A special purpose man. Naum Isaakovich Eitingon
“I am a state security general and a Jew. There is a guarantee that I will end my days in prison ... "
Naum Eitingon in conversation with Pavel Sudoplatov
Naum Eitingon in conversation with Pavel Sudoplatov
6 December 1899 was born in Mogilev, a boy was born, whose parents named him Naum. Childhood years passed in the small county town of Shklov, where his father worked as a clerk at a local paper mill. The Eitingon family lived in poverty, although the relatives of the future security officer belonged to the merchant class. By the way, one of his ancestors in the year of Napoleon's invasion repeated the feat of Ivan Susanin, leading a detachment of French into impassable swamps, where they died. The brutal soldiers hanged a brave patriot. Naum was proud of the feat of his ancestor and often talked about him.
In 1912, when the boy was thirteen, his father died, and the family from the provincial Shklova moved to Mogilyov. In addition to Naum, there were three other children in charge of the mother, whom she alone could not feed. For a while, the Eitingon family was kept by a grandfather who worked as a private attorney, but he soon died. On this, the childhood of the future intelligence officer was over, - as a senior in the house, he began to earn money by writing letters. His earnings were small, and such work did not promise Naum any prospects. In this regard, the young man decided to enter the Mogilev Commercial School.
The February coup, which abolished the Pale of Settlement for Jews, was met by seventeen-year-old Eitingon in Mogilev. After retiring from the seventh grade of the college, he got a job as an instructor in the statistics department, and in the spring 1917 joined the Social Revolutionary Party, which at that time was very popular among Jewish youth. However, after a few months, he was disappointed with the practical activities of the top of the party, which was striving first and foremost for high salaries and did not listen much to popular needs. After the October Revolution, the city government was dissolved, and Naum began working in the pension department of the city council, engaged in the design of pensions and benefits. After the collapse of the Brest peace in March, 1918 German troops launched an offensive on the entire Eastern Front, and soon Mogilyov was occupied by Kaiser soldiers. The invaders dispersed the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, and Eitingon got a job at a concrete plant. In the autumn of 1918, a revolution took place in Germany, Wilhelm II was overthrown, and German troops left the Belarusian lands. Mogilev entered the Red Army, restoring Soviet power. The young man re-settled in the city council and engaged in the implementation of surplus. On duty, he traveled a lot around the province, participating in the suppression of kulak riots. After a short time, he was transferred to work in Gubproduct, where the young man solved the problems associated with the cooperation of manufacturers.
In the spring of 1919, Naum Isaakovich was sent to the capital to study at courses organized by the All-Russian Workers' Cooperation Council. Eitingon returned to his native land in September of the same year, settling in Gomel and taking part in the suppression of the rebellion led by the former Tsarist officer Strekopytov. The young man’s stay in Gomel coincided with the approach of the White Guard forces to the city. In this regard, in October, 1919 Naum Isaakovich joined the Bolshevik Party and became a fighter of the party squad. By the end of the year, the Red Guard units repulsed the offensive, and Eitingon returned to work as a cooperation instructor. However, he was engaged in the creation of trade union organizations in the province.In late spring, 1920 on the permit of the Gomel Provincial Party Committee Naum Isaakovich became authorized by the Special Department of the Gomel Fortified Area. Thus began his service in the state security organs, which lasted more than thirty years. A special department of the Gomel Provincial Cheka operated in front-line conditions. His main task was to fight Polish espionage and banditry. In May, the Chekists opened the 1921 headquarters in the city of the “Western Regional Committee”, which was structurally part of the “People’s Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom,” led by Boris Savinkov, a former Socialist-Revolutionary militant. His organization divided the Soviet territory into three conditional lanes, Gomel together with Orel and Minsk entered the south. It was there that armed detachments were thrown, destroying frontier posts, seizing trains, killing economic, trade union and party leaders. Eitingon, being an employee of the local Cheka, took part in the operation “Mole”, during which more than a hundred members of the “Western Regional Committee” were detained. In addition, the young Chekist often had to travel to the liquidation of Savinkov’s gangs as part of operations groups. During one of the operations in October, Etingon 1921 was severely injured in the leg.
