... Comrade. Artuzov (Frauchi) is a most honest comrade, and I can't help but trust him, just like myself.
F. Dzerzhinsky. July 21, 1921

Owls. secret help
Artuzov Artur Khristianovich was convicted in a special order on August 21, 1937.
Sentenced to VMN. Basis: Case No. 2, l. 105.
Head of the XII department. I Special Department of the NKVD of the USSR, lieutenant of state security (Shevelev)

The real name of Artuzov is Frauchi. He is the son of a Swiss emigrant, a cheese maker who arrived in Russia back in 1861, and a Latvian. Born in 1891 in the Russian outback - the village of Ustinovo, Kashirsky district, Tver province, and considered himself a native Russian.

One of his mother's sisters was married to a Bolshevik and future Chekist, who later fell victim to unjustified repressions by M.S. Kedrov, the other - for the Bolshevik N.I. Podvoisky.

Arthur was fond of music from childhood (he had a lyric tenor), brilliantly graduated from the Novgorod gymnasium, and in 1917 - from the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, dreamed of studying at the conservatory. Professor V.E. Grum-Grzhimailo invited him to work in his Metallurgical Bureau. But he did not become an actor or an engineer.

The revolutionary situation in Russia and the influence of his uncles, especially M.S. Kedrov. In his autobiography, Artuzov wrote: “Like many young men from intelligent families, I rushed about for a long time until I found myself and that only truth of the earth, without which I cannot live. fair man. It, this truth, lies in the fact that people who work are fed and free.

At the height of the Civil War, in December 1918, by decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Kedrov was appointed head of the Special Department of the Cheka. Artuzov became a special representative of this department and Kedrov's secretary.

One of the first tasks that Artuzov took on on his own was to infiltrate the so-called "National Center" for the fight against the Bolsheviks. Came across it by accident. During a raid on the market, a fifteen-year-old girl was detained, who unsuccessfully tried to get rid of a revolver. She led to her father, a certain Bürz, who was found to have a cache of spy reports and addresses of visits. The frightened Bürz admitted that he had taken part in the preparation of the rebellion in Petrograd and was a liaison for the leadership of the "center". The girl also told about a certain "Miss". She was detained and interrogated by Artuzov in a very mild, intelligent manner. She led to the head of the "center", and he, in turn, to the resident of British intelligence Dux. Thus, suspicions were confirmed that all more or less serious underground organizations are closed to the special services of the Entente countries.

Success contributed to Artuzov's career growth, and soon he received an independent job site.

The main forces that opposed the Soviet government after the end of the Civil War were the White Guard emigre organizations, acting with the support of the special services of the Entente countries. Based on this, the work of the INO, the Foreign Department of the Cheka-OGPU, was built, one of the leaders of which was Artuzov: the study of the secret activities of counter-revolutionary emigrant formations, the identification of their plans, the establishment of branches and agents on Soviet territory, decomposition of organizations from the inside, disruption of sabotage and terrorist measures that were being prepared.

One of the first successes of the INO in 1921 was the extraction of ciphers of anti-Soviet organizations in London and Paris.

In early 1921, the well-known SR terrorist Savinkov created a military organization abroad called the People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom (NSZRiS). In Russia, about fifty active members of the "union" were identified and arrested, the connections of the Savinkovites with the Polish and French special services were revealed, the preparation of a rebellion and an invasion of Russian territory.

Considering the danger of the Savinkov movement and personally B. Savinkov, the INO began a "game" called the "Syndicate". The creation of a branch of the “union” on the territory of the RSFSR, called the “Liberal Democrats” (LD), was legendary. He allegedly was ready for decisive action against the Bolsheviks, but needed an experienced leader, which he considered Boris Savinkov. An active exchange of letters began. Savinkov sent agents to Moscow, who were arrested or re-recruited, and sometimes “not noticed”, so that upon their return to Paris they could objectively report on the activities of the LD.

The "game" lasted three years, and it is described in sufficient detail in fiction and documentary literature, shown in the cinema. So it hardly makes sense to repeat. Let us only recall that in August 1924 Savinkov was arrested and brought to trial while illegally crossing the Soviet border. On August 29, 1924, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death, and taking into account his repentance, she herself petitioned for a commutation of the sentence. The shooting was replaced by ten years in prison. But on May 7, 1925, according to the official version, Savinkov committed suicide by throwing himself out of a fifth-floor window.

Almost simultaneously with the operation "Syndicate", the operation "Trust" was unfolding, one of the leaders of which was Artuzov.

The scope of Artuzov's activities included many other cases, in particular, the organization of illegal intelligence abroad. Here are just a couple of examples.

One of Artuzov's illegals was Roman Birk, an Estonian officer who was recruited during Operation Trust and has since completed many intelligence assignments. He managed to settle in Germany, where he made contacts among the officers of the Abwehr and the Nazi secret service, as well as in circles close to the Papen government. Information from him came until 1934, when he had to leave Germany.

Artuzov's agent was also Nikolai Kroshko, whose activities contributed to the exposure of many fakes and the diplomatic recognition of the USSR.

In January 1930, at a meeting of the Politburo, Artuzov reported on the state of affairs in intelligence, on failures and their causes.

In the summer of 1931, the head of the INO Trilisser left for another job, and Artuzov took his place. In accordance with Stalin's instructions, he began the restructuring of foreign intelligence, whose tasks were significantly expanded.

If earlier the main attention was paid to white emigration, now England, France, Germany, Japan and border countries, identifying the plans of their governments, and obtaining scientific and technical information have additionally come into its sphere of interest.

When Artuzov headed the INO, the work of both legal and illegal intelligence services intensified. This coincided with the period of recognition Soviet Union foreign states, which expanded the possibilities for intelligence work.

For the political leadership of the country, it was important what position Poland was going to take in relation to Germany and the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1933, a meeting of representatives of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the Department of International Information of the Central Committee of the Party, the Intelligence Agency and the INO was convened in the Kremlin. All of them proved to Stalin that Poland was more oriented towards the USSR, and an alliance with it was a matter of the near future. And only Artuzov said that Poland would never agree to an alliance with Moscow, and according to information from his sources, a possible rapprochement with the USSR was only a tactical move aimed at lulling our leadership. No decision was made then, but Stalin remembered Artuzov's words. They were soon fully confirmed: Poland concluded a treaty of friendship with Hitler. At one of the friendly dinners in the Kremlin, Stalin approached Artuzov and said in a joking tone: “Well, how do your sources, or whatever you call them, do not misinform you?” Artuzov was embarrassed by surprise and assured "the party and the government and personally Comrade Stalin" that intelligence would not allow misinformation.

The work continued. It was during Artuzov's tenure as head of the INO that illegal Arnold Deutsch laid the foundations for the creation of the famous Cambridge "five": it included Kim Philby, Donald McLane, Guy Burges, Anthony Blunt, John Cairncross and others whose names we still do not know.

It was at the time of Artuzov that such well-known scouts as Zarubins, Korotkov, Bystroletov, Roshchin and others began their work; the abduction of General Kutepov was carried out, which dealt a heavy blow to white movement; the most valuable agent "Francesco" was acting, whose name is still kept secret and who handed over such a number of secret diplomatic materials of the English Foreign Office, which amounts to several dozen volumes. There was also work on Far East where Japanese militarism raised its head, bloody showdowns took place among the Chinese and the White Guards gradually acted.

And of course, Arthur Khristianovich can be called the godfather of the Berlin Red Chapel. It was under him that Harro Schulze-Boysen ("Foreman"), Arvid Harnak ("Corsican"), Adam Kukkhov ("Old Man") and others joined the ranks of Soviet intelligence officers.

During the same period, our military intelligence experienced a series of setbacks and failures. They followed one after the other. Stalin decided to take urgent measures.

May 25, 1934 Artuzov was summoned to the Kremlin. At 13:20 he entered Stalin's office, where Voroshilov and Yagoda were already there. The detailed detailed conversation lasted six hours. Artuzov was offered to go to the Intelligence Agency.

I did not want to leave for another People's Commissariat, although for a related job, with a demotion and without any prospects. Artuzov understood that, as a civilian, he would never become the head of the Intelligence Agency. But the words of Stalin, spoken during the conversation: “Even under Lenin, an order was established in our party, by virtue of which a communist should not refuse to work in the post that is offered to him,” excluded the expression of discontent in any form. As an obedient party member, Artuzov could not argue with the General Secretary. The only thing he asked was to take with him a group of employees whom he knew very well from his work at INO. Stalin agreed to this.

Together with Artuzov, twenty to thirty Chekists, who received good positions, moved to the Intelligence Agency. Later, in November 1935, Artuzov and the former head of the Intelligence Agency Berzin, as well as Chekists Karin and Steinbryuk, received the rank of corps commissars, which corresponded to the rank of lieutenant general. The same title was given to the head of the Intelligence Agency, Commander Uritsky.

In June 1934, Artuzov presented to Stalin and Voroshilov a detailed report on the intelligence work of the Intelligence Agency, with an analysis of mistakes and failures. It noted that the illegal undercover intelligence of the Intelligence Agency practically ceased to exist in Romania, Latvia, France, Finland, Estonia, Italy and survived only in Germany, Poland, China and Manchuria. He considered the use of agents from among foreign communists and persons associated with the communist parties a serious mistake. But his wish in the report: “As a rule, one should not use the communists of this country for intelligence work in a given country,” unfortunately, remained on paper.

Artuzov made a number of proposals to change the structure of intelligence, in particular, he proposed, following the example of the INO, to eliminate the information and statistical (that is, analytical) department. This was a major miscalculation by Artuzov and affected the readiness of military intelligence for war.

According to Artuzov's report, the "Regulations on serving in the Red Army by operational employees of intelligence agencies" were developed and put into effect, which significantly raised their status, made it possible to study at military academies, and improved living conditions.

The daily work began. In October 1935 Sandor Rado arrived in Moscow. Artuzov introduced him to the head of the Intelligence Agency. In their conversations, a plan was born to create a new residency, the famous Dora in the future.

But soon there was a new, shameful and largest failure in the history of the Soviet special services, which was called the “residents' meeting”. Its culprit and the main figure was Ulanovsky, the head of the communications station in Denmark, who, contrary to the ban, continued to involve the Communists in undercover work. As a result of the betrayal, the Danish police arrested on February 19 and 20, 1935 at the safe house where the ambush was arranged, four employees of the Center and ten foreign military intelligence agents! There was no need for them to stay at this apartment - the Center's employees were residents in other countries, they were passing through Denmark, and they came to the apartment to “see friends”.

