Invisible front
Strengthening the defensive power of the USSR fell on the thirties or forties of the last century. Historians, writers and politicians are still arguing with each other on the question, were the harsh methods of work of the special services of our country justified in those years? Did the highest political leadership of the USSR act correctly, sometimes giving not the most humane orders to the chiefs who led the OGPU-NKVD of the USSR to destroy the enemies of the Soviet regime and how were these orders justified? The captain of the first rank in retirement, a member of the Board of the Military Scientific Society of the Ministry of Defense, the historian of the special services, the veteran of Foreign Intelligence of the Russian Federation Anatoly Maximov reflects on this.
"TOMORROW". Anatoly Borisovich, was the work of the Soviet intelligence of the OGPU-NKVD defensive or offensive in the early thirties and forties? And were they justified historical the necessity of that time, such operations carried out by intelligence of the OGPU-NKVD of the USSR in 1937, such as the abduction of the head of the ROVS A. Miller, the removal of Trotsky’s secretary Clement in Paris in 1938, as well as the physical elimination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. It was a justified tactic and strategy for the formation of the work of the USSR counterintelligence and intelligence services. Our country found itself surrounded by an alien civilization that was taking all measures against the USSR, from military to economic. The sanctions that have been taken by the West against Russia now were first tried right after the 1917 year. We absolutely consciously fought in two directions: firstly, the suppression of the actions of counter-revolutionary organizations, and secondly, we were on the path of maximizing the possibility of obtaining assistance to restore the economy destroyed by the First World and Civil Wars. This was the direction of scientific and technical intelligence. This was the line of the party, defined by the famous slogan “Over the years to run a century!”, And in fact it happened. The intelligence of the OGPU - NKVD participated in the defense of all the interests of our country abroad, it was the political and economic direction of its activities. Also, our country's intelligence was engaged in obtaining information that strengthened the industrial and defense power of our country.
"TOMORROW". Could Trotskyism strike a blow to the development of trade and economic relations between the USSR and Western countries?
Anatoly MAXIMOV. The West has never stopped trading with our country. Before the introduction of certain economic sanctions "Leningrad Tractor Plant", as well as a number of aviation factories of the USSR were created with the participation of Western specialists. But our country received technologies not of the first freshness, which were already outdated for work in factories in Western countries. And for this outdated equipment the USSR paid not with paper candy wrappers like dollars, but with gold, and this was part of the program to protect our country from a future possible invasion.
Trotsky's actions were aimed at the political split of our country. You know that there were lawsuits in the USSR, and we will not conceal them, which were very cruel. The opposition was removed from a democratic point of view. A multi-party system would then have caused tremendous harm to our country. Multi-party system means to talk a lot and do little!
"TOMORROW". Then it turns out that the operation “Duck” may have prevented Trotsky’s alliance with the leaders of Nazi Germany? It seems like Trotsky promised to provide Abwer or political intelligence SD with dirt on the highest political and military leadership of the USSR?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. This is a proven fact that is documented. Therefore, it was decided to eliminate Trotsky. Of course, you can say, “Why kill Lev Davidovich, and it’s so scary, breaking his skull with an ice pick?” But you can’t say that it was not in favor of our country. And what are the times, such and manners. The CIA killed the priests right in the churches, destroyed the presidents of different countries who were disagreeable to her - I was doing secret operations, I had a card file in which about three hundred such actions by American special services were described.
"TOMORROW". One of your colleagues from the Office of "K", said to me that on the advice of Naum Eitingon, Stalin tried to compromise with Trotsky before the operation "Duck". And USSR secret service officer Yakov Serebryansky, in 1938, in Paris, tried to negotiate with Trotsky (through his son) that in the event of the cessation of the anti-Stalinist speeches, no hair would fall from Trotsky's head. Do you think that Joseph Vissarionovich could have taken such a step, understanding what kind of resonance in the world could the operation to eliminate Trotsky cause?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Stalin was a pragmatist. The most significant minds in the USA and Europe were constantly stressed by Stalin's colossally developed pragmatic approach to solving any problems.
