Sergei Naryshkin recalled at what cost the USSR received intelligence information
Back in 1932, Soviet illegal immigrants received the first information about the military threat of fascism nine months before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Sergei Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), told about this in his “Intelligence entered the war first” on the pages of the National Defense magazine. He dedicated this material to the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
9 YEARS BEFORE THE WAR
“Foreign intelligence received the first information about the appearance of signs of a military threat from Germany in the summer of 1932, nine months before Hitler came to power. the beginning of secret negotiations with France and Poland to create an offensive alliance against the USSR, “Naryshkin says in his article.
At the same time, the head of the INO OGPU Artur Artuzov decided to strengthen the residency for work in the conditions of the war of Germany against the USSR.
“The beginning of cooperation with groups of the anti-Nazi Resistance movement in European countries – the” Red Chapel “dates back to the mid-30s. In Germany, the group was led by Arvid Harnack (” Corsican “) and Harro Schulze-Boysen (” Sergeant Major “). In the 1980s, about 450 intelligence officers and their “assistants” worked in the Center and foreign offices. From today’s perspective, we can confidently say that the USSR’s foreign intelligence has acquired the status of one of the most effective in the world, “the author notes.
Our intelligence, which had strong operational positions in Germany at that time, reported on Hitler’s intrigues.
“With the start of the Spanish Civil War, the situation in Europe changed. The Entente countries tried to find a compromise with the Nazis, coaxing Hitler with loans and raw materials in exchange for“ peace guarantees, ”which actually meant a turn of aggressive aspirations to the East,” Naryshkin explains.