In a report to the People's Commissar for Defense, Artuzov noted: "Obviously, the custom of visiting all your friends, as in your homeland, can be eradicated with great difficulty." Voroshilov, having read the report, imposed a resolution: “From this message, which is not entirely intelligible and naive, it is clear that our foreign intelligence is still lame on all four legs. Comrade Artuzov gave us little in the sense of improving this serious matter ... "

After the Copenhagen failure, the head of the Intelligence Agency, Berzin, filed a report on dismissal, which was satisfied. Uritsky, an active and energetic military intelligence officer, was appointed head of the Intelligence Agency.

But neither Berzin, nor Artuzov, nor Uritsky managed to strengthen discipline, to achieve compliance with the elementary requirements of secrecy, scrupulous implementation of the instructions of the leadership. In addition, there was an internal split - the people of Berzin, Artuzov, Uritsky were at enmity with each other. Relations between Uritsky and Artuzov deteriorated. The despotic and rude chief wrote mocking resolutions, and soon began to give instructions to the departments over the head of his deputy.

Uritsky in 1936, when mass arrests of foreign communists in the USSR had already begun, expressed vague "political suspicions" about Artuzov's closest assistant Steinbrueck, a German by nationality.

On January 11, 1937, at the suggestion of Voroshilov, the Politburo decided to release Artuzov and Steinbruck from work in the Intelligence Agency and send them to the NKVD. Artuzov was not allowed into foreign intelligence, but was appointed to the modest position of head of the Special Bureau of the NKVD. Under this loud name, the archival department was hidden.

Artuzov tried to meet with Yezhov, wrote to him, but to no avail. Artuzov's days were numbered.

Mass arrests of employees of the Intelligence Agency began. The leadership of military intelligence was destroyed, all the heads of departments and many employees of a lower rank.

The age and national composition of scouts has changed. Russians replaced Latvian, Polish and Jewish surnames. The generals were replaced by majors, graduates of the academies, in the column on social origin, which indicated “from the workers”, “from the peasants”.

It must be admitted that they performed a miracle. Defeated, unpromising, half-dead intelligence was revived in a little over two years and during the Second World War became one of the strongest in the world.

And what happened to Artur Khristianovich?

On May 13, 1937, at a party asset in the NKVD, one of the leaders of the people's commissariat, Frinovsky, called him a spy. That same night, Artuzov was arrested in his office. For two weeks, executioners from his former organization "worked" on him. And not without success. To avoid suffering, this strong man gave in and was ready not only to take any blame, but also to slander others, in particular Steinbrück. There are only two protocols in his file: from May 27 and June 15, 1937. Here are excerpts from them:

“- Throughout a series of interrogations, you stubbornly hide your guilt and refuse to testify to the investigation about your anti-Soviet and espionage activities. With all the materials at the disposal of the investigation, you are completely exposed in this activity. For the last time, you are invited to confess to the crimes you have committed and give detailed and truthful testimony about them, the investigator began.

The severity of the crimes I had committed over many years, the deep shame of betrayal, prompted me to resist the investigation. I see that further resistance is useless, and I decided to take the path of full recognition of the crimes committed by me, and to give sincere evidence to the investigation about my criminal activities.

You have already been charged with criminal association with a foreign country. Tell the investigation in detail, to whom did you betray the interests of our Motherland?

I confess my guilt before the state and the party for being a German spy. I was recruited to work in favor of the German intelligence agencies by a former employee of the NKVD and Intelligence Agency Steinbrueck.

Then he talks about his disappointment in communist ideals, disbelief in the possibility of the victory of socialism in the USSR, about Steinbrück's contacts with the head of the Abwehr von Bredow and even with such a famous military leader as Ludendorff, about the refusal to receive any money for his work for German intelligence .

“- The investigation has data that your work in German intelligence was not limited to the transfer of espionage materials. You betrayed the agents known to you.

As a rule, I did not deal with extradition of agents, with the exception of a few cases, about which I will testify. With the coming to power of Hitler and after the assassination of von Bredow, our organization was without communication for some time, but a little later Steinbrück restored it, saying that a very active intelligence officer, Admiral Canaris, became our chief. The admiral began to demand the extradition of agents, to which I always categorically objected. One of the most valuable employees was agent No. 270 - he gave us information about the work in the USSR of an entire military organization that focuses on the Germans and is associated with opposition elements within the Communist Party. Steinbrück began to assure us that if we did not hand over the 270th, the Germans would destroy us. I had to agree to the issuance of the 270th. This was the hardest blow for the USSR. Indeed, back in 1932, from his reports, we learned about the wide military organization existing in the USSR, associated with the Reichswehr and working for the Germans. One of the representatives of this organization, according to the report of the 270th, was the Soviet General Turguev - under this surname Tukhachevsky traveled to Germany.

What kind of treacherous and espionage work did you do while working in the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army?

Judging by the information, the German authorities were very pleased with Steinbrueck and my transfer to work in the Intelligence Directorate. The Germans were interested in strengthening purely military information about the USSR and its army. We transmitted secret reports about Germany, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia, sent the conclusions made by the General Staff officers after various war games, reported on the possible deployment of our troops in case of war. But Steinbrück knows more about this - he got all the documents and handed them over.

Thus, the investigation states that, out of ideological motives and sympathy for fascism, you served as a spy for German military intelligence for twelve years. Being in a leading job in the organs of the OGPU, you directed the work of the counterintelligence and foreign departments in such a way as to maximize the interests of German fascism. You handed over to the Germans part of our agents, in addition, you handed over to our sworn enemies, the German fascists, all the information at your disposal about the Red Army. Do you confirm this?

Yes confirm".

“- At the disposal of the investigation there are materials that you, in your anti-Soviet and espionage activities, were connected with the former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda.

Not wanting to aggravate my already grave guilt before the Soviet state, I must confess that I concealed from the investigation my criminal connection with Yagoda and my participation in the anti-Soviet conspiracy headed by him. Having embarked on the path of complete repentance, now completely, I decided to tell the investigation the whole truth. Yagoda really recruited me on the basis of what he knew about my espionage activities, but not with the Germans, but with the French ... In general, I worked for three intelligence services. In 1919 I was recruited to conduct espionage and intelligence work in favor of France, in 1925 in favor of Germany and in 1932 in favor of Poland, and my cousin A.P. recruited me into French intelligence. Frauchi, and in Polish - an employee of the foreign department of the NKVD Makovsky, who at that time was our resident in Paris.

During the investigation, you were accused several times of giving false evidence. We have data that even now you are not telling the whole truth, you are evading direct answers. Have you revealed everything about your anti-Soviet and espionage activities?”

And here it is, the "bomb", left in the end:

“- I admit that not everything. It was very difficult for me to begin with the fact that I am an old English spy and was recruited by the Intelligence Service in St. Petersburg in 1913. I ask now to interrupt the interrogation and give me the opportunity to restore all the facts of my activities.

These were the last words of Arthur Khristianovich.

In addition, the file contains a note written in blood on the prison receipt by Artuzov, where he denies that he is a spy and provides evidence of this.

There is also an indictment that says:

“In the case of a fascist conspiratorial organization led by the traitor Yagoda, one of the active participants in this conspiracy, the former head of the KRO and INO of the NKVD of the USSR and the former deputy head of the Intelligence Department of the Red Army Artuzov (Frauchi) Artur Khristianovich, was arrested.

Produced by the investigation belonging to Artuzov (Frauchi) A.Kh. to the fascist conspiracy was fully confirmed, and it was also established that he was a spy since 1913, who simultaneously worked in the service of the German, French, Polish and British intelligence services.

He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.

Artur Khristianovich Artuzov (real name Frauchi). Born on February 18, 1891 in the village of Ustinovo, Tver province - shot on August 21, 1937 in Moscow. Head of the Soviet organs state security. One of the founders of Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence, corps commissar (1935).

Arthur Frauchi was born on February 18, 1891 in the village of Ustinovo, Kashinsky district, Tver province.

A later surname - Artuzov - appeared in 1918, was a derivative of the name. Artuzov was called by the Red Army soldiers, who found it difficult to pronounce the foreign surname Frauchi.

Father - Christian Frauchi, Swiss cheese maker, Italian by nationality. He came to Russia, where he was engaged in cheese making, working in different places.

Mother - Augusta Augustovna Frauchi (nee Didrikil), had Latvian and Estonian roots, one of her grandfathers was a Scot.

His parents met and got married in Russia. There were six children in the Frauci family, Arthur being the eldest.

Since childhood, he was acquainted with the Bolshevik revolutionaries Mikhail Kedrov and Nikolai Podvoisky, who were frequent guests in Frauchi's house, as they were married to their mother's sisters. Since 1906, Artuzov participated in the distribution of illegal literature.

In May 1909 he graduated with a gold medal from the Novgorod classical men's gymnasium and entered the metallurgical department of the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, which he graduated with honors in February 1917, after which he worked as a design engineer in the Metallurgical Bureau of Professor Vladimir Grum-Grzhimailo.

In August 1917, after returning from a business trip to Nizhny Tagil, he decided to leave the profession of a design engineer and until December 1917 he worked in the Office for the Demobilization of the Army and Navy.

In December 1917 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (b).

From December 1917 to March 1918 he worked as secretary of the Audit Commission of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs in Vologda and Arkhangelsk, and from March to August 1918 he was the head of the partisan detachment of conscripts on the Northern Front. Then he successively held the positions of head of the military information bureau of the Moscow Military District and head of the active part of the Military Control Department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

In January 1919, Artuzov was appointed to the position of a special commissioner of the Special Department of the Cheka, then successively held the positions of head of the Operations Department of the Office of the Special Department of the Cheka, from January 1921 - assistant head of the Special Department of the Cheka, from July of that year - deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka - OGPU RSFSR. “Since 1920, as a member of the Collegium (on intra-Chekist issues),” Artuzov wrote in his autobiography.

In the summer of 1920 he went to Western Front with broad powers (the right to control the work of special departments of the front and armies).

In July 1922, Artuzov was appointed head of the newly created Counterintelligence Department (KRO) of the Secret Operational Directorate (SOU) of the GPU / OGPU. Heading the KRO, Artuzov led major operations "Trust" And "Syndicate-2", as well as dozens of other less well-known ones.

During Operation Trust, which lasted from 1922 to 1927, the reconnaissance and subversive activities of White émigré associations on the territory of the USSR were completely shackled. As a result of Operation Syndicate-2, the head of the anti-Soviet emigrant organization "People's Union for the Defense of Motherland and Freedom" Boris Savinkov was arrested. Another success of Artuzov was the arrest in 1925 of Sidney Reilly. Artuzov was the initiator and direct developer of the operation "Tarantella".

In the summer of 1927, Artuzov was appointed part-time 2nd assistant to the head of the Secret Operational Directorate of the OGPU, Heinrich Yagoda, and after 4 months, in November, he was released from work in the KRO. He worked in the SOU OGPU.

