Worked under a hail of bombs, shells and missiles from German aircraft
In the summer of 1918, a twenty-year-old Red Army fighter Konstantin Kukin arrived from Bryansk to the area of the small town of Rechitsa, Gomel Province, together with a group of Bolshevik military personnel. At that time, the German interventionists were in charge of the province, who overthrew the Soviet regime in Belarus and brutally massacred the Communists and their sympathizers. The group of fighters of the Red Army was tasked with deploying a partisan movement in the rear of the interventionists. The actions of the underground guided the future illegal intelligence officer Yevgeny Mitskevich, who later played a large role in the fate of Kukin.
YEARS OF THE QUENCH IN THE RED ARMY
Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin was born on November 23 of 1897 in the city of Kursk in a working-class family. In 1916, he graduated from college and enrolled as a volunteer in the 12 th Kalishsky regiment. Participated in the First World War, rose to the rank of officer.
Konstantin Kukin - fighter of the Belarusian partisan detachment in 1918 year.
Photo courtesy of the author
After demobilization from the army, Kukin returned to his native Kursk. There he found the news of the victory of the October Revolution, which he met with joy and immediately volunteered to join the Red Army. In it, he served eight years. In 1918, he was admitted to the ranks of the CPSU (b).
It so happened that Kukin was in the very whirlpool of the struggle for Soviet power. After Trotsky’s refusal to sign a peace treaty with Germany in Brest-Litovsk, the Kaiser army launched a massive offensive. Ukraine and Belarus were captured, where the occupiers set their own rules. In February, the invaders 1918 were hardly stopped near Narva and Pskov. On the territory of Russia, the line of the German occupation was held in 100 km from Bryansk.
Kukin was sent with a detachment of fighters to the Belarusian city of Rechytsa to organize repulse against the German invaders. Since the Red Army was still weak and could not conduct regular battles with the Germans, in the occupied territories preference was given to partisan actions. Kukin participated in the creation of armed resistance units and partisan detachments that attacked separate divisions of the invaders, sabotage the Bryansk-Gomel railway, and destroyed enemy transports.
In November, a revolution broke out in Germany in 1918, forcing Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate. The Soviet government immediately annulled the predatory Brest peace. Following the example of Russia, the German proletariat created councils of workers and soldiers' deputies in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and other German cities. The same advice arose in the territory of occupied Belarus. German soldiers decided to stop all hostilities against Russia and demanded the speedy return to their homeland. In December 1918, the evacuation of the German army from the territory of Belarus began.
25 March 1919, the Rechytsa Extraordinary Military Revolutionary Headquarters appoints Kukin as the commander of the Rechytsa guard company, which he also commissions to form. In Belarus, Kukin is fighting with gangs of "green". In September 1919, Kukin was appointed Deputy Political Commissioner of the 53 Cavalry Regiment. Later he became an assistant to the head of the political department of the 9 Cavalry Division. He was in this position until the end of December 1919.
In 1920, Kukin is appointed chairman of the Bakhchisarai Revolutionary Committee of the Crimea and the commander of a detachment of special purpose units (CHON), and is actively fighting gangsterism. For courage and heroism awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In October, 1922 was sent to Kursk for a meeting of the commanders of the CHON detachments. Having learned that their compatriot is the chairman of the revolt committee of Bakhchisarai, the Kuryans invite him to return to his hometown, where he becomes deputy Kursk provincial military commissar and at the same time heads his political secretariat.
In 1923, Kukin is appointed by the military commissar of Kursk and is elected a member of the bureau of the district committee of the party of the 1 urban district. But even here he worked only until 1925, when he was appointed military commissar of the Zarai district of the Moscow province. In this position, Konstantin worked a year and a half.
20 March 1926 of the year by order of the USSR Revolutionary Military Council Kukin is demobilized from the Red Army and devotes himself entirely to party work. He is elected secretary of the party committee of the Krasny Bogatyr plant in Moscow and a member of the bureau of the Sokolniki district party committee. The big event in his life was the election of a delegate to the 16 Party Conference of the RCP (B.) And a member of the Moscow City Party Committee in 1929. Here he holds the position of head of the party building sector. To complete higher education, he goes to study at the Institute of Red Professorship, where he successfully masters the English language.
FIRST STEPS IN EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT
Studying, Konstantin established himself on the positive side and after graduation in 1931, he was assigned to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. After a short internship at the central office of the People's Commissariat Kukin, he was sent to England as manager of the Rezinoimport department at the joint-stock company Arcos.
