Weekly magazine “Arguments and Facts” No. 41. Why is bread in Russia’s most important product? 13/10/2021
The great illegal immigrant Dmitry Bystroletov considered intelligence dirty and heroic work, in which evil was done for the sake of good.
Writer, three-time winner of the Primakov Prize of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation Nikolai Dolgopolov
From «forgiveness» refused
The polyglot spoke 22 languages. The flawless handsome man seduced women of many countries and peoples. And when ordered by the Center, «put» under Colonel-Italianjanz, who served with Mussolini, beloved wife, bringing her to a severe psychiatric illness. A master actor of reincarnations, he was a talented artist and the author of a multi-volume book “Feast of the Immortals” about the eeriest life in the GULAG.
All this he is an illegal intelligence officer Dmitry Bystroletov, who specialized in mining the holy of holies of intelligence of other people’s ciphers. He spent more than 10 years in illegal immigrants in European countries, including in nazi Germany. And in 1938, at homeland – suddenly the announcement of a spy is unknown;but which state and 20 years after 58th to become e. Torture, prisons, camps… In 1948 refused gracious monarch-narkomovsky «forgiveness » for what he had not done. Moreover, the prisoner demanded from the People’s Commissar Abakumova rehabilitation, for that he was immediately thrown into hell, even at that time, Sukhanov prison. «Activated», and not released after a stroke in 1954 , shattered sick and blinded, Dmitry Alexandrovich Quickly letov lived with dignity, working as a translator and creating books that became famous only after his death in 1975
A machine gun in the bag
In order not to scare off the reader, not to stir up the heavy camp life of Bystroletov, I will give a couple of episodes of his heroic life, which in the language of today’s colleagues of Dmitry Alexandrovich are called operational. And it’s interesting, and I won’t give away any secrets.
Bystroletov set impossible tasks for his own re-embodiment: “A scout should be an actor, but not like in our best theaters, but a thousand times more perfect.” I would agree with this statement Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky? Probably if I saw a strange scene playing out at the Roman railway station.
A pretty young nun in the robes of the holy order, who helped the seriously ill, and a well-behaved minister in the uniform of a famous American hospital where only the rich are treated, led, or rather, almost dragged along the platform of a strange man, obviously old and very unhealthy. Crooked, from head to toe wrapped in warm blankets, he resisted,he mumbled something, then sagging, then breaking out of the strong hands of the escorts. The procession was completed by a servant, effortlessly carrying a light, most likely half-empty, valise and a long bag, from which the metal ends of golf clubs protruded. The procession, which attracted many curious eyes, slowly approached the chic sleeping car of the Rome-Berlin train.
The nun chirped to the conductor that the patient was a crazy lord. From time to time, he falls into an incredible rampage, invariably ending with bites of anyone who was unlucky enough to get under the still strong teeth of their ward. But bites are relatively harmless, because insanity is not transmitted through saliva. Usually seizures can provoke a sharp knock, rattling, yes, and in general it is better to stay away from the lord and not enter into conversations with him, the lord is habitually cared for by an orderly and herself.
What kind of talk is there! The frightened conductor quickly tied towels around everything that could rattle in the luxury compartment, including the chamber pot, and tried not to look at the cursed lord along the way, advising the same to everyone from passengers to border guards and customs officers. And the madman was not without difficulty seated on the lower shelf, carefully covered with another blanket. A nun, who immediately started reading the Gospel, and an orderly settled down next to her. A powerful servant, casually put a suitcase under the compartment window, attached a stupid bag with clubs in the corner and left
Thus began the fulfillment of the task of the Soviet residency in Berlin. Illegal immigrant Dmitry Bystroletov was ordered to urgently go to Rome and, despite the obvious deadly risk, deliver a hand-held machine gun of the latest design from Italy to Nazi Germany, and an army suit that protected against gases. Before the Second World War, everyone was afraid that the Germans would again take up the use of toxic substances.
God with him, with a gas-proof suit. But here’s a machine gun, yes with a barrel… How did the big scout servant drag all this with ostentatious ease? The suitcase, which was stuffed with a protective suit, was actually not heavy. But the bag with the machine gun and the clubs (they were put in for a distraction) weighed incredibly, any station porter would have bent under such a baggage and felt something was wrong. So there was a special meaning in the ostentatious lightness of the servant who was effortlessly dragging all this, and an amazing physical fitness.