On January 1, 1930, Artuzov was appointed to the post of deputy head of the INO of the OGPU of the USSR, and on August 1, 1931, to the post of head of the INO and a member of the collegium of the OGPU of the USSR. During the command of Artuzov, the INO OGPU carried out dozens of operations, during which dozens of personnel and hundreds of agents were involved.

An important direction in the work of Soviet intelligence was the German direction. Artuzov's employees created a network of agents that supplied the Soviet leadership with valuable information about the events that took place in the National Socialist Party of Germany, which came to power, as well as about the activities of a number of state bodies and special services. During Artuzov's work in the Foreign Department of the OGPU, the famous illegal intelligence officers Fyodor Karin, Arnold Deutsch, Theodor Malli, Dmitry Bystroletov and others worked for Soviet intelligence.

In May 1934, Artuzov was appointed concurrently to the post of deputy head of the IV (intelligence) department of the Red Army Headquarters. Prior to this appointment, the head of the IV department, Jan Berzin, did not have an official first deputy, but only assistants. Artuzov, upon his appointment, stipulated the right to take with him a number of employees of the INO OGPU, among whom the most prominent are Karina and Steinbrueck, among the rest Boris Elman and others).

In May 1935, Artuzov was relieved of his duties as head of the INO GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR and completely focused on work in the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters. Kolpakidi and Prokhorov note that the transfer of Artuzov with a group of employees to the Intelligence Department meant a weakening of the INO OGPU and attribute this to changes foreign policy situation(the rapprochement between Germany and Poland, the position of Japan), why "the importance of military intelligence has increased dramatically."

Such well-known scouts as Shandor Rado, Richard Sorge, Jan Chernyak, Rudolf Gernstadt, Hadji-Umar Mamsurov worked under the leadership of Artuzov.

January 11, 1937 Artuzov was released from work in the Intelligence Agency and sent to work in the NKVD, where he was appointed to the position researcher to the archives department. He was assigned to write the history of the state security agencies.

Arrested May 13, 1937 in the performance of official duties. Accused of participating in a counter-revolutionary conspiratorial organization within the NKVD. by order People's Commissar Internal Affairs of the USSR Nikolai Yezhov No. 1138 of July 8, 1937 was dismissed from his previous position and from service in general. On August 21, 1937, he was sentenced to liquidation "in a special order." Executed on the same day.

November 19, 2014 at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, the opening ceremony of the memorial plate of the Soviet intelligence officer Artur Artuzov took place.

The monument to Artuzov was erected in the city of Kashin, Tver region.

Intelligence Genius Artuzov

Personal life of Artur Artuzov:

Wife - Lydia Dmitrievna (nee Slugina). They married in October 1918.

Three children were born in the marriage: daughters Lydia (born 1919) and Nora (born 1920), son Camille (1923-1997) - a famous Soviet violinist and music teacher.

Artur Artuzov in culture and art:

Artur Artuzov was one of the characters in the novel Soviet writer L. V. Nikulina "Dead swell", which tells about the KGB operation "Trust".

The role of Arthur Khristianovich in the film Operation Trust, staged in 1967 based on this novel, was played, and in the two-part historical-revolutionary Soviet-Polish film The Collapse of Operation Terror, staged according to the script by Yulian Semyonov and released on screens in 1980 - Artyom Karapetyan.

On February 16, 1891, in the Ustinovo estate of the Kashin district of the Tver province, in the family of a Swiss cheese maker of Italian origin Christian Frauchi, who emigrated to Russia, the first-born was born, whom his parents, according to the Protestant tradition, called the triple name - Arthur Evgeny Leonard. In Russia, the second and third names were not accepted, so the peers called the future intelligence officer simply Arthur.

THE BEGINNING OF THE WAY

He was his mother's favorite. As a child, under her guidance, Arthur mastered French and German. As an adult, he independently learned English and Polish. Many years later, filling out the questionnaire, Artur Frauchi, who changed his surname to Artuzova, will indicate in the “nationality” column: “The son of a Swiss emigrant, his mother is a Latvian, lived all the time in Russia. Father died in 1923. I consider myself Russian."

The Frauci family was close to the revolutionary circles in Russia. After the defeat of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907, the Bolsheviks Podvoisky, Angarsky, his brother Klestov and the future prominent Chekist, member of the Board of the Cheka-OGPU Mikhail Kedrov, who later played a significant role in Arthur's life, hid in the Frauchi family.

In 1909, Artur graduated from the Novgorod Men's Gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the metallurgical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. He spent his last summer holidays in St. Petersburg. On the instructions of Kedrov, he delivered packages with banned Bolshevik literature, acquiring the first conspiracy skills. While studying at the Polytechnic Institute, Artur actively participated in the work of illegal party circles.

Shortly before the February Revolution of 1917, having received a diploma with honors in the specialty of a metallurgical engineer, Artur Frauchi began working in the Metallurgical Bureau, which was led by the outstanding Russian metallurgist scientist Grum-Grzhimailo. Under Soviet rule, the Metallurgical Bureau was transformed into State Institute for the design of steel production units - "Stalproekt".

Colleagues and Professor Grum-Grzhimailo himself predicted a brilliant career for Artur Frauchi in the engineering field, but he went the other way. At the beginning of the summer of 1917, on the instructions of the professor, he went on a business trip to the Urals, to Nizhny Tagil, from where he returned in the fall to take part in October revolution. In Petrograd, he sought out the head of the military organization of the Bolsheviks, Nikolai Podvoisky, and expressed a desire to work with them. In December 1917, Artur Frauchi joined the Bolshevik Party and devoted himself entirely to political activity leaving forever the career of an engineer. Then he takes the party pseudonym Artuzov, which later became his official surname. It was in the military organization that Artuzov met a professional revolutionary, Dzerzhinsky's future successor as chairman of the OGPU, Vatslav Menzhinsky, under whose leadership he would later develop and carry out a number of brilliant KGB operations to neutralize the counter-revolutionary underground.

KEDROV'S COMMISSION

In the spring of 1918, a complex and dangerous situation arose in the northern regions of Russia, especially in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. On March 6, English troops landed in Murmansk under the pretext of protecting the North from the German invasion. It was soon followed by the French and American interventionists. By the beginning of July, up to 17,000 interventionists were already in Murmansk under the command of the English General Poole, who were supported by up to 5,000 White Guards.

The Council of People's Commissars sends a special commission to the North under the leadership of Kedrov. Artuzov also works as a secretary in its composition. Employees of the Kedrov Commission established Soviet power in the north of Russia. Artuzov took part in the battles with the English invaders near Arkhangelsk. He was entrusted with the evacuation of strategic cargo from the port of Arkhangelsk. In a short time, over 40 million poods of coal and a large amount of ammunition were removed from there. Here he led a subversive detachment operating in the rear of the interventionists. Arthur, as an engineer, was tasked with destroying the railway bridge in order to stop the advance of the enemy inland. He successfully coped with this task.

TRANSITION TO WORK IN THE VChK

By the autumn of 1918, the functions of the Kedrov Commission had been exhausted. Artuzov moves to Moscow and, on the recommendation of Kedrov, enters the service of the Cheka. At first, Artur Khristianovich worked as a special commissioner and investigator of the Cheka, performing the responsible tasks of Dzerzhinsky and Menzhinsky on the Western and Southwestern fronts. The first serious KGB operation, in which Artuzov took a direct part, was the operation to liquidate the large counter-revolutionary organizations "National Center", "Union for the Revival of Russia" and "Council of Public Figures", united in the so-called Tactical Center. Behind the backs of the conspirators was the British intelligence service SIS, represented by its resident Paul Dukes. The Chekists were faced with the task of neutralizing the counter-revolutionary conspiracy. They knew that a headquarters had been set up Volunteer army Moscow region. It was headed by the former lieutenant general Stogov. The performance was scheduled for September 21, 1919, when Denikin's troops were to approach Tula. General Denikin planned to take Moscow before winter and had already prepared "Order No. 1" on the executions of the Bolsheviks and the "Appeal to the population of Moscow." On the eve of the speech of the conspirators, on September 19-20, the Chekists liquidated the conspiracy. On September 23, the Izvestia newspaper published a list of 67 of its main organizers. In total, about 700 members of counterrevolutionary organizations were arrested.

The role of Artuzov in the liquidation of the conspiracy was highly appreciated by the leadership of the Cheka. He received the position of Deputy Head of the Special Department. In early 1920, Artuzov became the head of the Special Department of the Cheka. Since in the spring of the same year pan Poland, with the support of the Entente, began a war against Soviet Russia, Artuzov went to the front three times with the mandate of the Cheka to coordinate the activities of the Special Departments of the fronts and armies.

On July 18, 1921, in connection with the successful liquidation of the counter-revolutionary underground and the network of Polish espionage, Artuzov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In May 1922, in connection with the end of the Civil War, a new one was allocated from the Special Department - the counterintelligence department (CRO), which Artuzov was assigned to head. In this position, he was directly involved in many KGB operations, in particular, in the liquidation of the conspiracy of the monarchists-Nikolaev, the famous operation "Syndicate-2" to bring the famous terrorist Boris Savinkov to the USSR and arrest, in the operation "Trust", which ended with the arrest of an international spy and conspirator, British spy Sydney Reilly and many others. These operations have become a classic example of the joint work of intelligence and counterintelligence and entered the textbooks of many intelligence agencies around the world.

The leadership of the state security organs of the young Soviet state made the correct conclusion that the main threat to our country was the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which had up to 20,000 active members in its ranks (in fact, it was the Russian army abroad, whose leaders planned to organize a new campaign of the Entente against Soviet Russia, of course, with its most active participation). The leaders of the ROVS, and especially General Kutepov, relied on terror and sabotage in the fight against Soviet power. In Paris, where the headquarters of the ROVS was located, as well as in all its branches (Prague, Sofia, Warsaw and other capitals), officer terrorist groups were being prepared to be thrown into the Soviet Union. This work was carried out in close contact with the secret services of France, Poland, Romania and Finland. Chekists took active measures to decompose and discredit the ROVS. This hard work of Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence went on without stopping from the first half of the 1920s until the start of World War II.

In the summer of 1930, the foreign intelligence of the state security agencies - INO OGPU - launched an operation developed under the leadership of Artuzov, code-named "Tarantella". Its purpose was to promote, through the false agents of the OGPU, the information sent to the British leadership and to the headquarters of the SIS. In terms of its importance, "Tarantella" can be safely put on a par with the operations "Trust" and "Syndicate". The most significant special events of the Tarantella were reported directly to Stalin.

AT THE HEAD OF FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

On August 1, 1931, Artur Artuzov was appointed head of foreign intelligence and introduced to the board of the OGPU. At the same time, he was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the party.

At that time, one of the main foreign centers of Soviet foreign intelligence was Berlin, from where intelligence work was carried out not only in Germany, but also in neighboring countries and even the United States.