Some time later, in the same 1931 year, Kukin accidentally collided in London with his old friend in military service in Rechitsa, Yevgeny Petrovich Mickiewicz, an illegal intelligence officer who had previously worked in Germany and Italy. In England, Mickiewicz headed an illegal residency and had a passport in the name of a foreign national.
Delighted at the sudden meeting, they remembered the joint struggle with the German occupiers in Belarus, their comrades, they were interested in each other’s affairs. Upon learning that in England, Kukin works at Rezinoimport, Mitskevich unexpectedly made him an offer to go to work in foreign intelligence. He stressed that he was ready to personally recommend Konstantin to the head of the INO, Artur Artuzov.
This proposal took Kukin, as they say, by surprise, and he replied that he was not yet ready to work in intelligence. However, after some reflection, he agreed and asked what he should do to go to work at the OGPU.
“Nothing,” Mickiewicz responded instantly. - The main thing is that you don’t tell anyone about my offer, and then we will find you.
At the end of 1931, Kukin was enrolled in foreign intelligence cadres and included in the INO legal residence in London. Such a quick appointment was caused by the reorganization of foreign intelligence, carried out by decision of the Politburo from January 30 of 1930. In connection with the growth of Nazism in Germany, this decree explicitly stated that the Soviet Union was facing the threat of a new world war, which required an increase in intelligence work. Intelligence appropriations were increased, its states were expanded. Kukin was ideally suited for intelligence, which he confirmed with his further work.
In 1932, he completed his work in England and returned to Moscow. The intelligence management decided to send him to work at one of their most active points, the Harbin residency. The importance of work in Harbin was explained by the fact that in the northeast of China there was a significant colony of White Guard emigration, closely associated with Japanese and British intelligence services. The special services of foreign states actively sent agents, recruited by them, to the territory of the Soviet Union.
In Harbin, Konstantin Mikhailovich was in the position of general representative of Gosstrakh. He was actively involved in the work of the station, started a number of interesting links. However, in 1934, he became seriously ill and was forced to return to the USSR. Kukin was ill for one year, and then in 1935, he was enrolled in the so-called Yasha group, headed by Jacob Serebryansky, who was a military intelligence agency. Kukin was appointed to lead the special operations group against Japanese intelligence and left for Transbaikalia. The task of his group was to fight with the Japanese intelligence services sent to the territory of the USSR reconnaissance and sabotage groups of Russian White Guard immigration.
In 1937, the outstanding foreign intelligence chief Arthur Artuzov was arrested and then shot. By order of the People's Commissar Nikolai Yezhov, Konstantin Mikhailovich was recalled to Moscow to testify about “links with the enemy of the people”. However, the NKVD investigators failed to interrogate him: Kukin's heart disease worsened for a long time, and he was dismissed from the state security bodies for health reasons.
AMERICAN RESIDENTURA AND NEW CHECKS
Chekist Kukin at that time was only 40 years old. He was married, had two children, a good education, several professions, but he could not get a job anywhere. As soon as the personnel officers learned that he was fired from the NKVD "for contacting the enemies of the people," the doors of any institutions slammed in front of him. Only thanks to the personal intervention of Abram Slutsky, who replaced Artuzov as head of foreign intelligence and who knew Kukin for joint work in the Sokolniki district committee of the party, was Konstantin Mikhailovich restored in its ranks.
So that zealous investigators did not again become interested in a scout, Slutsky gave instructions to immediately issue him on a foreign mission to the USA, where Konstantin Mikhailovich had left after 7 in November 1937, under the cover of the post of second secretary of the USSR embassy in Washington. Until May 1941, the diplomatic institutions of the USSR abroad were called plenipotentiaries, headed by their plenipotentiaries, respectively. In May, the embassies began to be called 1941, as is customary throughout the world, as embassies headed by ambassadors. In this position for cover, he was personally approved by the Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, with whom in the future he will have to communicate more than once on official business and even accompany him on trips around the US in 1942.
Meanwhile, Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov was removed from office and executed. He was replaced in this post by Lawrence Beria, who also began to reorganize intelligence. By his order, Kukin was transferred to New York, where Hayk Hovakimian was a resident of intelligence. Arriving in New York, Konstantin Mikhailovich quickly became familiar with the situation and within six months he was able to bring to work two sources of political information, from which important information about the policies of the US ruling circles towards our country began to come.