Yes, Stalin certainly made an attempt to reach an agreement, but it was an attempt to prove that our country does not want confrontation with any political forces in the world if their efforts are not directed against our country. But this did not mean that Stalin believed that Trotsky would agree. Not for this, Trotsky created his Fourth International to succumb to Stalin's persuasion. There could be no compromise between them; a compromise was found only with the help of the ice ax Ramon Mercader.
"TOMORROW". It turns out that Trotsky sowed the anti-Soviet wind, but shook the storm that destroyed him. Since we have touched on the events of the thirties, could you answer whether the participation of the USSR in the Spanish Civil War was justified? Many colleagues from democratic media claimed that in addition to exporting the gold reserves to the USSR, organized by the NKVD intelligence resident Feldbin-Orlov, our country did not derive any benefit from it?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. This is not a very competent statement. I am a member of the Military Scientific Society created in Frunze’s 1925, under the Ministry of Defense. At one time, the leadership of society asked to deal with a number of statements that the USSR accused of starting a war. I understood this question by leaps and bounds. While tens and hundreds of thousands of Portuguese and Germans fought on Spanish soil, our country has just begun sending advisers to Spain to assist the Republican government. As for the gold reserve, the transfer was made at the request of the legitimate government of Spain.
At that time, an important event occurred for all of Europe. We say that the Second World War began on September 1 of the year 1939, but in fact the Second World War began on the year 1932, when Japan began to implement its memorandum Tanaka, which was known in advance. In 1927, our special services received this plan, regarding Japan’s conquest of world domination, then our country made it public. But neither Europe nor the United States responded properly. And in 1932, the Japanese militarists began to implement their plan in the Far Eastern region. First there was the seizure of China, then Mongolia, and an attack on the USSR was also supposed.
And the war in Spain - it was already the prologue of world war. The Germans managed there to try out the combat experience of their famous Luftwaffe squadron "Condor", while in Spain they worked out a new weapon and combat tactics. And the USSR, fighting in Spain, was able to raise the technical support of its armed forces, to train and train its army.
"TOMORROW". In your opinion, did the agent network of the OGPU-NKVD established in Spain manage to help in the fight against fascism? And was it possible to leave from among its agents in some other countries?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. This agency worked, but not in the way it was supposed to be created. Those agents who at the time of the war were in the republican government or were activists were forced to emigrate. But people like Leontina and Morris Cohen became intelligence officers. They took part in the work of the agent network of illegals of Soviet intelligence in the United States, and then in the intelligence activities of Konon Young.
"TOMORROW". I mentioned Orlov, resident of the NKVD of the USSR in Spain, who left for 1938 in the USA; did you think he was a traitor or a defector?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. I will give an example of the behavior in the same situation of a colleague of Orlov, the legendary intelligence officer Dmitry Bystroletov. When he came to 1937, the order came to return to his homeland, he was warned that political repressions had begun, and many colleagues had been arrested. But he replied that he wanted to share the fate of his people. Bystroletov served ten years, but in the end, he turned out to be in demand in his country, and Orlov and others who, in such a situation, chose to leave, actually saved their lives. But Orlov did not betray any of those agents of the special services of the USSR of which he was aware. And he was the curator of the OGPU-NKVD at the time of the creation of the Cambridge Five, he also knew the entire network of Soviet intelligence agents in Europe. After leaving abroad, Orlov sent a letter to Stalin from the United States in which he reported that if none of his relatives who remained in his homeland were subjected to persecution, he would not name a single agent of Soviet intelligence known to him. Although I repeat, he knew the entire agent network of Soviet intelligence in Europe and the UK.
"TOMORROW". In the documentary film “The Last Knight of Intelligence”, dedicated to the activities of the USSR MGB General Naum Eitingon, it is said that Alexander Orlov, after his departure, sent a letter to Trotsky without a return address. In the letter, he told Lev Davydovich that the foreign department of the NKVD of the USSR was preparing for its physical elimination. Orlov did this because he was against such methods of action by the intelligence of the USSR. Is it possible
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Orlov could not be against such methods of the actions of the special services of our country, since he was among the top leadership of intelligence, with his direct participation in Paris, the first head of the EMRO, Kutepov, was eliminated. The same actions in Europe were carried out by our country's intelligence services through the mediation of legendary intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov against the OUNovtsev - recall the special operation carried out by Pavel Anatolyevich in 1938 in Rotterdam to eliminate the head of the OUN Yevgeny Konovalets. Therefore, I do not believe that Orlov could have warned Trotsky about the impending liquidation. This would have done harm to the work of the special services of the USSR, and he, if he wanted to inflict it, thanks to his data, would inflict it much more significantly. But Alexander Orlov did not.