The legal resident of the OGPU in Berlin since 1931 was a prominent intelligence officer Boris Berman, who led the agent network directly in Germany. At the same time, there was a regional residency, headed by Artuzov's deputy, Abram Slutsky, who in 1936 replaced him as head of foreign intelligence. She directed from Berlin the operations of residencies in fifteen countries.

In the early 1930s, the internal political situation in Germany deteriorated sharply, the Nazis rushed to power in the country. As far back as 1929, the Berlin residency of the OGPU received documentary information testifying to the intention of the ruling circles of Germany to move away from the Rapallo agreements. She reported to the Center about the reality of the Nazis coming to power and about their aggressive aspirations towards our country. Therefore, on January 30, 1930, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, after hearing a question about the work of the Foreign Department of the OGPU, made a special decision to improve the work of foreign intelligence. In accordance with it, the INO OGPU was to concentrate its efforts on intelligence work against England, France, Germany, Poland and Japan. Particular attention in the decision of the Politburo was given to the gradual transfer of intelligence work abroad to illegal positions in connection with the threat of war. This decision was to be implemented by the new head of Soviet foreign intelligence, Artuzov. Under his leadership, foreign intelligence achieved significant results in the first half of the 1930s.

Based on the current situation in Germany, Artuzov decides to continue Operation Trust. This time her goal was to penetrate the top Nazi party. The main executor of the operation was a secret officer of the INO OGPU, Alexander Mikhailovich Dobrov, who worked under the guise of an inconspicuous senior engineer of the textile directorate of the Supreme Economic Council.

In 1931, Artuzov organized his departure to Karlovy Vary for "treatment". For Dobrov, a legend was worked out, according to which he was allegedly the leader of some underground counter-revolutionary group, which decided to create a fascist party in Russia with the financial support of Berlin. In Karlovy Vary, he met with a pre-revolutionary friend, to whom, according to legend, he hinted about his desire to meet one of the Nazi bosses. Dobrov's friend, known to the Chekists for his connections with the Nazis, arranged for him to meet in Berlin with Alfred Rosenberg, a native of the Baltics.

The inveterate racist liked Alexander Dobrov and his idea to create a fascist party in Russia. He reported personally to Hitler about his conversations, giving the idea a high appraisal. In turn, Dobrov gave Rosenberg plausible information specially prepared by the intelligence leadership about the state of affairs in the Soviet Union and the growth of the ranks of his mythical party. The operational game started by the Chekists allowed Moscow to be aware of Hitler's true plans for our country. From the reports of the Lubyanka, it followed that if the Nazis came to power, a military clash with Germany could not be avoided by the Soviet Union.

At the beginning of 1932, at the suggestion of Artuzov, it was decided to restructure intelligence work abroad. In particular, a radical reorganization of intelligence work in Germany was carried out, combining activities from legal and illegal positions. On the basis of illegal groups, large illegal residencies were organized, which were instructed to prepare the conditions for intelligence work in case of war. They were led by prominent illegal intelligence officers Vasily Zarubin and Fedor Parparov. In the same year, the OGPU resident in Berlin, Boris Berman, and the head of the German branch of the INO OGPU, Otto Steinbrück, proposed the creation of two sub-residences outside Germany, from the positions of which illegal immigrants could manage their agents in the Third Reich during the war.

The work carried out by Artuzov to improve intelligence activities has borne fruit. By the beginning of 1933, foreign intelligence had created a reliable intelligence apparatus in Germany. She acquired such valuable sources as Gestapo officer Willy Lehman (Breitenbach), who supplied the residency not only with counterintelligence, but also with intelligence materials. It was from him that in the mid-1930s data were received on the testing of V-1 missiles in Germany. Holding the post of head of the department for combating "communist espionage" in Germany, Lehman warned the residency about the provocations that the Gestapo was preparing against the Soviet representatives.

From reliable sources who had access to secret documents of the German Foreign Ministry, other ministries and departments, the Luftwaffe, the leadership of the National Socialist Party, the police presidium, the Gestapo received valuable information about the plans and intentions of the Nazis in relation to our country and Europe as a whole.

In 1932, Arvid Harnak (Corsican), who later became an imperial adviser in the Ministry of Economy, Harro Schulze-Boysen (Sergeant) - an employee of the Air Force intelligence department, and Adam Kukhof (Old Man) were involved in cooperation with Soviet foreign intelligence. The underground anti-fascist organization created by them entered the history of the Resistance under the name "Red Chapel".

The measures taken by the center allowed the Berlin residency not only to quickly overcome the decline caused by the aggravation of the situation in the country in 1933-1934, but also to gradually intensify its work. In the report of the 3rd (German) branch of the INO OGPU for 1933, approved by Mikhail Kedrov, in particular, it was noted:

“As a result of the government measures carried out by the National Socialists (mass arrests, the destruction of organizations and other repressions), our work was largely unaffected ...

Thanks to the timely measures taken, we avoided any complications in the work. All our agents work exclusively in illegal conditions.

Outstanding results in the same period were achieved by the illegal residency operating from the positions of France, which was headed by Boris Bazarov. Under his leadership, illegal intelligence officer Dmitry Bystroletov (operational pseudonym Hans), who specialized in obtaining ciphers of European countries, managed to recruit an employee of the British Foreign Office - Arno, from whom valuable documentary materials were received.

In 1933, at the initiative of Artuzov, an illegal residency in England was recreated, led by the famous illegal intelligence agent Arnold Deutsch, who personally recruited over twenty agents. This residency acquired the famous "Cambridge Five", from which documentary information was received on the activities of the British Foreign and Home Office, Anglo-German relations, the situation in the main political parties country, the trade policy of Great Britain and other issues of interest to Moscow.

TRANSFER TO THE INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT OF THE RKKA

In May 1934, when the threat of Hitlerite aggression became a reality and the creation of a block of Western countries on an anti-Soviet basis was not ruled out, the Politburo considered the issue of coordinating the activities of military and political intelligence. By the decision taken, the head of the INO OGPU, Artuzov, was appointed concurrently as deputy head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army. On May 21, 1935, he was relieved of his duties as head of the INO NKVD and fully focused on work in military intelligence, which was then headed by Yan Berzin.

Already in the first year of his work in military intelligence, Artuzov did a lot to improve its activities. He sought that military intelligence officers abroad cut off all ties with members of the Communist Parties, abandoned the practice of recruiting them, which repeatedly led to failures in their work.

In this regard, the memorandum of Artuzov to the Commissar of Defense Voroshilov is interesting. Analyzing the reasons for the failure of the GRU residency in Denmark, he wrote that resident Ulanovsky “was arrested by Danish counterintelligence because he violated an order prohibiting the recruitment of members of the Communist Party. The three Danes he recruited are communists. Tov. Ulanovsky hid this fact from us.”

And in military intelligence, Artuzov gave priority to working from illegal positions. In 1935, at his suggestion, illegal intelligence agent Yan Chernyak was sent abroad. For twelve years he headed a large agent network that covered a number of European countries. Already in our time, he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia. It was Artuzov who accepted the legendary military intelligence officer Khadzhi-Umar Mamsurov, who later distinguished himself in Spain, to the Intelligence Agency. In the same period, the famous Sandor Rado, who settled in Switzerland under the pseudonym Dora, became an illegal military intelligence officer, from whom valuable strategic information on Germany and Italy was received during the war years. During the period of Artuzov's work in military intelligence, the activities of Leopold Trepper, who created an extensive intelligence network in Belgium and France, were intensified. Finally, Arthur Khristianovich was the "godfather" of the outstanding illegal intelligence officer Richard Sorge (Ramsay), who worked in China and Japan and in 1963 was awarded the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the harsh years of war hard times, it is from these people that the most valuable military and political information will come. That is why Artuzov in his profession has no equal among the leaders of intelligence of all countries and all times.

Once, speaking to foreign intelligence officers and referring to the profession of an intelligence officer, Artuzov emphasized: “Our profession is in the shadows. And not because she is not honorable. It's just that our work is not advertised. Often our victories and our tears are not visible to the world. But I do not attach any exclusivity to our profession. I think that it is among other interesting and difficult professions.”

TRAGIC END

On September 26, 1936, the secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Nikolai Yezhov, became People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, replacing Heinrich Yagoda in this post. Relations between the military and security officers in the Intelligence Agency sharply escalated. For Voroshilov, Artuzov and his associates were not only Chekists, but also "Yagoda's people." On January 11, 1937, at the suggestion of Voroshilov, the Politburo decided to release Artuzov from work in military intelligence and send him to the NKVD cadres.

At the Lubyanka, Artuzov was out of work, and his unique intelligence experience was unclaimed. Artuzov was not allowed to the operational work. Initially, he was sent to the archival unit - allegedly to write a book dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the state security agencies.

On the night of May 13, 1937, Artur Artuzov was arrested in his office in Lubyanka.

Shortly before his arrest, speaking at the party activists of the NKVD, Arthur Khristianovich stated: “With the sergeant-major style of leadership established after the death of Menzhinsky, individual Chekists and even entire links of our organization embarked on the most dangerous path of transformation into simple technicians apparatus of the internal department with all the shortcomings that put us on the same level as the contemptible secret police of the capitalists.

"Simple technicians" could not forgive Artuzov for this. The very next day after his arrest, an investigation into his case began, which ended on August 15, 1937. Artuzov was accused under the ominous Article 58, more precisely, under one of its points, which spoke of “counter-revolutionary crimes” and “espionage”, as well as belonging to an “anti-Soviet organization of the right, operating in the NKVD and headed by Yagoda.”

As a result, Artuzov was accused of working for four foreign intelligence services - French, German, English and Polish. Artuzov was also accused of "hiding information about the conspiratorial activities of Marshal Tukhachevsky." At the same time, the investigators did not care about the credibility of the allegations.

The interrogation protocols of the Chekist, in particular, indicate that initially Artuzov "stubbornly concealed his guilt and refused to testify to the investigation about his anti-Soviet and espionage activities." However, already on May 27, 1937, Artuzov, “seeing that further resistance was useless, decided to embark on the path of full recognition of the crimes” committed by him, and “began to give sincere testimony to the investigation about his criminal activities.”

According to the materials of the fabricated case, Artuzov confessed to the false accusations against him regarding active participation in the conspiracy within the NKVD, which was headed by Yagoda. He hoped to refute them during the trial. However, his case was never submitted to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. He was sentenced by the so-called "troika".

On August 21, 1937, this “troika”, consisting of the chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR Ulrich, the deputy prosecutor of the USSR Roginsky and the deputy people’s commissar of the NKVD Belsky sentenced Artuzov and a number of former Chekists to capital punishment in absentia. On the same day they were all shot.