Naum Isaakovich left the hospital in March 1922 and was immediately appointed to the board of the Bashkir department of the GPU. At the end of 1921, a critical situation arose in the republic - a number of local Soviet workers, paying tribute to the past, showed open distrust of Bashkir leaders. In addition, hunger and crop failure had a profound effect on people's moods. All this led to outbreaks of nationalism among the population, and persecution of people of Russian and Tatar nationalities began. In December, 1921 was appointed the prominent Chekist Nikolai Vollenberg as chairman of the Bashkir Cheka. In a short time, Nikolay Lvovich and his wards (among whom was Eitingon) managed to normalize the situation in the republic, creating all the conditions for its further development.
In Bashkiria, Naum Isaakovich worked until May 1923, and then he was recalled to the capital and was assigned to the Eastern Department of the Secret Operational Directorate of the GPU, created to unite the activities of Chekists in the Caucasus, Crimea, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Turkestan, Bukhara and Khiva folk republics. The young Chekist, who was not yet twenty-four years old, was appointed Assistant Head of the Eastern Division. However, he did not have enough education, and the management decided to send Eitingon to the Eastern Faculty of the Academy of the Red Army. The Oriental faculty in those years was headed by a former naval officer, an outstanding linguist Boris Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, under whose leadership the future intelligence officer studied general education and military disciplines, and also mastered a number of foreign languages. After two years of training, Naum Isaakovich was transferred to the Foreign Department of the OGPU, appointing to the post of deputy head of station in Shanghai.
In China, torn apart by civil war, the government of Chiang Kai-shek controlled only a number of southern provinces. Other territories of the country were divided between generals-militarists who did not submit to the central government. Naum Isaakovich under the name of Leonid Alexandrovich Naumov arrived in Shanghai at the end of 1925, being in the residency under the cover of the rank of vice-consul. His work was carried out in extremely difficult conditions - in the spring of 1927, Mikhail Borodan, who was the main Soviet military adviser, following the instructions of the Comintern and the wishes of the Chinese Communist Party, made an unsuccessful attempt to remove Chiang Kai-shek from the post of commander-in-chief of the Chinese army. Chiang Kai-shek responded with an attack on Shanghai, which fell in mid-April on 1927. The Chinese Communist uprising was crushed, twenty-five leaders of the Communist Party were executed. Eitingon by this time worked in Beijing. At the end of April, the Chinese police, at the direction of Chiang Kai-shek, made a raid on the Soviet Consulate General in Beijing, during which a large number of secret documents were seized. After the events, Naum Isaakovich was transferred to Harbin. For the intelligence officer, this was certainly an increase, since in Manchuria (of which Harbin was the capital) there lived about one hundred thousand immigrants from Russia.
Harbin residency under the guidance of the most experienced Fedor Karin effectively fought not only against the remnants of the emigrating White Guard gangs, but also against the Japanese special services preparing the seizure of Manchuria by the emperor's troops. Having access to the diplomatic missions of the Japanese Consulate General in Manchuria, the OGPU residency learned first-hand about Tokyo’s plans regarding our country and China. Naum Isaakovich, arriving at the scene, also actively joined in the work, having received a number of sources of communication. On an ongoing basis, he received important information about the situation in the White Guard organizations and about the attempts of the Japanese to create Cossack units with the aim of using them against the USSR. In 1928, Eitingon obtained secret information about the negotiations of the Mukden militarists with the Japanese about education under the protectorate of Japan of the independent Manchurian Republic. The activity of the OGPU’s Harbin station did not go unnoticed, and in May 1929 raided the Soviet Consulate General. As a result of provocations by the Chinese government in mid-July, the Soviet authorities declared the severance of diplomatic relations. The “legal” residencies in China temporarily stopped work, and Naum Isaakovich was recalled to Moscow.
At the Center, the intelligence officer did not linger, almost immediately leaving for Istanbul and replacing Yakov Minsker as a resident. In this city, Eitingon was under the name of Leonid Naumov as an attache of the Soviet Consulate General. During the reign of Kemal Ataturk, the activities of Soviet intelligence officers were not directed against Turkish organizations. Moreover, the special services of both countries cooperated among themselves. The Istanbul residency of the OGPU developed diplomatic missions of Austria, France and Japan, and also collected information on the activities of various groups of anti-Soviet emigration - North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine.
