Currently quite popular, not to mention the Soviet era, are films and books about agents, spies and other fighters of the invisible front. However, not everyone knows and even suspects that the plot of these works only to a small extent reflects the actual processes occurring or occurring in a particular intelligence situation. The only exceptions are probably the books of Yuri Drozdov.
General information
Of course, state intelligence is a state secret. Only after a certain time, such information is declassified and becomes available to society.
Drozdov Yuri Ivanovich - a man who revealed some of these secret moments to a simple layman. He worked in the most secret organization of the Soviet Union - the State Security Committee, had the rank of major general. Recently publishes its publications, or rather, memoirs. Events from his books literally stun the reader and amaze his imagination.
A family
The father of Yuri Drozdov was a military man who served under the tsarist regime. For his service, Ivan Dmitrievich Drozdov, showing courage, was once even awarded a very high award - the St. George Cross. He participated in the First World War. After the change of power, he began to work for the Soviet government, becoming a member of the Red Army. The mother of the future intelligence officer, Anastasia Kuzminichna Pankevich, was from Belarus, graduated from high school, and passed special courses in secretarial affairs. Later she worked as a secretary-engineer in a paper mill located in Pereslavl-Zalessky.
What is known about the mother’s father is that he participated in the Second World War, was a partisan, and died at the age of ninety.
Yuri Ivanovich has a wife Lyudmila Alexandrovna, two sons - Yuri and Alexander, as well as several grandchildren, granddaughters, great-grandchildren.
War years: training and front
The birth of Yuri Drozdov was on September 19, 1925. A significant event took place in the capital of Belarus. After the start of World War II, Drozdov studied at a special school located in Kharkov, so he was not called to the front. However, already in 1943, Yuri Ivanovich was sent to Engels, where he entered the artillery school. His release took place at the end of the war. However, by that time inexperienced cadets and graduates of military schools were not taken to the front. But Yuri Ivanovich still eager for war. Contributed to this irresistible desire and news of the wound of his father, as well as the death of his grandfather.
In the end, Drozdov nevertheless achieved what he wanted and got to the First Belorussian Front. He was appointed platoon commander of the anti-tank fighter division. It was with him that he reached the capital of Germany.
After the war: educational institutions
Following the end of the war, Drozdov, who continued to perform military service, simultaneously entered the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in 1951. Now this institution is one of the units of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. According to Yuri Ivanovich himself, the training was very difficult, but this did not prevent him from becoming a foreman and one of the best cadets. Drozdov graduated from an educational institution after five years.
By that time, massive reductions were taking place in the ranks of the military, under which Yuri Drozdov could theoretically fall. His biography, however, was directed in a different direction. He received a very interesting offer - to become a security officer, to work in the Lubyanka. Fearing for his future military career, or rather, for its sudden possible ending, he agreed.
For retraining, Yuri Ivanovich was sent to the Leningrad Institute of Foreign Languages.
Beginning of intelligence service
After graduation, Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov began to receive various job offers - profitable and not very. Among these were offers of illegal work, and of working in Germany as an operational translator. However, not one of them was accepted by Drozdov. The reason was the family, he did not want to leave his family and friends alone in a foreign city for a long time and without his support.
However, his everyday problems were still helped. General Korotkov assisted Yuri, who, in turn, began to work in Germany. His place of work was the official Soviet representation at the Stasi. Yuri Ivanovich became an illegal scout there.
One of the first tasks of Yuri Ivanovich was to participate in the release of Rudolf Abel. This legendary man was sentenced in the United States to thirty years in prison in 1957. Drozdov’s mission was to establish contact with Abel. When he was granted the right to correspondence, Yuri Ivanovich (who at that time was Jurgen Drives, the cousin of the prisoner) began to send him letters with hidden instructions. Later, Yuri Drozdov was on the Gliniker-Bryukke bridge together with Abel’s relatives. It was then that the Soviet intelligence agent was exchanged for Powers, a spy pilot from the USA.
New challenge
After the successful completion of the task with Abel, a new one was assigned to Yuri Ivanovich. He was instructed to create a legend and conduct the necessary training for new agents - George and his girlfriend-companions. The scout spent a lot of effort and patience on these goals, but he fulfilled the task in good faith. The agents were duly trained and sent to the United States, where they lived a total of more than fifteen years. Soviet spies carried out many operations that benefited the USSR. Among these, for example, was that they were introduced into the team engaged in the development of the Titan rocket. All information received by agents was immediately submitted to the KGB, respectively, the Soviet leadership was well informed about the progress of American developments.
In 1963, Yuri Drozdov returned, passed the necessary retraining courses, which were mandatory for the entire operational structure of the KGB. Then Drozdov was sent to China, where he stayed for about four years, worked as a resident of foreign intelligence of the State Security Committee.
1968-1979
The year 1968 brought for Yuri Drozdov the position of deputy head of the "C" department. This was the most important department that was engaged in foreign intelligence. Seven years later, Yuri Ivanovich was again sent on a business trip, but already in the United States. There he replaced the then resident Solomatin B. For four years, Yuri Drozdov was considered deputy permanent representative of the USSR to the United Nations.
The most interesting of the operations he conducted at that time was rightfully considered to be the operation to create the legend that supposedly a huge organization of German fascists exists in Latin America. Drozdov acted as the head of this organization - Baron von Hohenstein. The legend was so realistic that the Soviet intelligence had the opportunity to recruit a German intelligence officer. The latter even took an oath of allegiance to A. Hitler.
Operation in Afghanistan
After this operation, the biography of Yuri Drozdov was supplemented by fairly good reviews from the leadership of the USSR. After returning to his homeland, he was appointed head of the "C" department.
A little later, Yuri Drozdov participated in the operation to overthrow the president of Afghanistan. Some historians believe that this has changed the course of world history. The operation was carried out jointly with the GRU. Drozdov developed an operation plan and fully controlled its implementation. Hafizullah Amin after the assault on his residence, which lasted about two hours, was killed. Later, he was replaced by a more loyal president to the Soviet Union - Babrak Karmal.
Later, the results of the operation were reported to the head of the State Security Committee Andropov, as a result of which a special unit, Vympel, was created. Yuri Drozdov was appointed the head of this unit.