Repressions fell upon the closest relatives of Artur Khristianovich. Already in the time of Beria, almost all of them were shot or thrown into prison. Only Artuzov's son Camille managed to survive in the monstrous meat grinder of repressions. He was sent to a camp in Kolyma and, having gone through all the circles of hell, miraculously survived.

The prominent security officer, famous counterintelligence officer and head of foreign intelligence Artur Artuzov was buried in an unmarked grave, presumably in the area of ​​the Kommunarka state farm, where thousands of innocent victims rest with him. March 7, 1956 Artur Khristianovich Artuzov was rehabilitated posthumously.

Heads of the Soviet foreign intelligence Antonov Vladimir Sergeevich

Chapter 1. ARTUZOV (FRAUCI) ARTUR KHRISTIANOVICH

Chapter 1. ARTUZOV (FRAUCI) ARTUR KHRISTIANOVICH

Tov. Artuzov (Frauchi) is an honest comrade, and I can’t help but trust him as myself ...

F.E. Dzerzhinsky

As we noted above, on August 1, 1931, after Stanislav Adamovich Messing, head of the Foreign Department of the OGPU, was removed from his post, a prominent Chekist, one of the founders of Soviet counterintelligence Artur Khristianovich Artuzov, was appointed to the post of head of foreign intelligence of the state security agencies.

On February 16, 1891, in the estate of Ustanovo, Kashinsky district, Tver province, in the family of a Swiss cheese maker of Italian origin Christian Frauchi, who emigrated to Russia, the first-born was born, whom his parents, according to the Protestant tradition, called the triple name - Arthur-Eugene-Leonard. In Russia, the second and third names were not accepted, so the peers called the future intelligence officer simply Arthur.

He was his mother's favorite. As a child, under her guidance, Arthur mastered French and German. Already adults independently learned English language. Many years later, filling out the questionnaire, Arthur Frauchi, who took the surname Artuzov, will indicate in the column “nationality”: “The son of a Swiss emigrant, his mother is Latvian, lived all the time in Russia. Father died in 1923. I consider myself Russian."

The Frauci family was close to the revolutionary circles in Russia. After the defeat of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907, the Bolsheviks Podvoisky, Angarsky, his brother Klestov, as well as the future prominent Chekist, member of the board of the Cheka - OGPU Mikhail Kedrov, who later played a significant role in the life of Arthur Frauchi, hid in the Frauchi family.

In 1909, Artur graduated from the Novgorod Men's Gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the metallurgical faculty of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. He spent his last summer holidays in St. Petersburg. On the instructions of Kedrov, he delivered banned Bolshevik literature, acquiring the first conspiracy skills. While studying at the Polytechnic Institute, he actively participated in the work of illegal party circles.

Shortly before February Revolution In 1917, having received a diploma with honors in the specialty of a metallurgical engineer, Artur Frauchi began working in the Metallurgical Bureau, which was led by the outstanding Russian metallurgist scientist V.E. Groom-Grzhimailo. Under Soviet rule, the Metallurgical Bureau was transformed into the State Institute for the Design of Steel Production Units - Stalproekt.

Colleagues and Professor Grum-Grzhimailo himself predicted a brilliant career for Artur Frauchi as an engineer, but he went the other way. At the beginning of the summer of 1917, on the instructions of the professor, he went on a business trip to the Urals, to Nizhny Tagil, from where he returned in the fall to take part in the October Revolution. In Petrograd, he sought out the head of the Military Organization of the Bolsheviks, N. Podvoisky, and expressed a desire to work with him. In December 1917, Arthur Frauchi joined the Bolshevik Party and devoted himself entirely to political activity, leaving forever his career as an engineer. It was in the Military Organization that Arthur Frauchi met a professional revolutionary, the future successor of F.E. Dzerzhinsky as Chairman of the OPTU Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky, under whose leadership he later developed and carried out a number of brilliant KGB operations to neutralize the counter-revolutionary underground.

In the spring of 1918, a complex and dangerous situation arose in the northern regions of Russia, especially in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. On March 6, with the consent of Leon Trotsky, an English landing landed in Murmansk under the pretext of protecting the North from the German invasion. It was soon followed by the French and American interventionists. By the beginning of July, up to 17,000 interventionists were already in Murmansk under the command of the English general F. Poole, who were supported by up to 5,000 White Guards.

The Council of People's Commissars sent a special commission to the North under the leadership of Mikhail Kedrov. Arthur Frauchi also worked as a secretary in its composition. He took part in the battles with the English invaders near Arkhangelsk, he was entrusted with the evacuation of strategic cargo from the port of Arkhangelsk. In a short time, over 40 million poods of coal and a large amount of ammunition were removed from there. In the North, he led a subversive detachment operating in the rear of the interventionists. Arthur Frauci, as an engineer, was tasked with destroying the railway bridge in order to stop the advance of the enemy inland. He successfully coped with this task.

By the autumn of 1918, the functions of the Kedrov Commission were exhausted, and its employees returned to Moscow.

Arthur Frauchi, whom the Red Army soldiers dubbed Arguzov during a business trip, enters the service of the Cheka. With the consent of his leaders Dzerzhinsky and Kedrov, he officially takes the surname Artuzov. At first, the young security officer Artur Artuzov worked as a special commissioner and investigator of the Cheka, performing the responsible tasks of Dzerzhinsky and Menzhinsky on the Western and Southwestern fronts. The first serious KGB operation, in which Artuzov took a direct part, was the operation to liquidate the anti-Soviet organization National Center, which we have already talked about.

We only recall that the operation of the Moscow Chekists to liquidate the "National Center" was directly led by Dzerzhinsky. Other prominent Chekists also participated in it - Menzhinsky and Mogilevsky. During the operation, Shchepkin, the head of the National Center, was arrested, who in the past was a major figure in the Kadet Party, a former member of the State Duma. For the conspiratorial activities of his organization, Shchepkin received from Admiral Kolchak one million rubles in gold.

In addition to the "National Center" in Moscow at that time, there were two more large counter-revolutionary organizations - the "Union for the Revival of Russia" and the "Council of Public Figures", united in the so-called Tactical Center. Under him, a special military commission was formed to communicate with underground military groups. Behind the backs of the conspirators stood British intelligence SIS represented by its resident in Petrograd, Paul Dukes, who signed his reports to London with the pseudonym ST-25. The Chekists were faced with the task of neutralizing the counter-revolutionary conspiracy. They knew that the headquarters of the Volunteer Army of the Moscow region had been created. It was headed by the former lieutenant general Stogov. The performance was scheduled for September 21, 1919, when Denikin's troops approached Tula.

September 19-20 Artuzov participates in the liquidation of the counter-revolutionary conspiracy. On September 23, the Izvestia newspaper published an appeal by the Cheka to all citizens of the country regarding the defeat of the National Center.

The role of Artuzov in liquidating the conspiracy was highly appreciated by the leadership of the Cheka, and he was appointed deputy head of the Special Department. Artuzov's immediate superior was Kedrov, who, in turn, soon also received a promotion.

In early 1920, Artuzov became the head of the Special Department of the Cheka. In the spring of the same year, Pan Poland, with the support of the Entente, began a war against Soviet Russia. Artur Artuzov went to the front three times with the mandate of the Cheka on May 10, 1920, which, in particular, said:

"Tov. Artuzov was sent to the Western Front to organize special departments, directly supervise their work and coordinate the activities of special departments of fronts and armies. Tov. Artuzov is given the right to conduct searches, raids and arrests at his own discretion. All military and civilian institutions and persons are required to provide comrade. Artuzov full and every possible assistance in the performance of the duties assigned to him.

At the beginning of the same year, Ignatius Dobrzhinsky, who turned out to be a resident of Polish intelligence in Moscow, came to the attention of the Chekists. Artuzov managed to recruit him on an ideological basis and make him a staff member of the Cheka, in which he was registered under the name Sosnovsky. With his help, a number of Polish intelligence stations in our country were liquidated. On July 18, 1921, in connection with the successful liquidation of the counter-revolutionary underground and the network of Polish espionage, Artur Khristianovich Artuzov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In May 1922, in connection with the end of the Civil War, a new counterintelligence department (CRO) was allocated from the Special Department, which was headed by Artuzov, who was rightfully considered a high-class counterintelligence master in the Cheka. In this position, he was directly involved in many KGB operations, in particular, in the liquidation of the conspiracy of the monarchists-Nikolaev, the famous operation "Syndicate-2" to bring the famous terrorist Boris Savinkov to the USSR and arrest, in the operation "Trust", which ended with the arrest of an international spy and conspirator of British intelligence Sidney Reilly and many others.

The leadership of the state security organs of the young Soviet state of that period made the correct conclusion that the main threat to our country was the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), and took measures to disintegrate and discredit it. This hard work of Soviet Chekists - intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers - went on without stopping from the first half of the 1920s until the start of World War II.

In the late 1920s, Wrangel decided to put Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich Romanov at the head of the ROVS, while remaining under him as commander of the army. However, the actual organizer of the ROVS was in fact the chief of staff, General Kutepov, who, after the death of Wrangel in 1928 and Nikolai Nikolaevich in 1929, became the sole leader of the entire White Guard movement abroad. In the fight against Soviet power, he relied on terror and sabotage. In Paris, where the headquarters of the ROVS was located, as well as in all its branches (Prague, Sofia, Warsaw and other capitals), officer terrorist groups were being prepared to be thrown into the Soviet Union. This work was carried out in close contact with the secret services of France, Poland, Romania and Finland.

The first serious blow to the EMRO was the operation "Trust" carried out by the Chekists under the leadership of Artuzov. It received this name in connection with the transition of Soviet power from “war communism”, caused by devastation and the Civil War, to a new economic policy - NEP, when all kinds of trusts, cartels, and syndicates arose in our country. The decision of the Chekists to carry out such an operation was born under the following circumstances.

At the end of May 1921, a congress of Russian monarchists opened in Germany, which was attended by delegates from different countries. After a heated debate, they elected the Supreme Monarchist Council, headed by a former member of the State Duma, N.E. Markov II, a well-known Black Hundred. The most numerous part of the monarchists, including Markov II and General Wrangel, focused on the cousin uncle of Emperor Nicholas II - Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Supreme Commander Russian army in the initial period of the First World War. The leaders of the monarchists understood that without accomplices inside Soviet Russia, they would not be able to achieve the overthrow of the Bolsheviks. In addition, the presence of a secret anti-Bolshevik organization in Russia would allow them to count on financial and material assistance from the Entente.

Many books and articles have been written about the operations "Trust" and "Syndicate-2", films have been made. However, few people know how the idea of ​​​​these classic KGB operational games with the enemy was born, which ended in the complete victory of Artuzov and his employees - counterintelligence officers and intelligence officers - and the defeat of the White Guard underground in our country. And it started like this.

