Women in foreign intelligence and counterintelligence. Women in Intelligence

The debate about the role of the female factor in intelligence has not subsided for many years. Most of the inhabitants, far from this type of activity, believe that intelligence is not a woman's business, that this profession is purely masculine, requiring courage, self-control, willingness to take risks, to sacrifice oneself in order to achieve the goal. In their opinion, if women are used in intelligence, then only as a "honey trap", that is, to seduce gullible simpletons who are carriers of important state or military secrets. Indeed, even today the special services of a number of states, primarily Israel and the United States, actively use this method to obtain classified information, but it is adopted more by counterintelligence than by the intelligence services of these countries.

The legendary Mata Hari or the star of French military intelligence during the First World War, Martha Richard, are usually cited as a standard for such a female intelligence officer. It is known that the latter was the mistress of the German naval attaché in Spain, Major von Kron, and managed not only to find out important secrets of German military intelligence, but also to paralyze the activity of the intelligence network he created in this country. However, this "exotic" method of using women in intelligence is the exception rather than the rule.

OPINION OF PROFESSIONALS

And what do the scouts themselves think about this?

It is no secret that some of the professionals are skeptical about female intelligence officers. As the well-known journalist Alexander Kondrashov wrote in one of his works, even such a legendary military intelligence officer as Richard Sorge spoke about the unsuitability of women for serious intelligence activities. According to the journalist, Richard Sorge attracted female agents only for auxiliary purposes. At the same time, he allegedly stated: “Women are absolutely not fit for intelligence work. They are poorly versed in matters of high politics or military affairs. Even if you enlist them to spy on their own husbands, they will have no real idea what their husbands are talking about. They are too emotional, sentimental and unrealistic.”

It should be borne in mind here that this statement was made by an outstanding Soviet intelligence officer during his trial. Today we know that during the trial, Sorge tried with all his might to get his associates and assistants, among whom were women, from under the blow, to take all the blame on himself, to present his like-minded people as innocent victims of his own game. Hence his desire to belittle the role of women in intelligence, to limit it to solving only auxiliary tasks, to show the inability of the fair sex to work independently. Sorge was well aware of the mentality of the Japanese, who consider women to be second-class creatures. Therefore, the point of view of the Soviet intelligence officer was understandable to Japanese justice, and this saved the lives of his assistants.

Among foreign intelligence officers, the expression "scouts are not born, they become" is perceived as a truth that does not require proof. It’s just that at some point, intelligence, based on the tasks that have arisen or assigned, requires a specific person who enjoys special confidence, has certain personal and business qualities, professional orientation and the necessary life experience in order to send him to work in a specific region of the globe.

Women come into intelligence in different ways. But the choice of them as operatives or agents, of course, is not accidental. The selection of women for illegal work is carried out with particular care. After all, it is not enough for an illegal intelligence officer to have a good command of foreign languages ​​and the basics of intelligence art. He must be able to get used to the role, to be a kind of artist, so that today, for example, impersonate an aristocrat, and tomorrow - a priest. Needless to say that most women know the art of reincarnation better than men?

For those of the intelligence officers who happened to work in illegal conditions abroad, there have always been increased requirements also in terms of endurance and psychological endurance. After all, illegal women have to live away from their homeland for many years, and even organizing an ordinary vacation trip requires comprehensive and deep study in order to exclude the possibility of failure. In addition, not always a woman - an employee of illegal intelligence can communicate only with those people who she likes. Often the situation is just the opposite, and one must be able to control one's feelings, which is not an easy task for a woman.

Galina Ivanovna Fedorova, a wonderful Soviet illegal intelligence agent who worked abroad in special conditions for more than 20 years, said in this regard: “Some people think that intelligence is not the most suitable activity for a woman. In contrast to the stronger sex, she is more sensitive, fragile, vulnerable, more closely attached to the family, home, more prone to nostalgia. By nature itself, she is destined to be a mother, so the absence of children or a long separation from them is especially difficult for her. All this is true, but the same small weaknesses of a woman give her powerful leverage in the field of human relationships.

DURING THE YEARS OF THE WAR

The pre-war period and the Second World War, which brought unprecedented misfortunes to mankind, radically changed the approach to intelligence in general and to the role of the female factor in it in particular. Most people of good will in Europe, Asia and America are acutely aware of the danger that Nazism brings to all mankind. In the harsh years of war hard times, hundreds of honest people from different countries voluntarily linked their fate with the activities of our country's foreign intelligence, carrying out its tasks in various parts of the world. Bright pages in the annals of the heroic deeds of the Soviet foreign intelligence were also written by female intelligence officers who operated in Europe on the eve of the war and on the territory of the Soviet Union, temporarily occupied by Nazi Germany.

Actively worked in Paris for Soviet intelligence on the eve of World War II, a Russian émigré, the famous singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya, whose voice was admired by Leonid Sobinov, Fedor Chaliapin and Alexander Vertinsky.

Together with her husband, General Nikolai Skoblin, she contributed to the localization of the anti-Soviet activities of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which carried out terrorist acts against the Soviet Republic. Based on the information received from these Russian patriots, the OGPU arrested 17 ROVS agents abandoned in the USSR, and also established 11 safe houses for terrorists in Moscow, Leningrad and Transcaucasia.

It should be emphasized that thanks to the efforts of Plevitskaya and Skoblin, among others, Soviet foreign intelligence in the pre-war period was able to disorganize the ROVS and thereby deprived Hitler of the opportunity to actively use more than 20 thousand members of this organization in the war against the USSR.