The resident Hovakimyan sent Igor (the operational pseudonym of Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin) to contact another seven mothballed agents, with whom the resident Peter Gutzayt had previously worked (he was recalled to Moscow, accused of Trotskyism and executed). The Center attributed half of these agents to “dubious sources” and suggested stopping work with them. However, Kukin continued to meet with them and received valuable information from them on political and economic issues. Work with these sources continued during the Great Patriotic War and was very productive.
Resident Hovakimyan highly appreciated Igor’s activity in the work and suggested that the Center appoint him as deputy resident. However, due to the lack of experienced personnel in the Center itself, the intelligence leadership decided to withdraw Kukin to Moscow and appoint him to a leadership position. So Konstantin Mikhailovich became deputy chief of the 1-th foreign intelligence department (USA and Canada).
But in the center of the scout was waiting for another trouble. A certain immigrant accused him of belonging to a "counter-revolutionary organization", allegedly created under the Arcos joint-stock company in London. However, the test revealed the absurdity of the statements of the emigrant, and Kukin was left alone. Nevertheless, the intelligence chief puzzled over how to get the scout out of the blow. Soon the war began. It was decided to send him to the London residency, especially since the resident Gorsky in the letter of 16 in July 1941 asked to send additional experienced workers.
At a reception at the Soviet Embassy. USSR Ambassador Konstantin Kukin and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, London, 1947 year.
Photo courtesy of the author
And again the case intervened. 20 July 1941, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) and the People’s Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) were united into a single People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, led by Lavrenti Beria. The new people's commissar postponed the report on Kukin's business trip to London until the verification of his participation in the activities of the “Trotskyite organization” was completed.
Then Pavel Mikhailovich Fitin, the head of the intelligence of the NKVD, urgently seconded Kukin to a special group of employees of the people's commissar who were carrying out the task of command in the frontline and front-line areas to identify German spies and saboteurs. Konstantin Mikhailovich successfully coped with this assignment, and soon all the absurd accusations against him completely disappeared and he returned to the central intelligence apparatus, where operatively competent personnel were worth their weight in gold during the war years. In order to prepare Kukin for foreign work in July 1942, he accompanied the Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov on a trip to the United States.
The intelligence management returned to the report on Kukin's direction to work in the London residency only in April 1943, when the NKGB was re-established. People's Commissar Vsevolod Merkulov, having familiarized himself with the report, suggested that Fitin should appoint Kukin a resident instead of Gorsky. Fitin did not mind. Konstantin Mikhailovich went to London as an adviser to the embassy. On the eve of his departure, he was received by Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov, People's Commissar of State Security, who briefly outlined the tasks of residency in England:
“Comrade Stalin has set the intelligence task of keeping abreast of the plans of our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, including England. Therefore, we set four tasks for you. First: obtaining reliable information about the plans of the British in the war against Germany. Second: their point of view on the post-war structure in Europe and on relations with the Soviet Union. Third: obtaining information on the timing of the opening of the second front. Fourth: providing our scientists with intelligence materials on the development of new weapons, especially on the uranium problem. ”
LONDON APPLICATIONS UNDER THE SCALE OF BOMB
After a conversation with the People's Commissar Kukin, he left for London on the same day. He traveled to Murmansk by rail with his family, and from there by sea to England. He arrived in the British capital in the middle of May 1943, and immediately joined the work. He took in contact with members of the "Cambridge Five". Moscow was primarily interested in the question of how serious Churchill’s promises were to open a second front in August – September 1943.
May 15, Kukin sends to the Center mined by agents in the Ministry aviation information about the military-strategic plan of Great Britain for 1943. It was not a word about the landing of the Anglo-American troops in Europe. It follows from the document that the British intend to expel the German-Italian troops from Tunisia, to occupy Sicily and Sardinia, and to transfer the main ground operations against Nazi Germany to 1944.
Thanks to the efforts of the London residency, led by Kukin, as well as other foreign intelligence agencies, Stalin was aware of the plans of the allies. At the Tehran Conference of the Big Three 30 in November, he achieved a written commitment from England and the United States to open a second front in May 1944. In fact, Operation Overlord began the landing of the Allies in Normandy only on 6 on June 1944, when it was already clear to the whole world that the USSR was capable of breaking the back of the Nazi beast on its own. Then the Allies hurried to divide the German pie.
Konstantin Kukin and the scouts led by him worked in London in conditions close to front-line ones. The British capital almost daily bombed the German Luftwaffe. It happened that an operator could not return from a meeting from the area that had suffered a raid. Then the resident himself sat behind the wheel of a car, rushed to the rescue of his comrade and took him to the embassy.