But most importantly, the muzzle of the machine gun, as Bystroletov himself wrote later, “treacherously stuck out of the bag and was clearly visible between the steel blades of the clubs.” And this «farm» had to be taken out of Italy, dragged through the Swiss, and then the German border. The task is impossible. But not for Lord Dmitry Bystroletov and his assistants. “Our idea was a psychological attack. The whole calculation was put on that neither ItalianThe blackshirts, neither the Swiss gendarmes, nor the Hitlerite SS men, struck by the unusual appearance of the passenger, will not pay attention to the bag and clubs, Dmitry Alexandrovich wrote under old age. – They will only look at the lord who bites! And so it happened: at the borders, the conductor was still hissing from afar to the representatives of the authorities “s-s-s!”and, choking, he talked about an extraordinary patient, the nun prayed without raising her eyes, the servant sat in the pose of a dog.
The group was most worried when the train was approaching the German border. However, the startled SS men only glanced at their passports and quickly, almost on tiptoe, slipped past. And if at least one glance fell on the tip of a machine gun muzzle, treacherously sticking out of the lid? But psychologically, the operation was designed by Bystroletov flawlessly, and the extravagant lord riveted all attention to himself.
There have been a lot of such tasks for almost 11 years of illegal work. But it still deserves a separate story. Because it was especially audacious for Kim, and his script would have been torn off with his hands in Hollywood. And with the main role in this spy thriller, the Soviet illegal Dmitry Alexandrovich Quickly letov coped perfectly…
And got decidedly drunk
I would like to tell you more about one of Bystroletov’s roles. However, this was told in his lectures to young people by the great and much more than Quickly by Letov, a well-known illegal Willyam Fischer, who has long and firmly entered the history of intelligence and not only under a false name (also the fate) of Colonel Rudolf Abel.
“Resourcefulness is a necessary quality of a scout. One of our comrades had to travel around Europe in the distant pre-war years using a Hungarian passport.
There are not so many Hungarians in the world, and obviously there are even fewer non-Hungarians who know this language. Comrade – and, according to legend, he was nothing less than an earl – invited to a weekend at the country estate of a noble English family. The guest, as expected, was met by Butler, the butler, escorted to the room intended for him, put things in the dressers and cupboards, and provided an opportunity to bathe and change clothes before appearing before the owners of the house.
Our hero put himself in order and went downstairs to the living room, where the hostess of the house was waiting for him. They greeted each other, and the lady said that she had invited a Hungarian baron from the Posol especially for him. «To make you feel good and so that you can talk in your native language », – she pleased the guest.
It was very nice of her, but it sounded the death knell for our friend. The situation is terrible! It is impossible to escape: things are laid out, and it is not so easy to leave the estate unnoticed. The nearest railway station is 10 km away. But the main thing is that in order to complete the task for which he sought to get acquainted with the owner of the estate, he could not run away. What to do? Pretendsuddenly ill? A doctor will come and expose you! And the Hungarian Baron will arrive anyway and will certainly sympathize in his native Hungarian. No, it won’t do. There was only one thing left: to get drunk before losing consciousness. It’s good that in English society, even the highest, there are a lot of people who are strictly drinkers. And our friend together with the owner – which was good luck for this venture – quickly and decisively got drunk.
He allowed himself to be taken to a designated room, where a servant carefully undressed him and put him in a bed, after which our Hungarian Count slept all Saturday evening and most of Sunday. After waking up and carefully questioning the servant, he made sure that the Hungarian had left, went down to the living room again, where he apologized to the hostess, publicly reproaching himself for such an obvious weakness for whiskey.
This story told by Abel-Fischer, entered into many intelligence textbooks. At that time, in the late 1960s, it was impossible to call a scout by his name.
And now it is possible to supplement Abel. The very Hungarian whiskey-loving count was none other than Dmitry Bystroletov, who was actually granted this title in Russia five days before October 1917. A descendant of the famous Tolstoy family, a Russian count, he turned into a count of domestic intelligence.