The years of war hard times testify that women are capable of carrying out the most important reconnaissance missions no worse than men. So, on the eve of the war, Fyodor Parparov, a resident of Soviet illegal intelligence in Berlin, maintained operational contact with the source Marta, the wife of a prominent German diplomat. From her regularly received information about the negotiations of the German Foreign Ministry with British and French representatives. It followed from them that London and Paris were more concerned with the struggle against communism than with the organization of collective security in Europe and the repulse of fascist aggression.

Information was also received from Marta about a German intelligence agent in the General Staff of Czechoslovakia, who regularly supplied Berlin with top secret information about the state and combat readiness of the Czechoslovak armed forces. Thanks to this information, Soviet intelligence took steps to compromise him and arrest him by the Czech security forces.

Simultaneously with Parparov, in the prewar years, other Soviet intelligence officers also worked in the very heart of Germany, in Berlin. Among them was Ilse Stöbe (Alta), a journalist who was in contact with the German diplomat Rudolf von Schelia (Aryan). Important messages were sent from him to Moscow with warnings of an impending German attack.

As early as February 1941, Alta announced the formation of three army groups under the command of Marshals Bock, Rundstedt and Leeb and the direction of their main attacks on Leningrad, Moscow and Kyiv.

Alta was a staunch anti-fascist and believed that only the USSR could crush fascism. In early 1943, Alta and her assistant Aryan were arrested by the Gestapo and executed along with members of the Red Chapel.

Elizaveta Zarubina, Leontina Cohen, Elena Modrzhinskaya, Kitty Harris, Zoya Voskresenskaya-Rybkina worked for Soviet intelligence on the eve and during the war, sometimes carrying out its tasks at the risk of their lives. They were driven by a sense of duty and true patriotism, the desire to protect the world from Hitler's aggression.

The most important information during the war came not only from abroad. It also constantly came from numerous reconnaissance groups operating near or far from the front line in the temporarily occupied territory.

Readers are well aware of the name of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, whose majestic death has become a symbol of courage. Seventeen-year-old Tanya, a reconnaissance fighter of a special forces group that was part of front-line intelligence, became the first of 86 women - Heroes of the Soviet Union during the war period.

Unfading pages in the history of the intelligence of our country were also written by women scouts from the Pobediteli special forces detachment under the command of Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Molodtsov’s operational reconnaissance and sabotage group operating in Odessa, and many other combat units of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, who mined important strategic information.

A modest girl from Rzhev, Pasha Savelyeva, managed to obtain and transport to her detachment a sample of chemical weapons that the Nazi command intended to use against the Red Army. Captured by the Nazi punishers, she was subjected to monstrous torture in the Gestapo dungeons of the Ukrainian city of Lutsk. Even men can envy her courage and self-control: despite the brutal beatings, the girl did not betray her teammates. On the morning of January 12, 1944, Pasha Savelyeva was burned alive in the courtyard of the Lutsk prison. However, her death was not in vain: the information received by the intelligence officer was reported to Stalin. The Kremlin's allies in the anti-Hitler coalition seriously warned Berlin that retaliation would inevitably follow if Germany used chemical weapons. So, thanks to the feat of a scout, a chemical attack by the Germans against our troops was prevented.

Lydia Lisovskaya, a scout of the "Winners" detachment, was the closest assistant to Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov. Working as a waitress in the casino of the economic headquarters of the occupation forces in Ukraine, she helped Kuznetsov to make acquaintances with German officers and collect information about high-ranking fascist officials in Rivne.

Lisovskaya involved her cousin Maria Mikota in intelligence work, who, on the instructions of the Center, became an agent of the Gestapo and informed the partisans about all the punitive raids of the Germans. Through Mikota, Kuznetsov met SS officer von Ortel, who was part of the team of the famous German saboteur Otto Skorzeny. It was from Ortel that the Soviet intelligence officer first received information that the Germans were preparing a sabotage action during a meeting of the heads of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in Tehran.

In the fall of 1943, Lisovskaya, on the instructions of Kuznetsov, got a job as a housekeeper to Major General Ilgen, commander of the eastern special forces. On November 15, 1943, with the direct participation of Lydia, an operation was carried out to kidnap General Ilgen and transfer him to the detachment.

YEARS OF THE COLD WAR

The hard times of war, from which the Soviet Union came out with honor, were replaced by long years of the Cold War. The United States of America, which had a monopoly on atomic weapons, made no secret of its imperial plans and aspirations to destroy the Soviet Union and its entire population with the help of this deadly weapon. The Pentagon planned to unleash a nuclear war against our country in 1957. It took incredible efforts on the part of our entire people, who had barely recovered from the monstrous wounds of the Great Patriotic War, the exertion of all their forces to frustrate the plans of the USA and NATO. But in order to make the right decisions, the political leadership of the USSR needed reliable information about the real plans and intentions of the American military. Women intelligence officers also played an important role in obtaining secret documents from the Pentagon and NATO. Among them are Irina Alimova, Galina Fedorova, Elena Kosova, Anna Filonenko, Elena Cheburashkina and many others.

WHAT IS COLLEAGUES?

The Cold War years have sunk into oblivion, today's world is safer than 50 years ago, and foreign intelligence plays an important role in this. The changed military-political situation on the planet has led to the fact that today women are less used in operational work directly "in the field." The exceptions here, perhaps, are again the Israeli intelligence Mossad and the American CIA. In the latter, women not only perform the functions of “field” operatives, but even head intelligence teams abroad.

The 21st century that has come will undoubtedly be the century of the triumph of equality between men and women, even in such a specific sphere of human activity as intelligence and counterintelligence work. An example of this is the intelligence services of such a conservative country as England.