In the wilderness of the Smolensk province lived Lieutenant General of the tsarist army Vladimir Dzhunkovsky, who at one time was ... the chief of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes. From his colleagues, this general, numbered among the retinue of the king, was distinguished by high decency and honesty. In particular, he objected to the use of the well-known provocateur Malinovsky in the fight against the Bolsheviks, since he was a deputy of the State Duma, opposed the recruitment of high school students, students, clergymen and privates by the Okhrana.

It was Dzhunkovsky, using his right to report directly to the tsar, who told him about the drunken orgies of the “old man” Grigory Rasputin, for which, at the insistence of the empress, he was removed from his post and sent to the front to command a division. In December 1917, already under the Bolsheviks, he retired with the preservation of his uniform and pension, and in November 1918 he acted as a witness at the trial of the provocateur Malinovsky. The chairman of the Cheka, Dzerzhinsky, managed to convince Vladimir Fedorovich to become a consultant to the Cheka in the fight against counter-revolution. Dzerzhinsky introduced him to Artuzov.

Dzhunkovsky, together with the head of the KRO, developed Operation Trust, which became a classic example of the joint work of intelligence and counterintelligence and was included in the textbooks of many special services in the world. While working on the operation, he explained that the Chekists should not chase individual terrorists and counter-revolutionaries, because this would not work. It is necessary to create legendary organizations whose members are supposedly real people well known in white émigré circles. Thus was born the “Monarchist Organization of Central Russia” (MOCR), legendary by the Chekists, which was used by them for an operational game with the Supreme Monarchist Council.

Operation Trust continued for six years. And all these years, Alexander Alexandrovich Yakushev, a reliable assistant to the Chekists, acted as an "emissary" of the ICR, a former real state councilor, and at that time a responsible employee of the People's Commissariat of Railways, who, on business, could make regular trips abroad. Through his acquaintance, an interpreter from the English passport office in Reval, Yakushev brought to the attention of a member of the Supreme Monarchist Council, Prince Shirinsky-Shakhmatov, information specially prepared by the Chekists that disparate groups of monarchists allegedly continue to operate clandestinely in Moscow and Petrograd, which he intends to unite.

Foreign monarchists really wanted to believe that their active supporters remained in Soviet Russia, and pecked at the bait of the Chekists.

For six years, day after day, Artuzov, together with Dzhunkovsky, played this dangerous game, introduced new faces into it, and even organized an “inspection trip” to the USSR for a former member of the State Duma, V.V. Shulgin, thereby creating the authority of the legendary organization in the West. Shulgin visited Kyiv, Moscow and Leningrad and on the advice of Yakushev prepared and published abroad a book called "Three Capitals". Interestingly, its first readers were Dzerzhinsky, Menzhinsky and Artuzov. In this book, Vasily Vasilyevich frankly wrote that there was no famine in Soviet Russia, the standard of living was gradually rising, and the majority of the population supported the Bolsheviks.

To give more credibility to the "omnipotence" of the ICR, the representatives of the West and Russian monarchists were informed by the Chekists that the "ardent anti-Bolsheviks" were allegedly a prominent party leader Pyatakov, "Red General" Tukhachevsky, former tsarist generals Potapov, Svechin, Colonel Shaposhnikov and many others.

Shulgin's "illegal trip" to Kyiv gave rise to illusions abroad about the strength of the positions of the anti-Soviet underground, which was allegedly preparing to carry out a coup in the country. In this regard, the British intelligence service MI-6 decided to send its emissary Sidney Reilly to Moscow, who had worked for the German special services during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In 1924, under the control of the Chekists, Reilly "illegally" crossed the Soviet-Finnish border to meet with emissaries of the "anti-Soviet underground". Menzhinsky and Artuzov decided not to let Reilly back to the West.

At the train station in Moscow, Reilly was met by a group of counterintelligence officers who took him to a dacha in Malakhovka, where, according to the plan of Operation Trust, a meeting of the Political Council of the IOCR was staged. Reilly was satisfied with the plans of the "leaders of the organization", in which he trusted so much that he decided through them to send a postcard from Moscow to his friends abroad, in which he signaled a safe arrival in the Soviet capital.

After the “political council meeting” and writing a postcard, Reilly was arrested by Chekists Syroezhkin and Pudin and taken from Malakhovka to the internal prison of the OPTU. Later, the Chekists staged the "accidental murder" of Reilly on the Soviet-Finnish border during his return to the West. November 5, 1925 Sidney Reilly, sentenced to death back in 1918 for participating in the "conspiracy of ambassadors", was shot.

In 1927, the operation "Trust" fully completed its tasks and was discontinued.

In parallel with the operation "Trust", the security officers no less successfully carried out the operation "Syndicate-2" developed by Arguzov.

It ended in 1924 with the withdrawal to the USSR and the arrest of the head of the "People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" Boris Savinkov. To implement this multi-way operation, the legendary underground anti-Soviet organization "Liberal Democrats" was created, one of the authorized representatives of which was Andrei Pavlovia Fedorov, an experienced member of the Cheka. Through the emissary Savinkov in Moscow, Zekunov, Fedorov came to the very head of the terrorist organization. Savinkov believed so much in the reality of the existence of the "Liberal Democrats" and Fedorov's words that this organization needed an energetic leader that in August 1924 he decided to personally visit the USSR. Together with other terrorists, Derental and Fomichev, Savinkov was arrested by Chekists at a safe house in Minsk and taken to Moscow to Lubyanka. His interrogations were conducted by Arttuzov and his deputy Pilyar. Artur Khristianovich often had long conversations with Savinkov.

Savinkov admitted his defeat and praised the work of the Chekists. On August 27-29, 1924, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court held hearings on the case of Boris Savinkov, who fully admitted the charges against him. The court sentenced him to death, but by decision of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, capital punishment was replaced by imprisonment for a period of 10 years.

On August 31, 1924, Savinkov wrote a letter to his sister in the Lubyanka prison. It stated in particular:

“My dear sister! You, of course, ask yourself why I recognized Soviet power?

…First of all, you should know that no one “tortured” me, “tormented”, persuaded or convinced me. If I recognized Soviet power, it was not because I was forced to do so, but because, in my conscience, I could not do otherwise ...

Do you remember the 18th year? The Bolsheviks are "captors of power"; the people are not with them; they destroy the Constituent Assembly; they conclude " bawdy world»; they prepare the triumph of the monarchists. On our side are honest people who love their homeland and freedom. On them - either mad fanatics, or "self-seekers", robbers and robbers. I wasn't the only one who thought so. Many thought so. There are those who still think so.

I went against the Bolsheviks without pursuing personal goals and not for the protection of the wealthy. I went because I believed that the Bolsheviks were bringing slavery and poverty to the Russian people, the Russian peasant and worker. Well, if you fight, then fight with a rifle in your hands, and not with exhortations and speeches ... I went through such a path like no one else ...

Tell me, why, when the Reds shot us, we shouted about "violence and arbitrariness", and when we shot them, they often shot them in vain, "you live well," was it considered that we were accomplishing a feat? I wasn't blind. I was not deaf. I saw and heard, and you know that when I returned from Mozyr, I thought about "us" and "them." In fact, I was mentally defeated already. I was all the more defeated because I realized that the Constituent Assembly was nonsense; that it was impossible not to conclude peace; that the Bolsheviks are not preparing a restoration, but, on the contrary, are destroying its possibility at the root. And most importantly, I realized then that I and we are all in the grip of foreigners, that we are not so much serving Russia as they are, foreigners ...

Already in the spring of 1923, it became completely clear to me that it was impossible, and indeed not necessary, to fight the Reds, because the workers and peasants were not with us, but with them ...

I know that emigration is indignant. Let him be angry. The "tops" of emigration have long lost my respect. Tell me, with whom to go, if not with the Soviet government? With the SRs? Cadets? Mensheviks? But is there really even one person who doubts that they are “waste steam” and that the Russian people will not follow them?

Today I recognized Soviet power. I recognized it as a result of my long, hard, stubborn, not verbal, but bloody struggle. Believe me: tomorrow many will recognize this power, the day after tomorrow everyone will recognize it, except for those crazy people who prefer emigrant rot ... You must have the courage to admit your defeats, just as you must have the courage to admit your mistakes ”(TsGAOR USSR, f. 5802, on. I, item 527, pp. 152–156).

We think that readers will be interested to know that during civil war in Spain, a prominent Soviet intelligence officer Grigory Syroezhkin, who worked in this country, quite by chance met the son of Boris Savinkov there. Lev Borisovich Savinkov grew up in exile, worked as a driver in France. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he went as a volunteer to the front of the struggle against the Francoists and the Nazis. Lev Savinkov bravely fought in the International Brigade. Syroezhkin contributed to the fact that Lev Savinkov became the captain of the Republican army. In the autumn of 1938, on the eve of the defeat of the Republicans, Syroezhkin sent him to France. During the occupation of France, Lev Savinkov participated in the French resistance movement and fought heroically against the enemy. In August 1944, he, as part of a group of the Union of Russian Patriots detachment, hoisted a red flag over the building of the Soviet embassy in Paris.

After the verdict, Boris Savinkov continued to remain in the inner prison of the OGPU in Lubyanka. On May 7, 1925, he committed suicide by throwing himself out of the investigator's office window.

In the late 1920s, Artuzov developed and carried out an operation to neutralize the White Guard ataman Boris Annenkov, who had taken refuge with his gangs in China. As a result of Chekist measures, the ataman was extradited Soviet authorities in March 1926 and as a major war criminal was shot on August 24, 1927.

After the completion of operations "Trust" and "Syndicate", the Chekists did not diminish their work in combating the counter-revolution. The head of the KRO OGPU Artuzov and his subordinates continued to actively work on the decomposition of the main counter-revolutionary emigrant organization - the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which numbered up to 30,000 active bayonets in its ranks. In fact, it was the Russian army abroad, whose leaders planned to organize a new campaign of the Entente against Soviet Russia. The ROVS was headed by General Wrangel. After his death, General Kutepov became the head of this organization, and later General Miller.

The headquarters of the ROVS was located in Paris, and its branches settled in countries adjacent to the USSR and were supported by Western intelligence services. From there, numerous groups of agents of the French, Polish, British and Romanian intelligence services were sent to the territory of our country, trying to create a counter-revolutionary underground. In response, the Chekists, led by Artuzov, sent well-trained employees to neighboring countries on behalf of legendary organizations and were engaged in compromising the most active figures of the EMRO.

Dmitry Fedichkin, an experienced OGPU officer, was sent to Revel. Here he attracted the cooperation of the former Russian citizen "Karl", who, on his instructions, met with an active figure in the EMRO, Colonel Boris Engelhardt and recruited him, speaking on behalf of German intelligence. Engelhardt supplied "Karl" with information about the Russian emigration, informed him about all his steps to recruit spies and select saboteurs sent to the USSR both through the ROVS and with its mediation by the special services of Western countries. This information was immediately transmitted to the Center. Subsequently, Engelhardt was compromised before the leadership of the ROVS.