Since the conditions for carrying out intelligence work in Istanbul were exceptionally favorable, in the summer of 1928 the Center decided to establish an illegal residency here, headed by Jacob Blumkin, with the further creation of a reconnaissance network in Syria and Palestine. In March, 1929 Blumkin learned of his idol Trotsky being expelled to Turkey. Soon he organized a meeting with him, during which he declared to the “demon of the revolution” that he gave himself at his complete disposal. In the following months, he regularly handed over to Lev Davidovich funds and secret information. Finally, the “legal” residency learned about it, and in early October 1929 Blumkin was recalled from Turkey. Upon arrival at his homeland, he was arrested, and at the end of the year, at the direction of Stalin, was shot "for betraying the cause of the revolution."
After the arrest of Blumkin, the position of Naum Isaakovich as a “legal” resident became complicated - an illegal residency was urgently needed to be rebuilt, and in October 1929 George Atabekov, the head of the Eastern Sector of YNO, came to replace Yakov Grigorievich. In Turkey, he came under the guise of a merchant from Armenia and under the leadership of Naum Isaakovich began to transform the agent network. However, in the summer 1930 Agabekov fled to Europe. He settled in Berlin, where he published a book in which, among other things, indicated that Eitingon was a Soviet intelligence officer. In order to avoid provocations, the Center recalled Naum Isaakovich to Moscow.
In the capital, Eitingon was appointed deputy Serebryansky - the head of the Special Group created at 1930 with the aim of introducing agents to objects of military-strategic importance, as well as performing sabotage operations in the enemy's rear during the war period. In the same year, Naum Isaakovich and Yakov Isaakovich traveled to America, recruiting Japanese and Chinese immigrants, necessary for the intelligence of the USSR in the event of a war with Japan. By the way, among the agents recruited by Eitingon was the Japanese artist Yotoku Miyagi, who later became part of the famous Richard Sorge “Ramzai” group. Unfortunately, despite the positive results, Naum Isaakovich did not work well with Serebryansky and in 1931 asked the leadership of the OGPU to transfer him back to INO. The request was granted, and the intelligence officer headed the eighth (scientific and technical intelligence) department, replacing Alexander Orlov.
In the new position, Naum Isaakovich did not work long, in the fall 1931 flew to France, and then to Belgium and returned from there only to 1933. In April, 1933 Eitingon (who was thirty-three years old) was appointed head of the first branch of the Institute, in other words, he led the illegal intelligence. It was on these days that the first meeting took place with Pavel Sudoplatov, who later became his boss and a good friend. In his memoirs, Pavel Anatolyevich described his colleague in the following way: “His brown eyes, so alive, shone with his mind. The piercing gaze, black as pitch, thick hair, a scar on his chin after a car accident, which most people took as a trace of a battle wound, all of which gave him the appearance of a seasoned man. He recited Pushkin by heart, however weapons Eitingon was humor and irony ... a striking lack of interest in comfort and money. He never had any savings, the modest atmosphere in the house and that was official. ... Naum Isaakovich was a truly gifted person and, if he had not been a scout, he would certainly have made a scientific career or succeeded in the civil service. ”
Illegal intelligence Naum Isaakovich also led not for long. At the end of 1933, he left his homeland, visiting the United States, China, Iran and Germany. Its main tasks in these countries were to improve the work of illegal residencies and create conditions for the transfer of “legal” residencies to illegal methods of activity in a “special period”. With these tasks, Eitingon successfully coped, as evidenced by the assignment of the rank of state security major to him in 1936.
In 1936 in Spain, a Franco mutiny began, supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Soviet authorities decided to assist the Republican government and sent experienced military advisers to Spain. Alexander Orlov, who arrived in Madrid on 1936 in September, headed the NKVD residency. Naum Isaakovich became his deputy, using the pseudonyms “Pierre” and “Kotov”. His main task was to organize sabotage groups and partisan groups in the rear of the Francoists, but the intelligence officer took part in almost all the work of the residency - the reorganization of the Spanish counterintelligence, the creation of a peripheral intelligence service, army counterintelligence and foreign intelligence, a secret war against the British, Italian, German and French special services. At 1938, Alexander Orlov, fearing for his safety, fled to the United States. A new resident was appointed Eitingon, who had to work in difficult conditions - at the end of 1938, the interaction of Soviet intelligence with the special services of the Spaniards began to decline. Despite this, Naum Isaakovich was able to recruit several former anarchists and the Spanish Trotskyists, as well as Ramon Mercader. And in February, 1939 Eitingon conducted operations to send the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party and the republican leadership to France, and the Soviet colony to their homeland. For their work in November, 1937 was awarded a scout by the Second Order of the Red Banner.