Thus, in the book Scouts and Spies, the following information is given on the “elegant agents” of the British special services: “More than 40% of the intelligence officers of MI-6 and counterintelligence of MI-5 in Great Britain are women. In addition to Stella Rimington, until recently the head of MI5, four of the 12 counterintelligence departments are also women. In an interview with members of the British Parliament, Stella Rimington said that in difficult situations, women often turn out to be more decisive and, when performing special tasks, are less subject to doubts and remorse for their deeds compared to men.

According to the British, the most promising is the use of women in recruiting male agents, and an increase in female personnel among the operational staff as a whole will lead to an increase in the efficiency of operational activities.

The influx of women to work in the special services is largely due to the recent increase in the number of male employees who want to leave the service and go into business. In this regard, the search and selection of candidates for work in the British intelligence services among the students of the country's leading universities has become more active.

Another sophisticated reader may probably say: “The USA and England are prosperous countries, they can afford the luxury of attracting women to work in the special services, even in the role of “field players”. As for the intelligence of Israel, it actively uses in its work the historical fact that women have always played and are playing a big role in the life of the Jewish community in any country in the world. These countries are not a decree for us.” However, he is wrong.

So, in early 2001, Lindiwe Sisulu became the Minister for All Intelligence Services of the Republic of South Africa. She was 47 years old at the time, and she was not a novice in the special services. In the late 1970s, when the African National Congress was still underground, it received special training from the ANC military organization Spear of the People and specialized in intelligence and counterintelligence. In 1992, she headed the security department of the ANC. When a parliament united with the white minority was created in South Africa, she headed the intelligence and counterintelligence committee in it. From the mid-1990s, she worked as Deputy Minister of the Interior. According to available information, the National Intelligence Agency, which was previously considered independent, also came under its command.

WHY IS THEY NEEDED FOR INTELLIGENCE?

Why are women in intelligence encouraged? Experts agree that a woman is more observant, her intuition is more developed, she likes to delve into the details, and, as you know, “the devil himself is hiding in them.” Women are more diligent, more patient, more methodical than men. And if we add their external data to these qualities, then any skeptic will be forced to admit that women rightfully occupy a worthy place in the ranks of the intelligence services of any country, being their decoration. Sometimes female intelligence officers are assigned to carry out operations related, in particular, to organizing meetings with agents in those areas where the appearance of men, based on local conditions, is highly undesirable.

The combination of the best psychological qualities of both men and women who conduct intelligence abroad, especially from illegal positions, is the strength of any intelligence service in the world. It is not for nothing that such intelligence tandems as Leontina and Morris Cohen, Gohar and Gevork Vartanyan, Anna and Mikhail Filonenko, Galina and Mikhail Fedorov and many others, known and not known to the general public, are inscribed in golden letters in the history of foreign intelligence of our country.

When asked what the main qualities, in her opinion, an intelligence officer should have, one of the veterans of foreign intelligence, Zinaida Nikolaevna Batraeva, answered: “Excellent physical fitness, the ability to learn foreign languages ​​and the ability to communicate with people.”

And today, even, unfortunately, quite rare publications in the media devoted to the activities of women intelligence officers convincingly indicate that in this specific area of ​​human activity, the fair sex is in no way inferior to men, and in some ways they are superior. their. As the history of the intelligence services of the world teaches, a woman perfectly copes with her role, being a worthy and formidable opponent of a man in terms of penetrating other people's secrets.

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE ADVICE

And in conclusion, here are excerpts from the lectures of one of the leading American counterintelligence officers of his time, Charles Russell, read by him in the winter of 1924 in New York at the gathering of US Army intelligence officers. Almost 88 years have passed since then, but his advice is relevant to the intelligence officers of any country to this day.

Counterintelligence advice:

“Female intelligence officers are the most dangerous adversary, and they are the most difficult to expose. When meeting such women, you should not let likes or dislikes influence your decision. Such weakness can have fatal consequences for you.”

Scout Advice:

“Avoid women. With the help of women, many good scouts were caught. Don't trust women when you're working in enemy territory. When dealing with women, never forget to play your part.

One Frenchman who had escaped from a German concentration camp stopped at a café near the Swiss border, waiting for night to fall. When the waitress handed him the menu, he thanked her, which surprised her greatly. When she brought him beer and food, he thanked her again. While he was eating, the waitress called for a member of the German counterintelligence, because, as she later said, such a polite person could not be German. The Frenchman was arrested."

The basic rule of conduct for a scout is:

"Beware of women! History knows many cases when women contributed to the capture of male scouts. You should pay attention to a woman only when you suspect that she is an agent of the intelligence or counterintelligence service of the enemy, and then only when you are sure that you are completely in control of yourself.

source- Vladimir Sergeevich Antonov - leading expert of the Foreign Intelligence History Hall, retired colonel.

The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Mikhail Fradkov, presents the Kosova Prize of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service for 2010 (for sculptural portraits of prominent intelligence officers).

- Did you have to recruit yourself?

No, they gave me ready-made informants. And they were usually women. Communication between two ladies, their “random” meetings in a cafeteria, a store, a hairdresser, do not arouse suspicion in anyone. Once I was invited by the resident and said that I had to conduct a secret connection with a valuable source. This woman worked in the delegation of one of the European countries to the UN. We were able to exchange information with her, even when she went down the escalator in the shopping center, and I went up on the next one. One handshake, a friendly hug - and I have the encryption. Thanks to this connection, the Center regularly received information concerning the positions of NATO countries on global world problems.

- Who else was among your informants?

Many episodes have not been declassified, and I cannot talk about them. In addition, the Americans were involved there, which even now can be calculated from my descriptions. Let me just say that I constantly kept in touch with an American woman working in an important government department. When I met her, she was extremely collected. Any oversight could cost dearly, not so much to me as to her.