In the summer of 1930, the foreign intelligence of the state security agencies - INO OPTU - began an operation developed under the leadership of Artuzov, code-named "Tarantella". The goal of the operation of the Chekists was to promote, through the false agents of the OGPU, the information sent to the British leadership. main role in the operation "Tarantella" was played by a secret employee of the INO Boris Fedorovich Lago, who passed through the correspondence of the Center under the pseudonym "Marseille".

British intelligence reached Marseille through Viktor Bogomolets, an emigrant recruited by her earlier, who later became a regional resident of the Secret Intelligence Service, who, on her instructions, conducted active intelligence work against the USSR. "Marseille" established close contact with Bogomolets, whom for four years he supplied with disinformation materials specially prepared at Lubyanka. The work of this secret foreign intelligence officer was personally supervised by Artuzov, who, having become the head of intelligence a year later, was in charge of the entire Tarantella operation.

In terms of its importance, "Tarantella" can be safely put on a par with the operations "Trust" and "Syndicate". Under the leadership of Artuzov, information was sent to the headquarters of the SI S that, thanks to the successful implementation of the five-year plans in the USSR, Western countries, including Britain's competitors - the USA, Germany and France, have the opportunity to actively cooperate with Moscow in the economic field and can squeeze London on the vast Soviet markets. After the defeat of the opposition, the Soviet leadership feels confident, fully controls the situation in the country and the situation in the army. The hopes of the external counter-revolution for the collapse of the Soviet regime are groundless, therefore the West must refuse to intervene in the USSR and actively cooperate with it in creating a system of collective security in Europe. Some of the most significant special events of the Tarantella were reported directly to Stalin.

On August 1, 1931, Artur Artuzov was appointed head of the INO (foreign intelligence) and introduced to the board of the OGPU. At that time, there were about a hundred employees in the central apparatus of foreign intelligence of the state security agencies in Moscow, and about the same number of intelligence officers were in foreign residencies. When Artuzov headed intelligence, one of its main foreign centers was Berlin, from where intelligence work was carried out not only in Germany, but also in neighboring countries and even the United States.

The "legal" resident of the OGPU in Berlin since 1931 was a prominent intelligence officer Boris Berman, who led the agent network directly in Germany. At the same time, there was a regional residency in Berlin, headed by Artuzov's deputy, Abram Slutsky, who in 1936 replaced him as head of foreign intelligence. The regional residency directed from Berlin the activities of intelligence teams in fifteen countries.

In the early 1930s, the internal political situation in Germany deteriorated sharply, the Nazis rushed to power in the country. As far back as 1929, the Berlin residency of the OGPU received documentary information testifying to the intention of the ruling circles of Germany to move away from the Rapallo agreements. Resident Berman reported to the Center about the reality of the Nazis coming to power and their aggressive intentions towards our country. Therefore, on January 30, 1930, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, after hearing a question about the work of the Foreign Department of the OGPU, made a special decision to improve the work of foreign intelligence. In accordance with this decision, the INO OGPU was to concentrate its efforts on intelligence work against Japan, England, France, Germany, Poland and other neighboring countries. In connection with the threat of war, special attention was paid in the document to the gradual transfer of intelligence work abroad to illegal positions. This decision was to be implemented by the new head of Soviet foreign intelligence, Artuzov. Under his leadership, foreign intelligence achieved significant results in the first half of the 1930s.

Based on the current situation in Germany, Artuzov decided to continue Operation Trust. This time, her goal was to infiltrate the top of the Nazi Party. The main executor of the operation was a secret employee of the INO OGPU, Alexander Mikhailovich Dobrov, who worked under the guise of an inconspicuous position as a senior engineer of the textile directorate of the Supreme Economic Council.

In 1931, Artuzov organized his departure to Karlovy Vary for "treatment". For Dobrov, a legend was worked out, according to which he was the leader of some underground counter-revolutionary group, which decided, with the financial support of Berlin, to create a fascist party in Russia. In Karlovy Vary, Dobrov met with a pre-revolutionary friend, to whom, according to legend, he hinted about his desire to meet one of the Nazi bosses. Dobrov's friend, known to the Chekists for his connections with the Nazis, arranged for him to meet in Berlin with a native of the Baltics, the "father" of racial theory, Alfred Rosenberg.

The inveterate racist liked Alexander Dobrov and naturally liked his idea of ​​creating a fascist party in Russia. Rosenberg reported personally to Hitler about his conversations with Dobrov and highly appreciated the intentions of the "Russian fascists". In turn, Dobrov handed over to Rosenberg plausible information specially prepared by the intelligence leadership about the state of affairs in the Soviet Union and the growth of the ranks of his mythical "party". The operational game started by the Chekists allowed Moscow to be aware of Hitler's true plans for our country. From the reports of the Lubyanka, the country's leadership followed that if the Nazis came to power, a military clash with Germany could not be avoided by the Soviet Union.

Based on the current situation, at the beginning of 1932, at the suggestion of Artuzov, it was decided to restructure intelligence work abroad. In view of the acute shortage of qualified personnel, Artuzov raised the issue of organizing special courses for the training and retraining of intelligence officers before the leadership of the OGPU. These courses, designed for 25 people, were staffed by specially selected OPTU operatives. Preference was given to individuals with operational experience and knowledge of foreign languages. The creation of courses contributed to a further increase in the level of intelligence work abroad.

The head of foreign intelligence, Artuzov, personally delivered a series of lectures at these courses on the work of the Soviet state security agencies. He told the audience about the liquidation by the Chekists of the "Lockhart conspiracy", Savinkov's organization "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom", about the operation to bring Sidney Reilly to our territory and arrest in Moscow. He did not mention the names of the operations ("Trust" and "Syndicate-2"), which ended in the defeat of the White Guard and monarchist anti-Soviet organizations, since they were still ongoing at that time and a limited circle of people knew about them in the Lubyanka. However, even those few details that were reported to the young Chekists made a deep impression on them.

The student of these courses, in the future a prominent Soviet intelligence officer Vasily Petrovich Roshchin, recalling his meetings with Artuzov, emphasized that Artur Khristianovich kept himself surprisingly simple and modest. While lecturing, he did not use any notes, listing from memory many facts, names, giving vivid characteristics of the political and business qualities of the persons participating in these unique operations, both on the one hand and on the other. For Roshchin, it was quite obvious that Artuzov put so much heart and mind into these operations that the details forever settled in his memory. “These lectures,” Roshchin said, “significantly replenished the operational baggage of students who did not graduate from any special intelligence schools, because at that time they simply did not exist. Young Chekists had to master operational skills directly in practice.

Concerning A.Kh. Artuzova, V.P. Roschin noted:

“Meeting Artuzov was a significant event for me. This man made a strong impression with his simplicity, tact, behind which one could feel erudition, efficiency and attentive attitude towards people. I'm not talking about the fact that he had exceptionally high professional qualities. His authority among the staff was very high. For all the time I worked with Artuzov, I never heard a disapproving word about him from anyone ...

In his lectures, Artuzov put forward, in particular, some provisions that were destined to become important areas of activity for Soviet foreign intelligence in the future. In particular, he actively developed the idea that foreign policy intelligence cannot be limited to collecting information, studying the situation in a particular country abroad, that is, it should not be limited to conducting, so to speak, passive intelligence. Intelligence should be active, achieving a favorable impact on the mindset and actions of not only intermediate, wavering layers, but also influence in the direction we need on the views and actions of our enemies.

Regarding Artuzov's behavior outside the service, V.P. Roschin said:

“I had a chance to see Artuzov outside the service. On his initiative, for example, employees of our department organized several subbotniks in one of the collective farms near Moscow.

Artuzov worked tirelessly with a shovel in his hands. At short smoke breaks, he explained to the staff of the INO, as well as to the collective farmers, the party's course towards the collectivization of agriculture. At the same time, he showed such deep knowledge in agriculture that many thought that he was an agronomist by profession. Only later did I find out that he was an engineer, graduated from the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute.

At the direction of Artuzov, in 1932, a radical reorganization of intelligence work in Germany was carried out, combining intelligence from "legal" and illegal positions. On the basis of illegal groups, large illegal residencies were organized, which were instructed to prepare the conditions for intelligence work in case of war. These residencies were led by prominent illegal intelligence agents Vasily Zarubin and Fyodor Parparov. In 1932, the OGPU resident in Berlin, Boris Berman, and the head of the German branch of the INO OGPU, Otto Steinbrück, proposed the creation of two sub-residences outside Germany, in which, according to the mobilization plan of the Center, illegal immigrants could settle during the war to lead their agents in the Third Reich, where, judging by everything, there will be no Soviet representatives.

The work carried out by Artuzov to improve intelligence activities has borne fruit. By the beginning of 1933, foreign intelligence had created a reliable intelligence apparatus in Germany. She acquired, in particular, such an important and reliable source as the Gestapo officer Willy Lehmann ("Breitenbach"), who regularly supplied the residency with extremely valuable counterintelligence and intelligence materials. It was from him that in the mid-1930s data were received on the testing of unguided rockets V-1 in Germany. Holding the post of head of the department for combating "communist espionage" in Germany, he warned the residency about the provocations that the Gestapo was preparing against the Soviet representatives.

In 1933, the "legal" residency of the OGPU in Berlin, led by Boris Gordon, as well as illegal residencies conducted active intelligence work, extracting valuable information in all areas of activity. From the sources of these residencies, who had access to secret documents of the German Foreign Ministry, other ministries and departments, the Luftwaffe, the leadership of the National Socialist Party, the police presidium, the Gestapo, received valuable information about the plans and intentions of the Nazis in relation to our country and Europe as a whole.

In 1932, Arvid Harnak ("Corsican"), who later became an imperial adviser in the Ministry of Economics, Harro Schulze-Boysen ("Foreman") - an employee of the Air Force intelligence department, Adam Kukhof ("Old Man"), and as well as a number of other valuable sources.

The measures taken by the Center allowed the Berlin residency not only to quickly overcome the decline caused by the aggravation of the situation in the country in 1933-1934, but also to gradually intensify its work. In the report of the 3rd (German) branch of the INO OGPU for 1933, approved by Mikhail Kedrov, it was noted:

“As a result of the government measures carried out by the National Socialists (mass arrests, the destruction of organizations and other repressions), our work was largely unaffected. We've lost two agents. Possaner, regardless of his connection with us, was arrested for his old sins against the NSDAP. Our source A/210, a former communist, was also arrested. Thanks to the timely measures taken, we avoided any complications in the work. All our agents work exclusively in illegal conditions.

