americans on political decision-making, the remilitarization of Germany. In his book, Memoirs of a Scout, published in 1985, Feulf, recalling Alexander Mikhailovich, wrote:

“I remember General Korotkov well. During our meetings in Berlin or Vienna, we often had long discussions with him about the internal political situation in the Federal Republic of Germany. His excellent German language, colored by the Viennese dialect, his elegant appearance and manners immediately made me sympathetic. He was well oriented in various political trends in the Federal Republic. More than once we had a heated argument with him when he expressed his fears about the emergence and spread of right-wing groups in the Federal Republic of Germany. Then I did not share his views. It’s a pity that now I can’t tell him how right he was. ”

In June, 1961, two and a half months before the construction of the Berlin Wall, Korotkov was summoned to a meeting at the Central Committee of the CPSU in Moscow. On the eve of the meeting, he had a preliminary conversation with the then KGB Chairman Alexander Shelepin. The former Komsomol leader, in an interview with an intelligence officer, did not agree with his assessment of the events in Germany and threatened to dismiss him from intelligence after the meeting at the CPSU Central Committee. Departing the next day to the Old Square, Korotkov told his wife that he might return home without shoulder straps or not come at all, since Shelepin was determined and did not tolerate objections.

Against his expectations, the meeting agreed with the intelligence assessments of the situation in Germany. Shelepin, seeing that Korotkov’s position coincides with the majority opinion, refused to speak.

Wanting to relieve nervous stress, Korotkov walked through the streets of the city, and then went to the Dynamo stadium to play tennis. On the court, bending over the ball, he felt a sharp pain in his heart and fell unconscious. An urgently called doctor ascertained the death of a broken heart. A wonderful scout was then a little over 50 years old.

For great services in ensuring state security, Major General Korotkov was awarded the Order of Lenin, six (!) Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War of I degree, two Orders of the Red Star, many medals, and the badge "Honorary State Security Officer". His work was marked by high awards of a number of foreign countries.

An outstanding Soviet intelligence officer, the king of illegal immigrants in Novodevichy cemetery, was buried.