Legendary Agents: Sensational New Book Comes Out Revealing Secret Lives of Real Russian Spies
Their lives were shrouded in mystery, and their names remained in the Secret file for many years. In Moscow, a new book is presented "Legendary Agents".
Ilya Filipov will tell us more.
It contains the destinies of residents, secrets of illegal immigrants, and nothing is fictional. The 2nd volume of the book Legendary Agents continues the story of those who acted like someone else not for just 1 season, but sometimes their whole life. Publicist Nikolai Dolgopolov recorded stories told for the first time after many years of spy work.
Nikolai Dolgopolov: "This book can be a source in many ways, this book is honest, I guarantee this. I personally knew the people who became the heroes of my book, but unfortunately, after these 26 years that I worked on this book they are all gone".
Of course, the author had an observer and then every word was checked, it would have been strange if the Foreign Intelligence Service didn't do that. But the Service is proud of their destinies and names about whom, even though years later, they can now tell.
Sergey Naryshkin, Foreign Intelligence service: "The history of Foreign Intelligence, of our country, and more precisely the part that was declassified, should belong to the public because the heroic lives of many legendary agents is a good example for all Russian generations".
The portraits are in the form of gold etchings. The unknown heroes of well-known events. Kim Philby is also here, a British double agent for the Soviet Intelligence. And William Henrikovich Fischer, also Frank, Mark, Collins, or Golfus, but better known as Rudolf Abel, who was exchanged for a spy-pilot, Powers. This event is recreated in the film Dead Season.
"I don't want to offend my American colleagues, but we served in their units".
Head of the Illegals Intelligence Department of the 1st KGB Directorate, Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov worked in this office until he was 91. His agents served in the US special forces, the State Department, the Pentagon, and NASA.
Alexey Botyan: "This work mostly night work".
Alexey Botyan is 101 years old, he became one of the inspirations for the famous Major Vixer. He created partisan units behind German lines, and saved Krakow from flooding planned by the retreating German forces.
Alexey Kozlov: "I sometimes fell asleep and they would take me up with beatings".
Alexey Ivanovich Kozlov, a dealer of dry cleaning equipment in West Germany was tortured in South African prison for 2 years, because he disclosed its nuclear testing plans. He didn't disclose a single thing, and survived. For him the Soviet Union exchanged 12 agents.
2 dozen portraits of legendary agents are displayed in the Russian Historical Society building. Although there are many more of them, heroes, about whom we will continue to learn much more.
Ilya Filipov, Anna Kolk, Vasily Yurchuk, Vladimir Myasnikov. Vesti.