- After all, it was the period of the Cold War, so that all Americans, probably, looked askance at you?

In general, the Americans are a very nice people, and they are like us Russians. They treated us with warmth. When they found out that we were Russians, they accepted us so sincerely! But I'm talking about ordinary people, but at the government level, everything was different. An atomic war was being prepared, and we knew for certain that around April 1949 the United States wanted to drop a bomb on Russia. And we were faced with the task of nothing less than saving our homeland, so that we could not think of anything else. American counterintelligence was furious. Every person from the Union was relentlessly watched. Draconian measures were introduced to move Soviet diplomats, the number of which was reduced to a minimum - the rest were even forbidden to leave the city.

In New York, I did not work on a technical job, but on an operational one. She was a liaison in the Barkovsky group (it was he who was involved in the atomic bomb). He gave me instructions - for example, to print a letter with gloves, to drop it in a certain place in another area, to meet someone.

- Did it happen every day?
- Of course not, as needed. In addition, I remember something happened to the operational secretary of our residency. She was hurriedly sent home. And I was assigned to carry out its functions. To do this, I had to learn how to type on a typewriter.

- Secret reports printed at home?

What do you! At home it was impossible to keep any compromising things at all. We never talked about our work or anything like that with my husband. If he needed to know whether I had successfully completed the task, I returned home and slightly nodded my head to him. We have learned to understand each other without words, only through the eyes. So even if there was a wiretap, we would not have split.

- Where was the residency?

At the Soviet embassy. Our room (where the radio operator was) was on the top floor, and theoretically they could listen to us from the roof. That's why they've always been insured. Used ciphers.

I used a car from the UN every day to go to the residency in the evening. And every morning I started the same way. By the way, I was also closed to our Soviet citizens working in the embassy. Officially, I was responsible for the archive of the economic department there.

- That is, in parallel, they led, as it were, one more life, a third?

Even the fourth (if you take into account the family, and I tried to be a good housewife). And I was also an entertainer for diplomats. Organized amateur performances, sang, danced. But then there was enough power for everything. Maybe because I was brought up in a family like that ... My father was a general, my brother was a general, and my husband also became a general. I myself am a senior lieutenant. (Smiles.) But the feeling of patriotism has always given me so much energy

Have you often been on the brink of failure?
- It's very relative. After all, every day in intelligence involves risk to one degree or another. Sometimes danger lurks where you don't expect it. I remember I had an unusual heart attack one night (we were then renting a dacha 120 km from New York). The husband called the doctor, but they sent a police ambulance, which was nearby. They immediately realized that I had problems with the thyroid gland, and decided to urgently hospitalize me. But in no case was I allowed to go to an American hospital.

- Why?!

There is such a thing as “talking drag”. Something like a lie detector, only a person is split with the help of drugs. They give pills and he answers any questions. Therefore, we, the scouts, were forbidden to undergo even a medical examination without the presence of our doctors.

Help "MK"

Intelligence officer Nikolai Kosov, among other things, was a brilliant journalist, vice-president of the UN Association of Foreign Correspondents. He was an interpreter for Molotov, accompanied Khrushchev and Bulgarin on foreign trips.

What task do you remember the most?
- Our illegal (such as Stirlitz) somehow had to meet with an employee of the diplomatic mission. He had already left, but a telegram arrived from Moscow saying that under no circumstances should this meeting be allowed to happen. And then there was outdoor advertising behind all of ours. Only American counterintelligence did not follow me. So I had to go. Although it was generally forbidden to leave the city, I broke through. Three days are generally being prepared for such a meeting. They look at which restaurant a person will go to, where they can check if there is a tail behind them. But I didn’t have time for all this, I couldn’t intercept him on the “route” and arrived at the meeting place. It was an extreme option, which could be resorted to in the most critical cases. And then a curly-haired guy comes out of the bushes. I immediately understood - ours! And he felt that something had happened, and stepped aside. And here comes the one to whom our Stirlitz came. I let him know that the meeting is cancelled. He first in any - as so! Barely convinced. And our Stirlitz jumped on the bus and traveled around the country for three days to make sure that he was not being followed.

- Listening devices, all kinds of voice recorders and video cameras did you use?

No, there was nothing like that. The reports were usually given to me in such small capsules (in the form of film). My Buick had an ashtray. In case of danger, I pressed the button, and the capsule burned out within a minute. Once I went to another state, carried a report. And then a policeman suddenly stopped me in the tunnel. I was about to burn the capsule, but he said that there was a traffic jam on the road and I needed to wait a bit. I was very worried then. Another time I broke the rules of the road. I thought that everything was gone (and before that, my husband gave me this thing to the cinema, where he had a meeting with an agent, so that I could take it where necessary). And again she prepared to burn the report, although it was very important. But then I say to the policeman: “Where is your street of brides?” She really was around. He told me: “What are you, a bride, going to a wedding? Well, then I won’t detain you, but don’t violate it in the future.” Actually, every time something happened. It was romantic and interesting. We were young ourselves then - and we liked it all.

“I started sculpting at the age of 50”

- Why did you decide to leave intelligence?

At the age of 30, I found out that I was expecting a baby. It changed everything. I decided to dedicate myself to him. My mother was sick, there was no one to help. And in general, I would not trust my son to anyone. Besides, I didn't want to give birth in the States. After all, according to local laws, he would then have to serve in the American army.

- I was sure that the scouts were bound forever ...

There is no bondage. I came and asked to be released for three years. And in the Center they offered me to quit, and then, if I want, to return when I want. I never returned.

- Have you ever regretted leaving intelligence?

