Intelligence was the elite of the Soviet secret services. Military intelligence officers were called "fighters of the invisible front", they were trusted by the country's leadership. But foreign intelligence has generated a concept such as treason. Defectors have always created a lot of problems, because they revealed to the enemy all their activities, methods and strategies. This led to the need to re-do a very painstaking work. The defectors were not even stopped by the fact that people involved in such actions would certainly be issued and could no longer go unnoticed.
Previously, such information was not disclosed, but with the beginning of perestroika and freedom of speech, a lot of secret facts were released. The article will talk about who Yuri Shvets (KGB) is, the biography of the former secret agent will be considered in this material.
What led to the appearance of defectors?
What preceded the appearance of defectors in the circles of an elite unit? At the same time that Yuri Shvets left the country, several other former Soviet intelligence officers followed suit. Of course, everyone had different specific reasons, but the former intelligence officers also had a common decision.
About the mood reigned in that period, many heads of special services wrote. This is L.V. Shebarshin and N.S. Leonov. Moreover, it covered not only the highest ranks, but also ordinary employees. Most employees were frightened by the futility of further work. Neither a raise nor a decent pension were discussed. Some began to engage in commercial activities. But only a few of them consisted in trade in their homeland.
How did Yuri Shvets become a scout?
Shvets Yuriy is a native of Ukraine. A scout was born in the fifty-second year of the last century.
After graduating from school, Shvets became a student of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. Studying was easy enough for him, as he was exemplary and assiduous. Noted in the study of foreign languages. Yuri knew English well, which was a required subject. He also speaks good Spanish and French.
Before graduating, he and two of his fellow students were interviewed by the State Security Committee. They were selected among a dozen invited students.
Shvets got a job at the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR and entered the Red Banner Academy of Foreign Intelligence. His classmate was Russian President V.V. Putin.
How did the intelligence career begin?
Shvets Yuri was quite an ordinary security officer. At first, he was determined by the First General Directorate to the Center of the first department. This department was engaged in the North American direction.
Soon, Yuri Shvets (KGB) was sent on a business trip to the capital of the United States. In Washington, he worked under the guise of a different person - a correspondent for the Central State News Agency.
The Soviet agent surprised everyone by being able to recruit John Helmer. He was a very tasty morsel for the Soviet services, as previously he was listed as an employee of the administration of President Carter. After numerous checks, the American received the call sign Socrates.
Why did a rapid fall occur?
Special services of the world do not differ in special trust at all. And in this situation, the commanders of Soviet intelligence considered rather reckless the connection between the Swede and the American Helmer. According to the Center, the matter was not clean. The indirect habit of the agent also had an indirect effect, namely addiction to alcohol. In this regard, the captain in 1987 was returned to his homeland.
Shvets Yuri, a scout who worked abroad, was demoted. Instead of the prestigious First Division, he received a position in the Intelligence Directorate in the Soviet Union. Despite such humiliation, the KGB officer was not very indignant. He still faithfully performed his duties. For his work, Shvets was even awarded a new military rank. However, he stopped seeing himself in this area, and in the absence of further prospects, he decided to dismiss.
But the dismissal of the radical actions of the Swede did not end there. In the ninety-first year, he left the Komsomol party. However, the former intelligence officer was not interested in other special services of the world. He began to write a book about his former work.
The foreign intelligence service very quickly found out about this. The agent was carefully asked to curtail this creative activity. This was hinted to him personally by his former chief, Colonel Bychkov. Yuri was warned about the possible consequences of divulging state secrets. He was forbidden to engage in any kind of publishing activity. He should not have maintained contact with either domestic or foreign printing houses without the knowledge of the Service. But, despite this, the former intelligence officer tried to cooperate with Soviet publishers, however, everywhere he was refused publication. Yuri realized that he could only realize his idea abroad. For exile, the former intelligence officer chose the United States, because there, in his opinion, there would be an opportunity to publish his book.
How did the former intelligence officer go to America?
Shvets Yuri only in the ninety-third year began to draw up documents for travel abroad. The State Migration Service, of course, requested additional data about such a specific person. Intelligence was to decide whether to release his former employee outside the state. However, the Office categorically objected to the issue of a passport to Shvets. But since the visa application received a commercial basis, he took this opportunity and emigrated to the United States. To do this, he needed to first leave for the Baltic states.
External intelligence provided Sweden with an ally and friend for that difficult period. They became a former agent of the First Main Directorate of the KGB, Valentin Aksilenko. Their career was very similar since both had once worked in America.
How did work on the book begin?
Thanks to the acquaintance of an associate of Shvets with American Brenda Lipson, friends were honored with a meeting with literary agent John Brockman. Their acquaintance occurred in February of the ninety-third year. However, Brockman, as a highly skilled specialist, did not appreciate the work of former intelligence agents. The first manuscript was called "I have always acted in my own way." The agent said that from a professional point of view, a book of such content cannot be of an artistic nature. His suggestion was to remake the manuscript into a drier documentary version. Aksilenko and Shvets began to settle in Virginia, and with renewed vigor set to work on the book.
The whole work has been redone. Even the name changed Shvets. “Washington Residency: My Life as a KGB Spy in America” - it was with a work of that name in April ninety-four that the Simon and Schuster publishing house, located in New York, got acquainted.
How was the book perceived in society?
Naturally, such creativity aroused interest in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. American agents scrutinized the contents of the manuscript. But their decision was quite unexpected - they sent a warning to Shvets and Aksilenko that they would soon be deported from the United States.
The book attracted a lot of media attention. Newspaper headlines were full of big names. The articles often flashed information that the authors of the Washington Residency were recruited by the CIA, which almost dictated the whole text to them. There was even a statement that the authors contributed to the exposure of the KGB agent O. Ames.
The Russian press hastened to condemn Yuri Shvets. But the former intelligence officer in response sent a letter to the notorious newspaper Moscow News. His impudent trick in the form of such an appeal caused a lot of angry responses. And the whole point is that he expressed everything that he thought about the Directorate, in which he worked and about the current Foreign Intelligence Service.
What happened after the manuscript was published?
Despite the expectation of a sensation by society, nothing of the kind happened. No military secrets were revealed in the book. There was nothing scandalous or unusual on the pages, although some points are of interest.
Despite the desire of Yuri Shvets, his work was not published in Russia. At home, the former intelligence officer is considered a traitor, and no one wants to get involved with it.