Already in 1935, work to acquire new sources of information in Germany noticeably intensified. In this one year alone, the residency attracted 13 political sources to cooperate with foreign intelligence. And 1936 can be considered the peak of the work of the Berlin residency: it had sources of information in the most important facilities in Germany and obtained valuable information about the internal political situation in the country, the situation in the Nazi Party, Hitler's leadership, military aspirations and preparations of Hitler. The residency covered the economic situation in Germany, contributed to the conclusion of profitable trade deals with German firms, and also carried out work to identify the subversive activities of German concerns against the USSR.

In France, during the same period, the illegal residency, led by Boris Bazarov, achieved outstanding results. The famous illegal spy Dmitry Bystroletov (operational pseudonym "Hans"), who specialized in obtaining ciphers of European countries, managed to recruit an employee of the British Foreign Office "Arno", from whom valuable documentary materials were received.

In 1933, at the initiative of Artuzov, an illegal residency in England was recreated, led by the famous illegal intelligence officer Arnold Deutsch, who personally recruited over twenty agents. This residency acquired the famous "Cambridge Five", from which further documentary information was received on the activities of the British Foreign and Home Office, on Anglo-German relations, on the situation in the main political parties of the country, on the trade policy of Great Britain, as well as other topical issues of interest to Moscow. During the years of the Great Patriotic War from the "Cambridge Five" on a regular basis received information not only on the UK, but also on Nazi Germany, where at that time there was no residency of the Soviet foreign intelligence.

In May 1934, when the threat of Hitlerite aggression became a reality and the creation of a block of Western countries on an anti-Soviet basis was not ruled out, the Politburo of the Party Central Committee considered the issue of coordinating the activities of military and political intelligence. The head of the INO OGPU, Artur Artuzov, was appointed concurrently as deputy head of the Intelligence Directorate (RU) of the Red Army. On May 21, 1935, he was relieved of his duties as head of the INO NKVD and fully focused on work in military intelligence, which was then headed by Yan Karlovich Berzin.

The transfer of Artuzov from the post of head of foreign intelligence of the state security agencies with a demotion to military intelligence was associated with an incident that happened to him shortly before.

At the beginning of 1934, the issue of Soviet-Polish relations was discussed at a meeting in the Kremlin. Stalin, relying on the information of the Soviet plenipotentiary representative in Warsaw, Antonov-Ovseenko, was inclined to think that it was necessary to respond to Warsaw's "reverences" and probe the ground for a possible conclusion of an agreement with it. This point of view of the leader was shared by Karl Radek, who was reputed to be the Kremlin's expert on international issues. At this meeting in the Kremlin, only Artur Artuzov had a different opinion. Based on Soviet intelligence reports, he stated that the Poles were playing a dishonest game and were only pretending that they were going to get closer to the USSR. In fact, Poland is probing the ground for collusion with Germany in the hope that Hitler will share the “Soviet pie” with her in the event of a war against the USSR.

Life has shown Artuzov to be right. In December 1934, an agreement on good neighborliness and cooperation was signed between Germany and Poland, directed against the USSR. Under this treaty, Germany undertook to take into account Poland's territorial claims to our country in the event of a war with the USSR. Stalin, having familiarized himself with this document received by the Soviet foreign intelligence, reacted in a peculiar way: Artuzov was relieved of his post as head of the INO and transferred to the Intelligence Department of the Red Army. The Secretary General did not like it when someone publicly expressed disagreement with his opinion.

Together with Artuzov, some prominent intelligence officers also moved from the INO NKVD to the Intelligence Department of the Red Army, including Sergei Puzitsky (took the post of assistant chief of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Otto Steinbrück (appointed head of the European Department of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Fedor Karin (became head of the Eastern Department of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Lev Meyer -Zakharov (appointed assistant to the head of the RU).

Already in the first year of his work in military intelligence, Artuzov did a lot to improve its activities. He sought that military intelligence officers abroad cut off all ties with members of the Communist Parties, abandoned the practice of recruiting them, which repeatedly led to failures in their work.

In this regard, the memorandum of Artuzov to the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov is interesting in this regard. Analyzing the reasons for the failure of the GRU residency in Denmark, he wrote that resident Ulanovsky “was arrested by Danish counterintelligence because he violated an order prohibiting the recruitment of members of the Communist Party. The three Danes he recruited are communists. Tov. Ulanovsky hid this fact from us.”

And in military intelligence, Artuzov gave priority to working from illegal positions. In 1935, at his suggestion, illegal intelligence agent Yan Chernyak was sent abroad. For twelve years he headed a large agent network that covered a number of European countries. Already in our time, he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia. It was Artuzov who accepted the legendary military intelligence officer Hadji-Umar Mamsurov (“Xanthi”), who later distinguished himself in Spain, to the Intelligence Agency. In the same period, the famous Sandor Rado, who settled in Switzerland under the pseudonym "Dora", became an illegal military intelligence officer, from whom valuable strategic information on Germany and Italy was received during the Great Patriotic War. During the period of Artuzov's work in military intelligence, the activities of Leopold Trepper, who created an extensive intelligence network in Belgium and France, were intensified. Finally, Arthur Khristianovich was the "godfather" of the outstanding illegal intelligence officer Richard Sorge ("Ramsay"), who worked in China and Japan and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1963 (posthumously).

The list of names of famous scouts, whose talents Artuzov managed to discern, could be continued. However, even a simple listing of these fighters of the "invisible front", included in the golden fund of both political and military intelligence of our country, speaks of an extraordinary mind and high professionalism of the master of intelligence, which Chekist Artur Khristianovich Artuzov can rightfully be considered. He knew how to create a reserve for the future. During the harsh years of the Second World War, it was from these people that the most valuable military and political information, including on atomic weapons, came. That is why Artuzov in his profession has no equal among the heads of intelligence of all countries.

Speaking to foreign intelligence officers and referring to the profession of an intelligence officer, Artuzov emphasized:

“Our profession is in the shadows. And not because she is not honorable. It's just that our work is not advertised. Often our victories and our tears are not visible to the world. But I do not attach any exclusivity to our profession. I think that it is among other interesting and difficult professions.

Our front is invisible. Covered with secrecy, a kind of haze of mystery. But even on this front, hidden from hundreds of eyes, there are stellar moments. And most often, the heroism of the Chekist lies not in a single feat, but in everyday intense painstaking work, in that sublimely significant struggle that knows no respite or concessions, in which he gives everything he has.

However, Artuzov's position in the Intelligence Agency, despite his successful activities, was precarious. People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov was suspicious of him and other Chekists who came to military intelligence, believing that they were sent by Stalin to monitor him. The undisguised survival of Artuzov, Steinbrueck, Karin and other former NKVD officers from military intelligence began.

Uritsky, who replaced Berzin as head of the Intelligence Directorate, actively contributed to this, and in every possible way fueled the conflict between the "military" and the "NKVD" who came with Artuzov. Here is what the historian of domestic special services Igor Damaskin wrote about this in his book “Stalin and Intelligence”:

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Chapter 20

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Biography

early years

Artur Khristianovich Artuzov was born on February 18, 1891 in the village of Ustinovo, Kashin district, Tver province, in the family of a Swiss cheese maker (Italian by nationality) Christian Frauchi, who came to Russia, where he was engaged in cheese making, working in different places. Arthur Artuzov's mother, Augusta Augustovna Frauchi (née Didrikil), had Latvian and Estonian roots, and one of her grandfathers was a Scot. The couple met and got married in Russia. The Frauchi family had six children, and Arthur was the first.

From childhood, Artuzov was familiar with the Bolshevik revolutionaries Mikhail Kedrov and Nikolai Podvoisky, who were frequent guests in Frauchi's house, as they were married to their mother's sisters. Since 1906, Artuzov participated in the distribution of illegal literature.

In May 1909 he graduated with a gold medal from the Novgorod classical men's gymnasium and entered the metallurgical department of the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, which he graduated with honors in February 1917, after which he worked as a design engineer in the Metallurgical Bureau of Professor Vladimir Grum-Grzhimailo.

In the state security agencies

In August 1917, after returning from a business trip to Nizhny Tagil, he decided to leave the profession of a design engineer and until December 1917 he worked in the Office for the Demobilization of the Army and Navy. In December 1917 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (b). From December 1917 to March 1918 he worked as secretary of the Audit Commission of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs in Vologda and Arkhangelsk, and from March to August 1918 he was the head of the partisan detachment of conscripts on the Northern Front. Then he successively held the positions of head of the military information bureau of the Moscow Military District and head of the active part of the Military Control Department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

In January 1919, Artuzov was appointed to the position of a special commissioner of the Special Department of the Cheka, then successively held the positions of head of the Operations Department of the Office of the Special Department of the Cheka, from January 1921 - assistant head of the Special Department of the Cheka, from July of that year - deputy head of the Special Department of the Cheka - OGPU RSFSR. “Since 1920, as a member of the Collegium (on intra-Chekist issues),” Artuzov wrote in his autobiography. In the summer of 1920 he went to the Western Front with broad powers (the right to control the work of special departments of the front and armies).

In July 1922, Artuzov was appointed head of the newly created Counterintelligence Department (KRO) of the Secret Operational Directorate (SOU) of the GPU / OGPU. As head of the KRO, Artuzov led the major operations Trust and Syndicate-2, as well as several dozen other lesser-known ones. During Operation Trust, which lasted from 1922 to 1927, the reconnaissance and subversive activities of White émigré associations on the territory of the USSR were completely shackled. As a result of Operation Syndicate-2, the head of the anti-Soviet emigrant organization "People's Union for the Defense of Motherland and Freedom" Boris Savinkov was arrested. Another success of Artuzov was the arrest in 1925 of Sidney Reilly. Artuzov was the initiator and direct developer of Operation Tarantella.

In the summer of 1927, Artuzov was appointed part-time 2nd assistant to the head of the Secret Operational Directorate of the OGPU, Heinrich Yagoda, and after 4 months, in November, he was released from work in the KRO. He worked in the SOU OGPU.

On January 1, 1930, Artuzov was appointed to the post of deputy head of the INO of the OGPU of the USSR, and on August 1, 1931, to the post of head of the INO and a member of the collegium of the OGPU of the USSR. During the command of Artuzov, the INO OGPU carried out dozens of operations, during which dozens of personnel and hundreds of agents were involved. An important direction in the work of Soviet intelligence was the German direction. Artuzov's employees created a network of agents that supplied the Soviet leadership with valuable information about the events that took place in the National Socialist Party of Germany, which came to power, as well as about the activities of a number of state bodies and special services. During Artuzov's work in the Foreign Department of the OGPU, the famous illegal intelligence officers Fyodor Karin, Arnold Deutsch, Theodor Malli, Dmitry Bystroletov and others worked for Soviet intelligence.