Intelligence General Vitaly Pavlov: "Beria came out of the closet and left there too"

Sergey Kron

An ordinary Moscow apartment on Krasnaya Presnya. A handsome gray-haired man sits in a spacious room littered with books, files of old magazines and newspapers. Lieutenant General Vitaly Grigorievich Pavlov is a legend of Soviet illegal intelligence and one of the most "closed" people in Russia.

Only after the collapse of the USSR some details of the top-secret operation of the NKVD, code-named "Snow", became known. On the eve of the war, Soviet intelligence was tasked with eliminating the threat of a "second fascist front" in the Far East. Operation Snow was crowned with complete success: instead of capturing the Soviet Far East, Japan got involved in a hopeless and lost war with the United States in the Pacific. The Soviet leadership was able not only to get rid of the most dangerous situation of waging a war on two fronts, but also got the opportunity to use their Far Eastern armies in battles against the Nazis near Moscow. In the preparation, organization and implementation of operational measures of this operation, V.G. Pavlov. Half a century later, the intelligence general spoke about this in his book Operation Snow.

True, in the conversation, Vitaly Grigorievich made a reservation that even at the beginning of the operation, Beria warned: “When everything is done, forget about what you were doing. Forget forever!" This was an order, and the Chekists carried it out: even after the war, when they met, no one ever mentioned Snow.

Having told in detail about his illegal work abroad, General Pavlov suddenly remembered a completely different story...

“ I started my activity in foreign intelligence as an intern, who received in practice the first skills of the operational craft. Then he worked for several months as an operational commissioner - this was the second, starting from the bottom, position in the hierarchical ladder of the People's Commissariat. Then I was unexpectedly quickly promoted to the first management level: I became the deputy chief of the American branch, which was engaged in intelligence activities in the United States, Canada and Latin America.

To be honest, this burden was too much for me. After all, I had just begun to delve into the intelligence craft, I had no foreign practice. But at that time, foreign intelligence was in dire need of personnel. The "cleansing" of the central apparatus of the NKVD, especially its foreign structures, carried out in 1937-1939 by the people's commissars Yezhov and Beria, led to the fact that out of about 100 employees, only two dozen remained in the INO. Some areas of work were completely bare.

In January 1940, the chief of foreign intelligence Pavel Fitin ordered all the heads of departments to come to the office of the People's Commissar for a meeting. My immediate boss was absent, and I, as his substitute, had to appear before the eyes of the formidable master of the Lubyanka. By the appointed time, the heads of the departments gathered in the reception room, almost all entirely young people. Naturally, everyone wondered what the People's Commissar would talk about.

In Beria's office there is a large writing table covered with blue cloth, leather chairs, carpets, and rich crystal chandeliers under the ceiling. I thought then: not that in our proletarian nooks - poverty! Everyone noticed a massive mahogany wardrobe with heavy doors. He did not really fit into the overall interior.

Soon we were joined by a group of older comrades - the heads of foreign intelligence stations. They behaved with restraint, did not talk, did not turn their heads in all directions. We knew some of them, for example, Sergei Shpigelglas, deputy head of the Foreign Department, who lectured us at the intelligence school.

There was deathly silence for about twenty minutes ...

Suddenly, the closet doors flew open, and a short man in pince-nez and wearing a crumpled gray suit came out swiftly. Bah, it's Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria himself! Well, just like in the portraits that were then hung all over Moscow!

What we took for a closet turned out to be a secret passage. Next to the People's Commissar, as if out of the ground, another senior NKVD officer grew up. None of them greeted us. The assistant, apparently well-versed in his business, handed Beria a list of those present. The People's Commissar carefully examined the paper and said loudly:

- Zarubin! Well, tell me how the Germans recruited you!

The pale Zarubin drew himself up to attention. He tried to justify himself: “Comrade People's Commissar! Lavrenty Pavlovich! Nobody recruited me! You have the wrong information. I was carrying out the task of the party!"

And so with everyone. I remember the names of Korotkov, Zhuravlev, Akhmerov and other old intelligence officers recalled from their foreign posts were named. The humiliating interrogation continued in the same vein with minor variations. We heard that among those present in the office there were English, American, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Polish and God knows what kind of spies. But all those who were subjected to verbal torture, following the example of Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin, stood firm. Alexander Mikhailovich Korotkov answered confidently, with a sense of deep inner righteousness, under whose leadership I later served for several years in the illegal administration. Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov and our other senior colleagues behaved calmly, with great dignity.

The reception ended as unexpectedly as it began. Satisfied with the effect produced, Beria, without saying goodbye, went back to the closet.

Dispersed slowly...

Perplexity gave way to fear that we were about to be arrested. Then on Tsvetnoy Boulevard we went into some drinking establishment, took a "hundred", cooled down a little. In a whisper, we discussed the current situation and decided that Lavrenty Pavlovich showed us his awareness: they say, wherever you guys are, I know everything about you, and if something happens, I’ll get it out of the ground. But why "pull" from the place of the illegal scouts who came to Moscow on pain of failure. Or maybe he was joking after all?

That Beria did not like jokes, we learned only years later - from Khrushchev's secret report at the XX Congress. Beginning in 1937, hundreds of professional intelligence officers, including illegal immigrants, at various times were recalled to Moscow and shot, almost all illegal residencies were liquidated, and connections with the most valuable sources of information were lost. Of course, this had a very serious impact on ensuring the country's state security. But two years later the Great Patriotic War began...