"TOMORROW". It turns out that Anatoly Sudoplatov was right, speaking in one television interview, that eliminating the head of the OUN Yevgeny Konovalets in Rotterdam in 1938 was a fatal blow to the agents of Germany, because by the end of the thirties, the Gestapo and Abwehr were able to prepare an intelligence network . And immediately after the attack on the USSR, could part of this network of Ukrainian nationalists shoot at the retreating Soviet troops, rendering the Wehrmacht an invaluable service?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Germany, during the seizure of any country, after its full occupation, was engaged in the creation of a collaborationist government. Our country was the only one where these plans were not realized by Hitler’s power during the Second World War. In the area of one city or even an area, it might have been possible to create local authorities from the nationalists of Lithuania or Ukraine to support a new order, but not on a larger geographical scale. Therefore, the rate on any anti-Soviet forces, especially armed, is the norm of the behavior of the German special services in a future war against the Soviet Union.
"TOMORROW". Then it turns out that the introduction of Pavel Sudoplatov into the OUN ranks helped the local counter-intelligence agencies of the NKVD of the USSR to reveal the network of nationalists that the Abwehr and the Gestapo planned as their assistants in the attack on the USSR in 1941 year?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Of course, the work of Sudoplatov was a definite and very strong blow to the activities of the nationalists of Ukraine, who had the support of the German authorities and special services. And the head of the OUN of Ukraine Konovalets was very popular among the nationalists of Ukraine, therefore, his destruction was a landmark operation during the work of the Soviet special services.
"TOMORROW". What do you think could make people like Nadezhda Plevitskaya, the favorite singer of Nicholas II, or Nikolai Skoblin, the General of the Volunteer Army, participate in cooperation with Soviet intelligence? In M. Kozakov’s film The Charm of Evil, dedicated to the fate of Skoblin, Plevitskaya and Efron, it was shown that they were recruited solely on a material basis?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. I think that first of all Nikolay Skoblin was a Russian officer, and this is a special category. In all countries of the world there is a concept of betrayal of a soldier captured; stipulates that they can surrender information. And in the army of our country of any time, neither in Tsar, nor in Soviet, treachery could not be officially justified. Everyone you asked about felt like a part of their homeland. Another thing is that material assistance in most cases went hand in hand with the work of our intelligence agents.
But if we talk about the Second World War, then many citizens of Britain, and American citizens collaborated with our intelligence, without receiving any remuneration. Moreover, they went to cooperate in good faith.
"TOMORROW". So you do not believe in the possibility of a double game of N. Skoblin, in the form of tossing to Moscow on the instructions of the leadership of the RSHA Board of Directors R. Heydrich and the head of the Sixth Division of the Political Intelligence of the SD V. Schellenberg of conspiracy documents against I. Stalin Tukhachevsky, Yakir and Uborevich?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. There are so many conversations around this topic, so I will say the following: Skoblin was not the political figure to compromise Marshal Tukhachevsky - for the simple reason that their paths did not intersect.
"TOMORROW". Then it turns out that Tukhachevsky himself could, in the eyes of Stalin’s inner circle, compromise himself with some of his actions?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Tukhachevsky was among the delegation that visited Germany, and that was already enough to find dirt on him.
"TOMORROW". Could it be that, that such dirt was able to prepare British intelligence against Tukhachevsky? One of the marshal's mistresses was ballerina Vera Davydova, to whom was not indifferent Commissar Yezhov. But at the same time she was the mistress of one of the British diplomats in the USSR, who threw compromising materials through the servant of the muse Yezhov?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Answering your question, it’s enough to say that Britain, endlessly wanted to push our country with Nazi Germany, it was an obsession with its top political leadership. And behind this desire was America located on that side of the ocean. The main task of England and the USA was to weaken both Germany and Russia. The Russian-Japanese war, and both world wars can be attributed to the implementation of this task. Therefore, England, until the Germans were thoroughly beaten near Stalingrad, kept a stone in the bosom against the USSR. Britain clung to any opportunity to suffer less from the war in Europe, even going to the peculiar betrayals of the allies. No wonder there is a story that after the German attack on the USSR, Winston Churchill exclaimed “Thank God, Britain is saved.”