No. In addition, intelligence has always remained in my life - after all, I was the wife of a scout ... And when my husband and I lived in Holland, I often noticed that I was being followed. We were then suspected: my husband was a correspondent in the States, and in Holland he was already a diplomat ... It doesn’t happen that way. But in general, I often had to help him. If they were at the reception, he asked to approach such and such a couple, get to know each other, talk, etc. But it was no longer work for me, but helping a loved one. In Moscow, we did not tell anyone that he was a scout. Everyone thought that he was just working for the KGB. They led a normal life and tried to be no different from others. It was supposed to be.

- And when did you discover the talent of a sculptor?

It happened unexpectedly when we were living in Hungary. The husband was a representative of the KGB of the USSR, and he had an extremely important mission. I remember when we arrived there, one of the diplomats said, since the USSR sent Nikolai Kosov, it means that something serious is being prepared. And I had a creative explosion. And this, mind you, at 50 years old. Now I tell everyone - do not be afraid to seek your calling at any age! Let my example inspire someone. My Hungarian teacher explained that my work is the output of the accumulated impressions received from intelligence. Perhaps, thanks to her, I learned to be extremely attentive, to remember faces, the smallest details, to see the inner spiritual essence in people.

She was the first to make a sculpture of Petőfi (the favorite writer of the Hungarians), she was immediately appreciated. They told me that I was a born sculptor. I became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, but they did not welcome me there. They heard that I was from the KGB (but then we could not say that we were actually from intelligence), and they avoided me. I don't know what they thought of me then. And then art historians began to say that my handwriting is unusual, I manage to convey the inner state of a person, they began to write about me in newspapers around the world.

- Is it true that you sculpted Margaret Thatcher and even presented this work of yours?

Yes, we met with her. And she liked the way I sculpted her. I was very pleased.

- If you had to choose between two professions - a scout and a sculptor - what would you choose?

Then, in her younger years, she was only a scout. I was (and still am) a patriot and dreamed of doing something for my country. But now I consider myself a sculptor and I ask my fans to perceive me in this incarnation.

- But follow the news in the world of intelligence? What do you think about the high-profile spy scandal in the States, in which your namesake appeared?

I follow as much as possible. And I will tell you that in intelligence everything is not as it might seem. The uninitiated will not understand me ...

- Do you think the role of women in intelligence has increased all over the world today?

It's hard for me to judge what's going on now. But women have always played a serious role in this matter. I think no less than men. Today, several of our female intelligence officers have been declassified. But after all, they all performed completely different functions and tasks, which indicates how broad the concept of intelligence itself is. Some scouts get confidential information, others provide security at conferences, others are engaged in recruitment, fourth ... Someone has to be, as I like to say, “in the hot trenches of the Cold War”, and someone successfully works at home. As for intelligence all over the world, in the services of different countries, women can be used in this matter in different ways. Somewhere really like bait.

- There was no desire to “make” Putin? He is still a former Chekist.

It is as a colleague that I perceive him. And, of course, I would like to fashion it. But there are already almost a hundred sculptures of him. And everyone continues to sculpt and draw it ...

- And who would you like to fashion now?

Husband. Then, perhaps, my sadness, which accumulates all the time, will find a way out. They say time heals. No, it only stirs up great anguish. So he died 5 years ago, and there is not a day when I would not cry and remember him. I sometimes watch today's films and tell you - we didn't call love what they call it now. We entered each other so that I sometimes did not understand who I was to him - mother, wife, daughter. He was the most dear person to me, although we, of course, sometimes cursed. We are probably from that ancient Greek legend about the androgyne, which was divided into two halves.

Russian Mata Hari

In N 23–24 For 2006, we talked about Major General N. S. Batyushin, who is rightfully considered one of the founders of the domestic secret services. With the outbreak of the First World War, he was still engaged in intelligence and counterintelligence, acting as quartermaster general of the headquarters of the Northern Front. Anticipating the possibility of a German offensive along the coast of the Baltic Sea, Nikolai Stepanovich took care in advance that our agents settled in port cities that could be captured by the enemy. One of these agents, who found themselves at the forefront of the secret intelligence struggle thanks to Batyushin, turned out to be a mysterious lady, a subject of the Russian Empire, who operated in Libau. Without the slightest exaggeration, it can be called the Russian Mata Hari.

Not a figment of the writer's imagination

DUE TO the fact that the archives of Russian intelligence during the revolutionary events were badly damaged, it is now hardly possible to establish the true name of this woman, as well as many details of her biography.

She entered the history of the great war under the name of Anna Revelskaya. In Libava, occupied by the Germans, she was known under the name of Clara Izelgof. By the way, those who have read Valentin Pikul's novel "Moonsund" certainly remember the image of this patriot. It is worth noting that Valentin Savvich, in his work on Moonsund, widely used German-language sources, including the memoirs of the heads of the Kaiser and Austro-Hungarian special services, Walter Nicolai and Max Ronge. The writer did not invent his heroine and her fate, he only embellished real events with some picturesque details.

The main merit of Anna Revelskaya is that she played a truly outstanding role in disrupting the German plans to break through the Kaiser fleet into the Gulf of Finland, and the death of an entire flotilla of the latest German mine cruisers blown up by Russian mines can be recorded on her personal account.

But first, a little background...

Generous gift to the British Admiralty

On AUGUST 27, 1914, the German cruiser Magdeburg, in thick fog, hit an underwater reef near the northern tip of Odensholm Island, 50 nautical miles from the Russian naval base at Reval. "Magdeburg" secretly made his way into the Gulf of Finland with the task of mining the fairway, and on the way back he was supposed to attack and destroy patrol ships and torpedo boats of the Russian Baltic Fleet.