Kukin devoted much effort and attention to working with agents. At the end of 1943, encryption came from his name in Moscow, informing him of the direction to his residency of eight new operatives. At the same time, the resident was asked to report to the Center on how to use them in carrying out the tasks facing the team. Konstantin Mikhailovich was seriously ill at that time and could not respond to the Center in a timely manner. A scout had a peptic ulcer disease that chained him to bed. He worked at home, lying in bed. From attacks of acute pain, he could not even sit.
Only at the beginning of 1944 of the year, without mentioning a word about his illness, the resident reported on the plan of using each operative in the activities of the point and asked the Center to talk with Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Andrei Vyshinsky about relieving him from excessive loads through the diplomatic line. However, soon an unexpected response was received from the Center to these proposals. Curator Kukina in the Center asked to inform him about how he uses his participation in various committees through the embassy in the interests of intelligence. The resident was also asked to send detailed reports on the work of each new employee who arrived at his office.
The bedridden resident dictated a letter to the Center:
- “Work in a new way is developed by us in accordance with the plans of the Center. It is hampered by war more rapidly: we work under shelling shells and missiles from German aircraft. Due to the frequent bombardment, it is difficult to communicate with agents. Some of them left London because of this. Those who remained in it, reluctantly and with apprehension for their lives go to the turnout. If they come, the conversation is not always glued: people listen more to the noise of flying V-1.
Briefly about recruiting. Despite a noticeable increase in the sympathies of ordinary Englishmen to the Soviet Union in connection with its successful liberation mission in Europe, it became much more difficult to find operational contacts in the state and general political environment of interest to us. The fact is that suspicion towards the USSR is growing in the highest circles of English society because of its great influence in Europe. This is all to show you our difficulties, and not to justify our supposedly weak work.
I must tell you directly: we do not agree with your assessment. In the past year, we recruited twenty agents, restored communication with six sources. High returns achieved from the work of the "Cambridge Five". The station constantly provided the Center with military, political, economic, and scientific and technical information, especially on the uranium problem. "Igor". February 1945 of the year. "
Kukin's letter was immediately reported to the foreign intelligence chief Fitin. After reading it, he wrote on a separate piece of paper and pinned to the document the resolution of the following content:
“Comrade. Kleru.
1. Evaluation of the activities of any foreign resident and its employees should be based on knowledge of affairs, and not on emotions. Henceforth, without my knowledge, I ask you not to do this.
2. Tov. Kukin, for your information, managed not only to maintain the high level of operational work achieved, but also to ensure the receipt of important documentary materials on all issues of interest to the Center. From the London residency, we constantly received and are now receiving valuable political intelligence information, as well as information about the work being done in the UK to create a nuclear weapons. Led by Kukin, the residency regularly informed our government about the postwar plans of Britain and the United States regarding a peaceful arrangement in Europe.
3. Considering all this, I ask you personally to prepare a presentation on Kukin and his staff to award government awards. P. Fitin. February 1945 of the year. "
RECOGNITION OF MERITS IN HOMELAND AND ABROAD
The curator of the London residency, of course, did not know all the nuances of her work, since many of her materials, especially those received from the Cambridge Five, were reported directly "upstairs", bypassing the ordinary employees of the Center. The resolution of the intelligence chief played a positive role in the fact that the curators of the London residency stopped her petty custody, and this had a positive effect on her work.
The curator, of course, complied with the instructions of the intelligence chief, and soon a congratulatory telegram went to the London residency stating that Konstantin Kukin, Alexander Barkovsky and a number of other intelligence officers were awarded military orders. Two months later, the long-awaited Victory came, in which the resident and his staff made a significant contribution. The work of the London residency during the war years was highly appreciated by the Center.
No wonder, already in 1960-ies, the former CIA director Alain Dulles called “the ultimate dream of any intelligence of the world” information received from the Cambridge Five during the war years. This was, of course, considerable merit of Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin himself, who successfully worked in London until the 1949 year. 30 May 1947, he was appointed chief resident intelligence and at the same time the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USSR in the UK.
After completing a business trip in May 1949, Kukin returned to Moscow and became the head of the 1 (Anglo-American) department of the Information Committee of the USSR Foreign Ministry, as foreign intelligence was then called. In this position, he worked until November 1951, when the Information Committee was abolished and foreign intelligence returned to the structure of state security agencies.