"TOMORROW". It turns out that Britain has only temporary interests, but no friends?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Yes, the temporary and national interests of Britain replace permanent allies.
"TOMORROW". And how right Yu. Semenov, who claimed that Stalin, wanting to get the world with Hitler in any way, in 1938, ordered Commissar Beria to curtail all the operational intelligence work of the NKVD of the USSR in Germany, and a number of highly informed Soviet intelligence agents who knew about this order of the Generalissimo , were on his order eliminated by the NKVD?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. I will never believe it. Stalin, in his letter in the 1953 year, shortly before his death, made sketches of what intelligence should be. He said that Soviet intelligence should be part of politics, a part of ensuring state security, so the talk about deliberately destroying an agent network simply did not stand. Agents who worked with the intelligence of our country, we canned. The struggle was with those people who were connected: with Trotskyism, with those who could be in opposition to the existing power in the USSR. The intelligence services of the USSR did not cast a doubt on his loyalty to any member of the network of agents from any country in the world, but those who worked with the Trotskyists or Ounovs were questioned. Residents and resident management of the NKVD intelligence in 1937-1938 responded from the countries where they worked. Many, like Bystroletov or Leopold Trepper, later resident, who headed the network, called by the Germans "Red Chapel", were subjected to repression, it was a problem of intelligence personnel, but not its agents.
"TOMORROW". We can recall the deed of Yakov Serebryansky, Deputy Alexander Orlov, who understood that he was waiting for him in his homeland after the deed of his chief, but returned to the USSR. He was arrested at the ramp, and after the amnesty in 1941, he again went to work in the same division of the NKVD of the USSR, saying to Beria that he understood that friendship with Orlov could cast a shadow of suspicion on him, but he was a soldier of his country and should serve where she will order him!
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. You gave one decent example of behavior, but I must say that Pavel Sudoplatov, when we created the Separate Motorized Rifle Special Purpose Brigade, compiled lists of several dozen scouts who were in camps and prisons, and Stalin didn’t cross out any name returned to service.
"TOMORROW". As for Sudoplatov, we can recall that he practically released from prison, from the death row, Serebryansky, in whose group, when she was in the OGPU code name "Yasha's Group", Sudoplatov began service in the USSR state security organs.
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Marshal Zhukov did the same with his generals when he compiled a list of generals for Stalin that he needed. 60 military leaders were returned to the army to their former posts.
"TOMORROW". Then it turns out that on the eve of the war with Germany, the intelligence of the NKVD of the USSR strengthened its work in it?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Until 1938, our intelligence work had a period when, for several months, not a single piece of paper regarding the plans of the German leadership and the political situation in it was received by the USSR Government. Work in this country has been weakened. In 1938, a special-purpose school began to work, in which, for example, a brilliant atomic group was trained: Barkovsky, Feklisov, and future military personnel were trained there. As Barkovsky said, when we felt that all our intelligence points were weakened, then they turned to young people. In less than six months of his stay in England, Barkovsky had more than twenty agents in touch.
"TOMORROW". So, in one of the films created in memory of Alexander Korotkov, “The King of Illegals”, the truth is shown that it was Alexander Mikhailovich who tried to sharply come from outside the border trip, at a meeting of NKVD intelligence officers in European countries, to declare Beria that there is no work in Germany, and the devil knows how this could end for our country?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. I think that this is fiction, because no one would dare to talk so freely with Beria. But, on the other hand, Pavel Fitin told Beria about this in 1938 when he was appointed head of the intelligence of the NKVD of the USSR. By the way, there is a dated document where Fitin says that our residency is weakened to such an extent that it is impossible to get any information. And if we do not strengthen our positions and send scouts to countries that are of interest to the USSR, then intelligence in our country will be virtually absent. After reading Fitin's note, the recruitment to the school that I said was started. Many professionals who knew foreign languages, had a short training course within its walls. And people like Iskhak Akhmerov, who was an illegal of our intelligence in the Far East, came to this school, and then he was sent to America, where he worked all the war years. In his connection was the agent network of Soviet intelligence in the United States in the amount of twenty people, and in the highest echelons of power of the United States of America.