All attempts by the German crew to remove their cruiser from the reef before the approach of the Russian ships failed. At dawn, the captain of the Magdeburg ordered the burning of secret documents, with the exception of those that still had to be guided. Therefore, two magazines of encryption codes with the key to their decryption were never burned. Before the ship's commander ordered his sailors to leave the cruiser and the miners to blow up the ship, the radio operator, following the instructions, threw a cipher magazine overboard, packed between heavy lead tiles. But another copy was lost in the confusion ...

Russian ships that approached the crash site of the Magdeburg picked up German sailors. Then the divers began to carefully examine the half-sunken Kaiser cruiser and the bottom below it. Now let's give the floor to Winston Churchill, who at that time was one of the Lords of the British Admiralty.

“The Russians fished out the body of a drowned German junior officer from the water,” Churchill writes in his memoirs. - With the ossified hands of a dead man, he pressed to his chest the code books of the German Navy, as well as maps of the North Sea and Heligoland Bay, divided into small squares. On September 6, a Russian naval attache came to visit me. From Petrograd he received a message outlining what had happened. It advised that with the help of code books the Russian Admiralty was able to decipher at least certain sections of German naval cipher telegrams. The Russians believed that the Admiralty of England, the leading maritime power, should have had these books and maps ... We immediately sent the ship, and on an October evening, Prince Louis (meaning the first sea lord of England, Louis Battenberg. - A.V.) received from our hands loyal allies, priceless documents slightly damaged by the sea ... "

German codes were too tough for Russian crackers

Alas, the British cryptanalysts (specialists in breaking codes), who achieved great success in deciphering enemy messages with the help of materials provided by the Russians, did not share their achievements with their Russian colleagues, repaying the allies with black ingratitude in the traditional manner of Albion figures.

Russian codebreakers also fought over German codes, but to no avail. Kaiser's intelligence, which had an extensive network of agents in Petrograd, nestled even in the Military Ministry of Russia, was well aware of these futile efforts.

From the history of the Magdeburg cipher books, the capture of which the Russians could not turn to their advantage, the German naval command, headed by the pompous and smug Prince Henry of Prussia (Kaiser's brother), concluded that the Russian special services and their incapacity for major operations. This reckless conclusion determined the strategy of Prince Heinrich until the end of 1916, although the Russian Baltic Fleet, under the command of the talented admirals Essen, Nepenin and Kolchak, taught the Kaiser fleet a whole series of impressive lessons with the help of brilliantly executed minelaying, stretching literally to the very German harbors ...

Women's charms and men's naivety

NOW let's return to the Baltic States, where Anna Revelskaya operated. It is known about this lady that she came from a wealthy Russian family that owned lands in the Baltic states, graduated from a gymnasium and knew several languages, including German. She is described as a graceful and attractive woman, literally bursting with health.

Back in the spring of 1915, before the start of the large-scale German offensive, under the name of Klara Izelgof, she got a job as a waiter in the Libava port confectionery, often visited by sailors.

A few months later, German troops occupied Libau. The commander-in-chief of the German fleet in the Baltic, the brother of the Kaiser, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, moved his headquarters here. Following the overweight grand admiral, the ranks of his headquarters also moved to this city, and many of the German dreadnoughts stood up to the Libau berths. Kriegsmarine officers began to frequent the coffee shop on Charlottenstrasse, where they served excellent coffee, French cognac and delicious cakes. And soon a young German sailor, Lieutenant von Kempke, the commander of one of the towers of the main caliber from the cruiser "Tethys", fell in love with a pretty and kind confectioner Clara Iselhof, who lived alone, and so much so that he intended to offer her a hand and heart.

Clara allowed the lieutenant to stay at her apartment. Returning one day from a campaign, the lieutenant accidentally found his beloved dismantling all sorts of rubbish, among which were various things from the everyday life of gentlemen, including a men's travel bag with a set of all sorts of things, even mustache curlers. The lieutenant threw a scene of jealousy to the lady of the heart. Brought to tears, the confectioner confessed to the lieutenant that during the period when the Russians were in Libau, her admirer was an officer of the Russian fleet. In a fit of generosity, the German forgave Clara, because her tears were so touching, and her repentance was so sincere...

Without ceasing to sob, the lady said in a breaking voice that the Russian, leaving Libau in a hurry, forgot in the attic some briefcase made of expensive crocodile skin of excellent dressing, with wonderful nickel-plated locks and a lot of pockets, but for some reason she just couldn’t find it . The thrifty German really wanted to get this little thing of his predecessor. Having tormented a fan who was eager for “war trophies” for a week, Clara once handed him a bag with a victorious look, noting that, due to natural modesty, she did not look inside.

When von Kempke began to get acquainted with the contents of the briefcase, he was thrown into a fever: there were top secret schemes for the recent minelaying of the Baltic Fleet! The lieutenant presented the materials that had accidentally fallen into his hands to his command.

At the headquarters of Henry of Prussia, and then at the General Staff of the German Navy, they were subjected to the closest examination. And they came to the conclusion that the schemes are most likely genuine - this is how the Germans would arrange minefields if they intended to clog the Irben Strait for the enemy, leaving narrow passages for their own ships. Prince Heinrich inflicted a captious interrogation on the tower chief, concerning mainly the personality of his beloved. The lieutenant's answers, which boiled down to the most positive characteristics of Clara Iselhof, her sympathies for the Second Reich and her own matrimonial intentions, completely satisfied the prince. He promised the lieutenant a brilliant career if, with the help of these schemes, one operation was successful, which, as it seemed to the Kaiser strategist, could well induce the Russians to rush to withdraw from the war ...