Unfortunately, Konstantin Kukin did not manage to work for a long time in the new structure. In 1952, his old diseases worsened, and he was forced to retire for health reasons at the age of 55. 25 November 1979, Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin passed away.
For successful work in ensuring state security, Colonel Kukin was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Patriotic War, the Order of the Red Star and many medals.
YEARS OF THE QUENCH IN THE RED ARMY
Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin was born on November 23 of 1897 in the city of Kursk in a working-class family. In 1916, he graduated from college and enrolled as a volunteer in the 12 th Kalishsky regiment. Participated in the First World War, rose to the rank of officer.Konstantin Kukin - fighter of the Belarusian partisan detachment in 1918 year.
Photo courtesy of the author
After demobilization from the army, Kukin returned to his native Kursk. There he found the news of the victory of the October Revolution, which he met with joy and immediately volunteered to join the Red Army. In it, he served eight years. In 1918, he was admitted to the ranks of the CPSU (b).
It so happened that Kukin was in the very whirlpool of the struggle for Soviet power. After Trotsky’s refusal to sign a peace treaty with Germany in Brest-Litovsk, the Kaiser army launched a massive offensive. Ukraine and Belarus were captured, where the occupiers set their own rules. In February, the invaders 1918 were hardly stopped near Narva and Pskov. On the territory of Russia, the line of the German occupation was held in 100 km from Bryansk.
Kukin was sent with a detachment of fighters to the Belarusian city of Rechytsa to organize repulse against the German invaders. Since the Red Army was still weak and could not conduct regular battles with the Germans, in the occupied territories preference was given to partisan actions. Kukin participated in the creation of armed resistance units and partisan detachments that attacked separate divisions of the invaders, sabotage the Bryansk-Gomel railway, and destroyed enemy transports.
In November, a revolution broke out in Germany in 1918, forcing Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate. The Soviet government immediately annulled the predatory Brest peace. Following the example of Russia, the German proletariat created councils of workers and soldiers' deputies in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and other German cities. The same advice arose in the territory of occupied Belarus. German soldiers decided to stop all hostilities against Russia and demanded the speedy return to their homeland. In December 1918, the evacuation of the German army from the territory of Belarus began.
25 March 1919, the Rechytsa Extraordinary Military Revolutionary Headquarters appoints Kukin as the commander of the Rechytsa guard company, which he also commissions to form. In Belarus, Kukin is fighting with gangs of "green". In September 1919, Kukin was appointed Deputy Political Commissioner of the 53 Cavalry Regiment. Later he became an assistant to the head of the political department of the 9 Cavalry Division. He was in this position until the end of December 1919.
In 1920, Kukin is appointed chairman of the Bakhchisarai Revolutionary Committee of the Crimea and the commander of a detachment of special purpose units (CHON), and is actively fighting gangsterism. For courage and heroism awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In October, 1922 was sent to Kursk for a meeting of the commanders of the CHON detachments. Having learned that their compatriot is the chairman of the revolt committee of Bakhchisarai, the Kuryans invite him to return to his hometown, where he becomes deputy Kursk provincial military commissar and at the same time heads his political secretariat.
In 1923, Kukin is appointed by the military commissar of Kursk and is elected a member of the bureau of the district committee of the party of the 1 urban district. But even here he worked only until 1925, when he was appointed military commissar of the Zarai district of the Moscow province. In this position, Konstantin worked a year and a half.
20 March 1926 of the year by order of the USSR Revolutionary Military Council Kukin is demobilized from the Red Army and devotes himself entirely to party work. He is elected secretary of the party committee of the Krasny Bogatyr plant in Moscow and a member of the bureau of the Sokolniki district party committee. The big event in his life was the election of a delegate to the 16 Party Conference of the RCP (B.) And a member of the Moscow City Party Committee in 1929. Here he holds the position of head of the party building sector. To complete higher education, he goes to study at the Institute of Red Professorship, where he successfully masters the English language.
FIRST STEPS IN EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT
Studying, Konstantin established himself on the positive side and after graduation in 1931, he was assigned to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. After a short internship at the central office of the People's Commissariat Kukin, he was sent to England as manager of the Rezinoimport department at the joint-stock company Arcos.
Some time later, in the same 1931 year, Kukin accidentally collided in London with his old friend in military service in Rechitsa, Yevgeny Petrovich Mickiewicz, an illegal intelligence officer who had previously worked in Germany and Italy. In England, Mickiewicz headed an illegal residency and had a passport in the name of a foreign national.