"TOMORROW". Speaking of Germany, we must remember that both Harro Schulze-Boyzen - “Sergeant” and Arvid Harnok- “Corsican” were people who stood at the highest level of the social ladder of their state, which could push them to cooperate with the OGPU - the NKVD of the USSR ?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. First, answering this question, it should be noted that after the “Red Chapel” was defeated, six hundred people went through the case, two hundred people were brought to trial and exterminated by the Gestapo. There was such a situation that the “Red Chapel” did not completely cease to exist, it continued to work, it was an extensive network of our intelligence, operating in different countries.
In the second half of its activities, representatives of the Red Army's military intelligence worked with its network. And when we talk about the intelligence of the NKVD in Germany and about the time when the war began, the work with legal positions was stopped. And illegal immigrants were sent to manage this intelligence network. Illegals of intelligence of the USSR worked in France, in Switzerland and in other countries. It was our old practice, if our intelligence service cannot receive the information of interest from the territory of any country, it will work from the territory of other states. In Germany, the intelligence of the USSR worked the hardest in England. Cairncross, a member of the Cambridge Five, during the war handed over six thousand materials to Moscow. And the information actually went on the actions of all the German armed forces, in all world areas in which they fought. And even after the arrest of the German network of agents, the European part of the Red Capella worked until the end of the war. As for the “Starshina” Harro Schulze-Boysen and the “Corsican” - Arvid Harnack, they were an anti-Nazi group and worked with our intelligence on an ideological basis, although before the start of the war, Alexander Korotkov managed to transfer them a considerable amount of money, that they may incur financial expenses for intelligence activities.
"TOMORROW". If the intelligence of the NKVD of the USSR worked from different countries in Germany, having such a network as the "Red Chapel", it turns out that this network was created before the start of the Second World War, and "Otto" - Leopold Trepper and his deputy "Kent" - Anatoly Gurevich also came to the leadership of this network before the war?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Yes of course. The scouts Gurevich and Trepper were abandoned in Europe with other tasks, but not to work on the leadership of the Red Chapel. At one time, such employees of the NKVD residency in Germany as Korotkov and Zhuravlev worked with the legal positions with the “Red Chapel” network.
"TOMORROW". And the resident of the Intelligence of the NKVD of the USSR in Germany Amayak Kobulov?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. No, Amayak Kobulov did not work with an agent of such a level as was on the Red Chapel network. I have not seen in any documents the confirmation of his work with the agent network of the Red Chapel. And when the legal residency of intelligence of the NKVD of the USSR ceased its work on 22 on June 1941 of the year, this network of agents was transferred to the illegals of military intelligence, among whom was Leopold Trepper.
"TOMORROW". It turns out that the network itself was divided into several countries, and the resident Otto worked in France, and his deputy Kent in Belgium, and what information could they send the enemy's plans to Moscow?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. They worked until December 1942, and were able to convey all the information about the enemy’s military plans at that time.
"TOMORROW". But why, then, in Moscow, they were so wary of the fact that they obtained information for intelligence by the NKVD of the USSR, a protégé of Hermann Goering, the grandson of Admiral Tirpitz, who works in reconnaissance of the Luftwaffe Harro Schulze-Boysen. After all, even his message about the signing of the Barbarossa plan by Hitler and the number of planes in each unit of the German Air Force, and their goals, in the form of bombing of cities in our country, in the leadership of the NKVD in May 1941, caused distrust? And Deputy Beria Vsevolod Merkulov even called Schulze-Boyzan a Gestapo provocateur, and advised the intelligence station of the NKVD of the USSR in Germany not to believe him in anything.
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. The information that came from Germany was questioned, if only by the fact that Stalin firmly believed that Hitler would not dare to attack the USSR, because he would not dare to fight on two fronts at once. It was not just Stalin’s position, but his deep conviction based on calculation. Therefore, the top leadership viewed the reports of the impending attack of Germany on the USSR as a provocation.