Prince Heinrich decided to send on a combat raid to the Gulf of Finland, guided by the scheme of Russian minelaying, the pride of the Kaiser's Navy - the 10th flotilla of mine cruisers, launched from the shipyards just before the war. 11 pennants!

in a mousetrap

To check the reliability of the route, the Germans sent a couple of destroyers for reconnaissance, and they returned safely to the base. On November 10, 1916, the entire flotilla moved along the explored path, hoping to throw mines at the fairways of the Gulf of Finland, Kronstadt and Helsingfors and send everything that comes along the way to the bottom.

When all the ships were drawn into the "safe" passage indicated on the diagram of the Russian officer, something happened that the Germans did not expect at all: two destroyer cruisers were suddenly blown up by mines.

The head of the operation, captain of the first rank Witting, having sent one of the cruisers with crews picked up from the water to Libau, nevertheless decided to continue the pirate raid, writing off the explosion as an accident. He broke into the Gulf of Finland, but did not dare to go further and, having almost leveled the fishing village of Paldiski with artillery fire, turned back home.

And then it turned out that the “safe passage” was all pelted with mines! And when did the Russians manage to put them up again? Of the ten ships of Witting, only three managed to get to Libau, the rest were blown up and sank. So the 10th flotilla ceased to exist, having lost eight ships.

And the scouts and the trace caught a cold ...

ON RETURN from this inglorious path that turned into a trap, the Germans rushed to look for Clara Iselhof. They turned the whole Charlottenstrasse upside down in search of her, but to no avail: the Russian intelligence officer was gone. On that very night, when Witting's destroyers rushed to the Russian shores through the Irbeny, the Panther submarine, which secretly approached Libau, took on board a certain passenger. As the reader has already guessed, it was Anna Revelskaya ...

The further fate of this brave woman is drowning in the darkness of revolutionary hard times. We do not know whose side she took when the Bolsheviks took power and then the Civil War broke out, whether she remained in Russia or emigrated. This lady has remained an absolute mystery in the history of intelligence, we do not even know her true name ... But what cannot be questioned is the value of the operation carried out with her help to mislead the enemy, which in terms of effectiveness (the flotilla of the latest destroyers of the Kaiser Kriegsmarine, which was almost completely destroyed) generally has no analogues in the history of the First World War.

Beautiful, smart, selfless - these were the women who, by the will of fate, embarked on the path of espionage. Each of them led their own arranged life until the moment when the state made it clear that it needed their work. Spy women are a combination of cold prudence, courage, willpower, external attractiveness and seductiveness. Scouts have no right to glory, their names and exploits become known only after they officially cease to fulfill their duties.

1. Nadezhda Plevitskaya - sweet romances and insidious kidnapping

Plevitskaya's most high-profile operation is the abduction of Yevgeny Miller, the head of the Russian All-Military Union. The result was to be the appointment of Plevitskaya's husband to the position of Miller. But Miller began to suspect something was wrong and managed to write a note to his deputy, which made it possible to expose Russian spies. Plevitskaya was arrested by French counterintelligence. She was charged with espionage for the USSR and kidnapping, for which she was given 20 years. In 1940, she died within the walls of the women's prison in Rennes.

2. Margarita Konenkova - a woman to whom Einstein was not indifferent

Communicating with scientists, she, with the help of seduction and female cunning, learned the details of atomic research, was aware of the stages of creation and transmitted all this information to Soviet intelligence. What kind of relationship connected Margarita and Einstein is not exactly known. However, letters to each other with very tender content were found in their personal belongings.

3. Zoya Voskresenskaya-Rybkina - a scout who wrote children's stories

In 1941, working in the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign States, she ended up at the German Embassy for a reception. The local ambassador was fascinated by the Russian beauty and invited her to dance. While the German diplomat whispered compliments to her, circling in a waltz, she could make out traces of paintings hanging on the walls and packed suitcases in an ajar office. Then she reported that the Germans were planning to evacuate, which means they were preparing for war. The authorities ignored her message.

During the war, Zoya trained scouts and saboteurs. The episode became famous when she refused to follow the order of the leadership. They wanted to instruct her to become the mistress of a general from Switzerland who had ties with Germany. But she did not want to betray her husband, by the way, also a scout, and told her superiors that she would shoot herself. After her dismissal from intelligence, Zoya served in the administration of the camps in Vorkuta, and after finishing her work until retirement, she began writing children's stories under the pseudonym "Voskresenskaya".

4. Olga Chekhova - an actress who never admitted her connection with intelligence

Having married a colleague of Mikhail Chekhov, she forever kept his last name, although the German authorities forced her to return her maiden name. Goebbels openly showed dislike for the actress because she rejected him. But at the same time, the Fuhrer himself sympathized with her.

In April 1945, Olga was arrested by the intelligence of the USSR, the spy was taken to Moscow. After that, she visited West Berlin and then moved to Germany. This visit was shrouded in mystery. Local newspapers began to write that Chekhova was a super agent of the USSR and went to Moscow to receive the Order of Lenin for services to the state from the hands of Stalin himself.

Persons close to the Soviet leadership claimed that Olga took an active part in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Hitler, which, due to Stalin's fears, never took place. There is evidence that in the summer of 1953 Chekhov completed her last task - she became the link for fruitful communication between Beria and Konrad Adenauer.

The spy died in 1980 in Munich. It is interesting that all her life she denied any connection with intelligence, the Moscow authorities also did not officially confirm these data.

5. Elizaveta Zarubina - work with 22 agents and FAA missiles

During the Second World War, Lisa was one of the most valuable employees of the USSR residency in the United States. The most important informants were in touch with her, and in total she supervised 22 agents.