Delighted at the sudden meeting, they remembered the joint struggle with the German occupiers in Belarus, their comrades, they were interested in each other’s affairs. Upon learning that in England, Kukin works at Rezinoimport, Mitskevich unexpectedly made him an offer to go to work in foreign intelligence. He stressed that he was ready to personally recommend Konstantin to the head of the INO, Artur Artuzov.
This proposal took Kukin, as they say, by surprise, and he replied that he was not yet ready to work in intelligence. However, after some reflection, he agreed and asked what he should do to go to work at the OGPU.
“Nothing,” Mickiewicz responded instantly. - The main thing is that you don’t tell anyone about my offer, and then we will find you.
At the end of 1931, Kukin was enrolled in foreign intelligence cadres and included in the INO legal residence in London. Such a quick appointment was caused by the reorganization of foreign intelligence, carried out by decision of the Politburo from January 30 of 1930. In connection with the growth of Nazism in Germany, this decree explicitly stated that the Soviet Union was facing the threat of a new world war, which required an increase in intelligence work. Intelligence appropriations were increased, its states were expanded. Kukin was ideally suited for intelligence, which he confirmed with his further work.
In 1932, he completed his work in England and returned to Moscow. The intelligence management decided to send him to work at one of their most active points, the Harbin residency. The importance of work in Harbin was explained by the fact that in the northeast of China there was a significant colony of White Guard emigration, closely associated with Japanese and British intelligence services. The special services of foreign states actively sent agents, recruited by them, to the territory of the Soviet Union.
In Harbin, Konstantin Mikhailovich was in the position of general representative of Gosstrakh. He was actively involved in the work of the station, started a number of interesting links. However, in 1934, he became seriously ill and was forced to return to the USSR. Kukin was ill for one year, and then in 1935, he was enrolled in the so-called Yasha group, headed by Jacob Serebryansky, who was a military intelligence agency. Kukin was appointed to lead the special operations group against Japanese intelligence and left for Transbaikalia. The task of his group was to fight with the Japanese intelligence services sent to the territory of the USSR reconnaissance and sabotage groups of Russian White Guard immigration.
In 1937, the outstanding foreign intelligence chief Arthur Artuzov was arrested and then shot. By order of the People's Commissar Nikolai Yezhov, Konstantin Mikhailovich was recalled to Moscow to testify about “links with the enemy of the people”. However, the NKVD investigators failed to interrogate him: Kukin's heart disease worsened for a long time, and he was dismissed from the state security bodies for health reasons.
AMERICAN RESIDENTURA AND NEW CHECKS
Chekist Kukin at that time was only 40 years old. He was married, had two children, a good education, several professions, but he could not get a job anywhere. As soon as the personnel officers learned that he was fired from the NKVD "for contacting the enemies of the people," the doors of any institutions slammed in front of him. Only thanks to the personal intervention of Abram Slutsky, who replaced Artuzov as head of foreign intelligence and who knew Kukin for joint work in the Sokolniki district committee of the party, was Konstantin Mikhailovich restored in its ranks.
So that zealous investigators did not again become interested in a scout, Slutsky gave instructions to immediately issue him on a foreign mission to the USA, where Konstantin Mikhailovich had left after 7 in November 1937, under the cover of the post of second secretary of the USSR embassy in Washington. Until May 1941, the diplomatic institutions of the USSR abroad were called plenipotentiaries, headed by their plenipotentiaries, respectively. In May, the embassies began to be called 1941, as is customary throughout the world, as embassies headed by ambassadors. In this position for cover, he was personally approved by the Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, with whom in the future he will have to communicate more than once on official business and even accompany him on trips around the US in 1942.
Meanwhile, Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov was removed from office and executed. He was replaced in this post by Lawrence Beria, who also began to reorganize intelligence. By his order, Kukin was transferred to New York, where Hayk Hovakimian was a resident of intelligence. Arriving in New York, Konstantin Mikhailovich quickly became familiar with the situation and within six months he was able to bring to work two sources of political information, from which important information about the policies of the US ruling circles towards our country began to come.
The resident Hovakimyan sent Igor (the operational pseudonym of Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin) to contact another seven mothballed agents, with whom the resident Peter Gutzayt had previously worked (he was recalled to Moscow, accused of Trotskyism and executed). The Center attributed half of these agents to “dubious sources” and suggested stopping work with them. However, Kukin continued to meet with them and received valuable information from them on political and economic issues. Work with these sources continued during the Great Patriotic War and was very productive.