In Moscow, Eitingon returned in the spring of 1939. By this time, 450 foreign intelligence workers were sent to the camps as a result of repression, or 275 people were shot. With many foreign agents, the connection was lost forever. So, for example, when in 1938 England and France gave Czechoslovakia to the mercy of Hitler, foreign intelligence didn’t provide any information to the country's leadership for 127 days - there was simply no one to process and sign it. In November, Beria became the Commissar of Interior Affairs 1938, and the repression against the intelligence officers began to decline. Returning from abroad, Eitingon was in a difficult situation. Grigory Syroezhkin, who worked with him in Spain, was arrested and then shot, Orlov turned out to be a defector, arrested by Jacob Peters (who worked as head of the Eastern Department of the OGPU) and Lev Karahan (former plenipotentiary in Turkey), under torture, signed testimony on Naum Isaakovich as English spy For the scout established surveillance, which he, however, quickly discovered. Rescued from the arrest of Eitingon accident - at this time the NKVD began to carry out operations to eliminate Trotsky. Thanks to its leader Pavel Sudoplatov, Naum Isaakovich was connected as one of the organizers and performers on the spot under the pseudonym “Tom”. It is curious that the codename of this operation - “Duck” was invented by Eitingon, who had in mind the fact that Lev Davidovich spread false information about the state of affairs in Russia, and this information is commonly referred to as “duck”.
This operation took about two years. The first group, commanded by the Mexican artist David Siqueiros, consisted of proven fighters-agents of the Soviet state security organs. After examining the plan of Trotsky’s villa, 24 May 1940 at four in the morning, she undertook the assault. Twenty people neutralized the outdoor security police, then entered the villa and opened crossfire on Trotsky’s bedroom. Lev Davidovich and his wife hid under the bed and remained unharmed. The attackers, leaving an explosive device and an incendiary projectile, left the villa. But the explosive device was defective, and the fire started was put out by Trotsky. On an unsuccessful attempt, Eitingon reported to Beria personally: “Taking all the blame upon myself, I am ready to fly out on demand to receive my punishment ... All the people are still intact, some have left the country. Two weeks later, we will take up the correction of the error, since there are reserves. ” In mid-June, Sudoplatov and Beria reported to the General Secretary the details of the failed assassination attempt, and Stalin gave the green light to the alternative plan.
Soon, Naum Isaakovich received a telegram with the order to continue the operation, to which the second group, consisting of only two people, now joined: Mary Caridad (alias “Mother”), recruited by Eitingon in 1937, and her son Ramon Mercader (“Raymond”), later introduced in the inner circle of Trotsky. At the end of August, 1940 newspapers all over the world wrote about the death of the “demon of the Russian revolution”. Ramon Mercader was detained, but no torture and interrogation could force him to talk about the USSR intelligence connections — until the last day of his detention, he invariably emphasized personal motives for the murder. Sudoplatov wrote in his memoirs: "Three days after the removal of Trotsky, it was decided that Eitingon would return home on his own, and all the remaining money allocated for the operation would be used to maintain Mercader and pay lawyers." In June, 1941 Naum Isaakovich and Maria Karidad were invited to the Kremlin, where they were awarded the Order of Lenin. Ramon Mercader, after serving almost twenty years in prison, was transferred to the USSR, where he received Soviet citizenship and the title of Hero.
The Great War, Eitingon met in the post of deputy chief of intelligence. A day before the attack of Nazi Germany, he received a personal order from Beria to organize a Special Group to carry out sabotage in the rear of a possible enemy. The outbreak of hostilities prevented the implementation of these plans, but already in July, 1941, such a group was established under the State Security Commissar. It was headed by Pavel Sudoplatov, and Eitingon was appointed his deputy. The formation of special forces took place under the direct control of Naum Isaakovich. In January, in connection with the growth of the partisan struggle in the territories occupied by the German Wehrmacht, 1942 created the fourth NKVD administration under the leadership of Sudoplatov. His deputy again became (in August 1942) Eitingon. The administration was entrusted with the task of organizing illegal residencies in occupied cities, introducing agents into occupational administrative and military bodies, bringing reconnaissance and sabotage groups to the enemy’s rear, and providing agents with documents, communications equipment and weapons.