And Zhuravlev, as an operative worker, took over the contact of “Breitenbach” - Ville Lehmann, and that 19 of June 1941 of the year reported the exact date and hour of the German attack on the USSR. This information was sent to the Kremlin, but it was not sent to the intelligence resident of the NKVD of the USSR, Amayak Kobulov, because he knew that such information would be considered a provocation. Dekanozov was a Soviet ambassador to Germany who once worked in intelligence, and he understood the nature of this information and sent it through his channel. Having received it, Beria regarded this information as alarmist and reported to Stalin that Dekanozov was panicking. As a result of this report, it was decided to withdraw Dekanozov. And three days later the attack began.
"TOMORROW". It turns out that it was the agent of the Soviet intelligence "Breitenbach" - Ville Lehmann informed the exact date of the German attack on the USSR?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Ville Lehman worked with 1929 for Soviet intelligence, and was the only source of Soviet intelligence for the Gestapo. And Lehman supplied such valuable information to the Soviet intelligence service of the NKVD of the USSR, about which Barkovsky, working on the scientific and technical line, said: “I trusted these people because they were prominent experts in their field, and if I get information from them, useful information".
"TOMORROW". What, in your opinion, was the failure of the Red Chapel? Indeed, in the memoirs of the deputy resident Anatoly Gurevich it is said that the resident Leopold Trepper is to blame, and the resident Leopold Trepper accused Anatoly Gurevich of the failure of the “Red Chapel”.
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. What Leopold Trepper wrote in his memoirs is really a colossal epic, and how he got out and how the network worked. And do not touch these people, because we were not in them, forgive me for the expression, the skin and, thank God, that we managed to do both to one and the second.
The reason for the failure was not betrayal, but the fact that the Germans managed to lock in the radio receiving network. The leadership of the Red Chapel knew that they were being taken over, because Schulze-Boysen worked in the counter-intelligence of the Luftwaffe, and he received various information. And, despite the fact that the leadership of the Red Chapel knew that their transmitter was bearing, understanding the importance of the information they were collecting, because the battle of Stalingrad was going on, it was decided to continue the transfer of information that was so important for the Soviet Union.
Today, Leopold Trepper and Anatoly Gurevich have been rehabilitated, and all charges have been dropped. After all, the Gestapo skillfully work, and any investigators of counterintelligence always in such a situation set the suspects on each other, launching information so that not only Trepper or Gurevich would consider each other traitors, but so that in our country they would be viewed through the prism of betrayal.
"TOMORROW". So you do not believe that Anatoly Gurevich could name the names of the agents of the “Red Chapel”?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Not. He did not know them, because it was an extensive intelligence network, because six hundred people had gone through the case.
"TOMORROW". In the memoirs of Gurevich “Intelligence is not a game”, the inspection trip from Brussels to Berlin to Schulz-Boysen and a number of members of this network in October 1941 of the year is described.
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. He knew the leaders, but not the whole organization.
"TOMORROW". But when they took him, could he call Schulze-Boysen, and Harnock to Gestapo investigators?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Judging by the fate he had, he did not name them, because by the time of his arrest the Gestapo already had all the information about these people. It is impossible to say that “Kent” is a traitor to Gurevich, he did so much useful that even if the Gestapo masters could have achieved something from him, this does not mean that Gurevich did it consciously.
"TOMORROW". But is it true, as stated in the memoirs of Gurevich, that the goal of the radio game that she wanted to conduct after the capture of the Gestapo was to undermine the allied coalition of the USSR, the USA and England and to disrupt the opening of the second front?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. This is not the level that two such, albeit excellent scouts, could influence the relations between the allies. Illegal intelligence work has always been very effective in extracting information, but it is a small piece in political or military activities. Setting the goal of driving a wedge between allies was impossible.
"TOMORROW". Then why neither Gurevich nor Trepper were destroyed by the Gestapo?
Anatoly MAKSIMOV. Any illegal has a legend in the legend. When it is revealed, it brings to life a new legend. The second half of the war was going on, and each of the staff of the Sonderkommando Gestapo, working with them, was already thinking about the future and wanted to stay alive. And the game was going on according to the following rules: if, gentlemen, you want not only to save your life, but also to secure your future, then you will cooperate with me. In the end, this is what happened: the head of the sonderkommand, SS Hauptsturmführer Heinz Pannwitz was brought by Kent-Gurevich to Moscow.
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