Resident Hovakimyan highly appreciated Igor’s activity in the work and suggested that the Center appoint him as deputy resident. However, due to the lack of experienced personnel in the Center itself, the intelligence leadership decided to withdraw Kukin to Moscow and appoint him to a leadership position. So Konstantin Mikhailovich became deputy chief of the 1-th foreign intelligence department (USA and Canada).
But in the center of the scout was waiting for another trouble. A certain immigrant accused him of belonging to a "counter-revolutionary organization", allegedly created under the Arcos joint-stock company in London. However, the test revealed the absurdity of the statements of the emigrant, and Kukin was left alone. Nevertheless, the intelligence chief puzzled over how to get the scout out of the blow. Soon the war began. It was decided to send him to the London residency, especially since the resident Gorsky in the letter of 16 in July 1941 asked to send additional experienced workers.
At a reception at the Soviet Embassy. USSR Ambassador Konstantin Kukin and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, London, 1947 year. Photo courtesy of the author
And again the case intervened. 20 July 1941, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) and the People’s Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) were united into a single People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, led by Lavrenti Beria. The new people's commissar postponed the report on Kukin's business trip to London until the verification of his participation in the activities of the “Trotskyite organization” was completed.
Then Pavel Mikhailovich Fitin, the head of the intelligence of the NKVD, urgently seconded Kukin to a special group of employees of the people's commissar who were carrying out the task of command in the frontline and front-line areas to identify German spies and saboteurs. Konstantin Mikhailovich successfully coped with this assignment, and soon all the absurd accusations against him completely disappeared and he returned to the central intelligence apparatus, where operatively competent personnel were worth their weight in gold during the war years. In order to prepare Kukin for foreign work in July 1942, he accompanied the Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov on a trip to the United States.
The intelligence management returned to the report on Kukin's direction to work in the London residency only in April 1943, when the NKGB was re-established. People's Commissar Vsevolod Merkulov, having familiarized himself with the report, suggested that Fitin should appoint Kukin a resident instead of Gorsky. Fitin did not mind. Konstantin Mikhailovich went to London as an adviser to the embassy. On the eve of his departure, he was received by Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov, People's Commissar of State Security, who briefly outlined the tasks of residency in England:
“Comrade Stalin has set the intelligence task of keeping abreast of the plans of our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, including England. Therefore, we set four tasks for you. First: obtaining reliable information about the plans of the British in the war against Germany. Second: their point of view on the post-war structure in Europe and on relations with the Soviet Union. Third: obtaining information on the timing of the opening of the second front. Fourth: providing our scientists with intelligence materials on the development of new weapons, especially on the uranium problem. ”
LONDON APPLICATIONS UNDER THE SCALE OF BOMB
After a conversation with the People's Commissar Kukin, he left for London on the same day. He traveled to Murmansk by rail with his family, and from there by sea to England. He arrived in the British capital in the middle of May 1943, and immediately joined the work. He took in contact with members of the "Cambridge Five". Moscow was primarily interested in the question of how serious Churchill’s promises were to open a second front in August – September 1943.
May 15, Kukin sends to the Center mined by agents in the Ministry aviation information about the military-strategic plan of Great Britain for 1943. It was not a word about the landing of the Anglo-American troops in Europe. It follows from the document that the British intend to expel the German-Italian troops from Tunisia, to occupy Sicily and Sardinia, and to transfer the main ground operations against Nazi Germany to 1944.
Thanks to the efforts of the London residency, led by Kukin, as well as other foreign intelligence agencies, Stalin was aware of the plans of the allies. At the Tehran Conference of the Big Three 30 in November, he achieved a written commitment from England and the United States to open a second front in May 1944. In fact, Operation Overlord began the landing of the Allies in Normandy only on 6 on June 1944, when it was already clear to the whole world that the USSR was capable of breaking the back of the Nazi beast on its own. Then the Allies hurried to divide the German pie.
Konstantin Kukin and the scouts led by him worked in London in conditions close to front-line ones. The British capital almost daily bombed the German Luftwaffe. It happened that an operator could not return from a meeting from the area that had suffered a raid. Then the resident himself sat behind the wheel of a car, rushed to the rescue of his comrade and took him to the embassy.
Kukin devoted much effort and attention to working with agents. At the end of 1943, encryption came from his name in Moscow, informing him of the direction to his residency of eight new operatives. At the same time, the resident was asked to report to the Center on how to use them in carrying out the tasks facing the team. Konstantin Mikhailovich was seriously ill at that time and could not respond to the Center in a timely manner. A scout had a peptic ulcer disease that chained him to bed. He worked at home, lying in bed. From attacks of acute pain, he could not even sit.