Back in July, 1941 Sudoplatov and Eitingon decided, with the help of Soviet agents, to create a fictitious pro-German monarchist organization called the Throne. In February, 1942, after the crushing defeat of the German troops near Moscow, Alexander Demyanov, an experienced agent of the state security agencies working under the pseudonym Heine, passed to the Germans. He told the Germans about the existence in the capital of Russia of a monarchical organization wishing to establish contact with the command of the Germans, and also to carry out their tasks. Intelligence of the enemy became interested in "Heine" and, having assigned the nickname "Max", began to lead its development. The Nazis subjected Demyanova thoroughly interrogation, and after - imitated the shooting. Nevertheless, the scout held steadfastly, and some time later he was sent to Smolensk, where German instructors began to prepare Heine as an agent for the Abwehr. In March, 1942 Heine gave out money to support the organization Throne, drove it to the airfield and put it on the plane.
Two weeks later, Demyanov went on the air and handed the first disinformation batch prepared by the General Staff to the enemy. This operational game was named "Monastery". Soon Abwehr’s couriers began to arrive in the Soviet Union. They were warmly welcomed, and they even allowed one to return in order to confirm that the Throne organization was operating under the control of the Abwehr. At the same time, Heine continued to transmit information beneficial to the Soviet command. In order to confirm the sabotage allegedly carried out by the "Throne", the KGB organized in the press relevant publications, and sometimes even imitated acts of sabotage. In some cases, the real information was transmitted to the Germans. The transmitted encryption was highly valued in the German General Staff and was taken into account during the planning of operations on the Eastern Front. For example, on the threshold of the counter-offensive near Stalingrad, the Germans were sent strategic misinformation regarding the direction of the main attack. The Germans, warned that the Russians were preparing a strike near Rzhev, took a number of measures to repel it and, with the start of the offensive at Stalingrad, were unable to help the surrounded Paulus group. A curious fact that strategic misinformation was transmitted during the operation “Monastery” was sometimes returned to the Soviet intelligence officers from their sources in British intelligence and the Abwehr. The unique operation "Monastery" lasted until the end of the war. In the course of it, more than fifty Abwehr agents and seven German accomplices were arrested, millions of rubles were received for the work of the Prestol organization. Sudoplatov and Eitingon received the Order of Suvorov of the second degree, and Demyanov received the Order of the Red Star.In August, 1944, through the Prestol organization’s radio station, brought to the notice of the German command that a large German unit in need of ammunition, medicine, and food was operating in Belarus. The command of the Wehrmacht swallowed the bait, deciding to assist their soldiers. Thus began the famous operation "Berezino", which was headed by Naum Isaakovich. On his initiative, a task force was created, which included officers from the fourth directorate, German agents, former prisoners of war, OMSBON fighters and German German Army prisoner Heinrich Sherhorn who was recruited by the state security forces and playing the role of a commander. The group was sent to the Berezino area in order to organize a false base of a German unit allegedly operating in the rear of the Soviet army. From the archive reference on Operation Berezino, from the autumn of 1944 to 1945 in the spring, the Germans carried out thirty-nine aircraft sorties to the Soviet rear, dropped twenty-two German reconnaissance (arrested by the fourth command), 255 cargo sites with uniforms, ammunition, armament, food and medicines and one million eight hundred thousand Soviet rubles. At the same time, Heine, on the instructions of Eitingon, sent messages about the alleged clashes between the Scherhorn forces and the Red Army units. Interestingly, in March 1945, Lieutenant-Colonel Sherhorn received a telegram signed by Guderian, which reported on awarding him with the Knight's Cross and conferring the rank of colonel. 5 in May, the German command transmitted the last radiogram: "... Based on the situation with a heavy heart, we are forced to stop providing assistance to you, and we can no longer maintain radio communication." For the successful operation in November 1945, Naum Isaakovich was given the rank of major general.
In February, 1945 Soviet intelligence received information about the presence of large stocks of high-quality uranium near the Bulgarian city of Bukhovo, which was under the control of the Soviet army. Also learned about this, the US intelligence agencies began to develop sabotage plans in order to disrupt the supply of uranium ore to the Soviet Union. In order to destroy the intentions of our recent allies, Eitingon was sent to Bulgaria. However, in the USSR by that time no less large deposits of uranium ore had been found. In order to hide this fact from the Americans, Naum Isaakovich held various disinformation measures in Bulgaria, which created the impression that the USSR badly needed Bulgarian uranium. Such actions have diverted the means and strength of American intelligence from a domestic nuclear project.