6 Leontine Cohen - Postage Stamp Spy

Leontina brilliantly mastered the skills of a radio operator. The scout was famous for her extraordinary resourcefulness, the ability to instantly navigate in difficult situations. One day, leaving a strategically important area near nuclear facilities, Leontina came under police inspection. While the agents were examining her suitcase, the spy pretended to be looking for a train ticket in her purse and, smiling charmingly at the inspector, asked him to hold a box of tissues. The policeman kindly helped, flirting with a beautiful lady along the way. The inspection ended, Leontina took the box and went to the platform. In fact, this box contained secret documents that, thanks to the resourcefulness of the intelligence officer, were not discovered and went to Moscow to the leading atomic engineer of that time.

7. Irina Alimova - straight from cinema to intelligence

8. Nadezhda Troyan and her participation in the destruction of the Belarusian Gauleiter

9. Anna Morozova and the creation of the film “Calling Fire on Ourselves”

This feat became the basis for the creation of the film Calling Fire on Ourselves. After watching it, the veterans turned to the leadership of the USSR with a request to award Anna the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously, which was done in May 1965.

At one time, a spy drama with a tragic ending caused a huge resonance - not everyone knew then.

Women in Intelligence

The words "chercher la femme" (chercher la femme) in French mean "look for a woman." These surviving words were uttered when, for unknown reasons, a certain monarch went to another world, an unexpected palace coup took place, or the heads of participants in an unsuccessful conspiracy flew under the executioner's ax.

Often, representatives of the weaker sex were behind such events. People who used women for their purposes knew well that the secrets of the royal or royal court were often hidden in the maid's skirt. They knew that in order to catch a man in the net of a conspiracy, it is not bad to use a beautiful woman. And not necessarily of noble origin. A lot of secrets fell into the hands of scouts through prostitutes.

During the First World War, the German dog Fritz repeatedly crossed the front line, delivering spy reports in his collar. The dog showed amazing resourcefulness, each time leaving the chase and traps of the French. Then the counterintelligence remembered the famous phrase "look for a woman." And slipped Fritz a bitch named Rosie. She was so beautiful that the stern dog's heart could not stand it. Forgetting about the service, Fritz began to breed dog tenderness with her. This is where the French took it.

Women are often assistants to intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers. It is not for nothing that Chinese wisdom says: “The language of a woman is a ladder along which misfortune enters the house.” Nevertheless, the woman is so firmly entrenched on the front of the secret war that it is unlikely to give way to a man. However, there are conflicting opinions about them.

Thus, one author (Bernard Newman) writes: “I do not at all want to say that there were no female intelligence officers at all, although their activity was by no means particularly outstanding. Among them, only one Mata Hari was found, and even she did not do a hundredth of everything that was attributed to her. However, it is not gender that makes female scouts so invariably harmless, but mainly the nature of their upbringing.

The thing is. that popular writers too often overlook the fact that the intelligence officer still needs to know something about the subject of his intelligence. It makes absolutely no sense to send a woman to

an enemy country in order to fish out the details of a new howitzer, if it, having met a howitzer and a field gun on the road at the same time, cannot distinguish one from the other. This kind of scout or scout is more of a danger than an acquisition for the country that uses them.

The most accurate assessment of women as intelligence officers was given by counterintelligence officer Orest Pino:

“Most women suffer from three shortcomings that interfere with intelligence and counterintelligence work. First, they do not have the necessary technical knowledge. For example, if you need to find out the device of a secret engine created by the enemy, then the garage mechanic has a better chance of success than the most educated woman. Already in his previous work, a mechanic is familiar with some basics of technology, and a woman has to start with the basics. As for military secrets, only a few women know military ranks and the difference between subdivisions, units, formations, that is, everything that makes up a modern army. Such knowledge can be acquired, but it will take time. Secondly, in an unusual setting, women are more noticeable than men. A man dressed as a worker can walk near a military facility for several hours without arousing suspicion, and a woman, especially a young and beautiful one, will immediately attract attention. By dressing simply, a man can enter a bar in a seaport and no one will pay attention to him. A woman cannot do this. She is a woman, this alone limits her possibilities and reduces her value as an agent. Thirdly, and most importantly, women do not know how to control their feelings like men. I know of two or three cases where a woman had to win the love of, say, a senior enemy officer. She coped with this task successfully, but then she herself fell in love with her victim and spoiled the whole thing. It is not difficult to guess what followed next. She went over to the side of the enemy and gave out all the secrets she knew. I know that male spies have also become traitors at times, but for different reasons. It seems to me that the only thing that female spies are capable of is to obtain intelligence information. It's usually done like this. A woman wins the love of some enemy officer or official, finds out something, and then blackmails him, threatening to tell his boss or, even worse, his wife. The threat is valid and the spy receives comprehensive information. That's why I asked women who wanted to become secret agents if they were willing to sacrifice their honor. A decent woman won't go for it. A woman who is able to spend the night with a strange man, often physically repulsive, in order to obtain the necessary information, must have the soul of a prostitute. And prostitutes are notoriously unreliable. In all my 30 years of practice, when I had to deal with talented intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers in Europe and America, I have not met a woman who would prove herself to be a good spy or a good "spy hunter". According to Pinto, counterintelligence officers are advised to pay attention to a woman only if there is a suspicion that she is an enemy agent. One of the best ways to expose her is jealousy. You need to choose a handsome, intelligent man among your employees as bait for this woman. The next step is to establish an intimate relationship between them. Then introduce a counterintelligence employee into the game, allegedly because of which a man will leave a woman suspected of espionage. Then another employee should be sent to this suspect, who will play the role of a sympathizer. All women are talkative, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, a woman suspected of spying in a fit of anger will let it slip. This gives the counterintelligence the tip of the thread, pulling on which it is possible to unwind the entire ball.