Only at the beginning of 1944 of the year, without mentioning a word about his illness, the resident reported on the plan of using each operative in the activities of the point and asked the Center to talk with Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Andrei Vyshinsky about relieving him from excessive loads through the diplomatic line. However, soon an unexpected response was received from the Center to these proposals. Curator Kukina in the Center asked to inform him about how he uses his participation in various committees through the embassy in the interests of intelligence. The resident was also asked to send detailed reports on the work of each new employee who arrived at his office.
The bedridden resident dictated a letter to the Center:
- “Work in a new way is developed by us in accordance with the plans of the Center. It is hampered by war more rapidly: we work under shelling shells and missiles from German aircraft. Due to the frequent bombardment, it is difficult to communicate with agents. Some of them left London because of this. Those who remained in it, reluctantly and with apprehension for their lives go to the turnout. If they come, the conversation is not always glued: people listen more to the noise of flying V-1.
Briefly about recruiting. Despite a noticeable increase in the sympathies of ordinary Englishmen to the Soviet Union in connection with its successful liberation mission in Europe, it became much more difficult to find operational contacts in the state and general political environment of interest to us. The fact is that suspicion towards the USSR is growing in the highest circles of English society because of its great influence in Europe. This is all to show you our difficulties, and not to justify our supposedly weak work.
I must tell you directly: we do not agree with your assessment. In the past year, we recruited twenty agents, restored communication with six sources. High returns achieved from the work of the "Cambridge Five". The station constantly provided the Center with military, political, economic, and scientific and technical information, especially on the uranium problem. "Igor". February 1945 of the year. "
Kukin's letter was immediately reported to the foreign intelligence chief Fitin. After reading it, he wrote on a separate piece of paper and pinned to the document the resolution of the following content:
“Comrade. Kleru.
1. Evaluation of the activities of any foreign resident and its employees should be based on knowledge of affairs, and not on emotions. Henceforth, without my knowledge, I ask you not to do this.
2. Tov. Kukin, for your information, managed not only to maintain the high level of operational work achieved, but also to ensure the receipt of important documentary materials on all issues of interest to the Center. From the London residency, we constantly received and are now receiving valuable political intelligence information, as well as information about the work being done in the UK to create a nuclear weapons. Led by Kukin, the residency regularly informed our government about the postwar plans of Britain and the United States regarding a peaceful arrangement in Europe.
3. Considering all this, I ask you personally to prepare a presentation on Kukin and his staff to award government awards. P. Fitin. February 1945 of the year. "
RECOGNITION OF MERITS IN HOMELAND AND ABROAD
The curator of the London residency, of course, did not know all the nuances of her work, since many of her materials, especially those received from the Cambridge Five, were reported directly "upstairs", bypassing the ordinary employees of the Center. The resolution of the intelligence chief played a positive role in the fact that the curators of the London residency stopped her petty custody, and this had a positive effect on her work.
The curator, of course, complied with the instructions of the intelligence chief, and soon a congratulatory telegram went to the London residency stating that Konstantin Kukin, Alexander Barkovsky and a number of other intelligence officers were awarded military orders. Two months later, the long-awaited Victory came, in which the resident and his staff made a significant contribution. The work of the London residency during the war years was highly appreciated by the Center.
No wonder, already in 1960-ies, the former CIA director Alain Dulles called “the ultimate dream of any intelligence of the world” information received from the Cambridge Five during the war years. This was, of course, considerable merit of Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin himself, who successfully worked in London until the 1949 year. 30 May 1947, he was appointed chief resident intelligence and at the same time the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the USSR in the UK.
After completing a business trip in May 1949, Kukin returned to Moscow and became the head of the 1 (Anglo-American) department of the Information Committee of the USSR Foreign Ministry, as foreign intelligence was then called. In this position, he worked until November 1951, when the Information Committee was abolished and foreign intelligence returned to the structure of state security agencies.
Unfortunately, Konstantin Kukin did not manage to work for a long time in the new structure. In 1952, his old diseases worsened, and he was forced to retire for health reasons at the age of 55. 25 November 1979, Konstantin Mikhailovich Kukin passed away.
For successful work in ensuring state security, Colonel Kukin was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Patriotic War, the Order of the Red Star and many medals.
Colonel Konstantin Kukin and intelligence officers from Cambridge were even jealous of the US Central Intelligence Agency
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