At the end of 1946, Eitingon received a new assignment from management. He was sent to Xinjiang Province of China with the aim of helping the Chinese Communists to establish full control over the province. It should be noted that at that time fighting clashes with Uighur separatists supported by British intelligence and the regime of Chiang Kai-shek were going on in Xinjiang. Naum Isaakovich, together with the security organs of the Chinese Communist Party, managed to form sabotage groups that effectively counteracted the rebels. In the end, to 1949, when Eitingon returned to Moscow, the Uigurs were completely defeated.
Back in 1947, Major General Eitingon was again appointed deputy Sudoplatov, who led the sabotage department abroad. At the end of the forties, the Baltic republics liberated by the Red Army were restless - gangs of nationalists were operating, receiving extensive assistance from the special services of the United States and Great Britain. For example, only the Forest Brothers operating in Lithuania in the period from 1944 to 1956 killed twenty-five thousand people, twenty-three thousand of whom were their compatriots. It was in this republic that Eitingon worked, under whose command the Lithuanian security officers developed and successfully carried out a lot of undercover combinations. After the destruction of all the bandit formations, the armed struggle in the western republics of the Soviet Union gradually acquired the character of a masked confrontation between the Soviet counterintelligence and the special services of the nationalists (and the CIA and MI-6 behind them).
In September, 1950, headed by Sudoplatov, was reorganized into the Bureau Number one of the USSR Ministry of State Security. In the event of a new war, Naum Isaakovich, in his capacity as deputy head of the Bureau, was engaged in organizing combat operations against strategically important targets of a potential enemy, creating abroad combat agents, laying caches of weapons for these groups. However, the high position occupied by Naum Isaakovich, as well as significant successes in his work, could not save him from trouble. At the beginning of the fifties, the situation in the MGB was significantly complicated, for example, even in 1947, a tacit decision was taken by the leadership not to take persons of Jewish nationality to officer positions for officers. In 1951, when the intelligence officer was in Lithuania, his sister, a doctor by profession, was arrested. She was sentenced to ten years in prison for "promoting the Zionist conspiracy and refusing to treat Russian patients." And in September of the same year, after returning home, Eitingon himself turned out to be behind bars. He was presented with an absurd accusation of training conspiratorial doctors in terrorist actions against members of the Soviet government. Sadly, Joseph Vissarionovich himself gave permission for the arrest of a scout.
For a year and a half, Naum Isaakovich was imprisoned. He pleaded not guilty, and was released from prison after the death of Stalin in the spring of 1953. By order of Beria, he was reinstated in the party and in the state security organs, he again became the deputy of Sudoplatov, who led the ninth (reconnaissance and sabotage) department of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, in the summer of 1953, Beria was arrested, followed by a number of senior Interior Ministry officials, including Sudoplatov and Eitingon. Naum Isaakovich spent four years without a trial in the Butyrka prison, and only in March, 1957 was sentenced to twelve years in prison. In the last word, he said: “You judge me as a man of Beria. However, I am not his man, I am a man of the party. I performed all her tasks, and I will not talk about them with you. I believe that my life is not more valuable than the state secrets I possess. And I see from your faces that you have already decided everything. Therefore, I keep silent. The term of his intelligence officer left "from bell to bell" in the Vladimir prison and was released only in March 1964. He was allowed to live in the capital with his family. By the way, throughout the life of Eitingon he was married three times, he had four own children (two sons and two daughters) and another girl he adopted.Naum Isaakovich spoke fluently in four foreign languages and got a job as a translator, and then as a senior editor at the publishing house “International Relations”. In the mid-seventies, Eitingon sent a letter to the KGB chairman Andropov asking him to rehabilitate him. However, the petition was not granted, since Mikhail Suslov, the “main ideologist of the party”, opposed this. During the stay of Naum Isaakovich in Lithuania, a conflict occurred between them, which the old dogmatist did not forget.
Legendary scout Naum Eitingon, aka Chekist Kotov, aka Leonid Naumov, the punishing sword of the Soviet state security organs, without waiting for rehabilitation, died 3 in May 1981. Nothing was said about his death in the media, and there were no official obituaries in the newspapers. During the funeral at the Moscow Donskoy Cemetery, Hero of the Soviet Union Yevgeny Mirkovsky said: “Today this knight’s age ends in the grave stories our Cheka ... ".
The post-mortem rehabilitation of Eitingon took place only in April 1992, and on May 9 all of his awards were returned to Naum Isaakovich’s family.
According to the books of V.S. Antonov "Life on the" legend "and E.P. Sharapova "Naum Eitingon".
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