Thursday, July 30, 2020

RIA Novosti: Interview of Vladimir Antonov, Soviet Intelligence Historian and Veteran KGB Intelligence Officer, on Women in Soviet Intelligence

On March 5, 2020, the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti published an interview of Vladimir Antonov, a former KGB officer and historian. After retiring from active service at the rank of colonel, Antonov became one of the most prolific official SVR historians. He was the author of the book-length biographies of “legendary” Soviet intelligence officers, such as Pavel Sudoplatov, Neum Eytingon, Yakov Serebryansky, Konon Molody, and the “Cambridge Five.” Antonov died in May 2020 at the age of 76. Below is my English translation available only on this blog.
 
SVR Historian Vladimir Antonov: The Female Radio Operator Kät Had a Real-Life Prototype

 RIA Novosti March 5, 2020

Women and intelligence - the place of the fairer sex in this difficult profession is a topic that will probably always attract the attention of both specialists and ordinary people. This year the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) will celebrate its centenary. In the annals of the SVR, the names of many female intelligence officers are inscribed in golden letters. In difficult conditions, often risking their lives, they protected the security and interests of their homeland. The heroic pages in the history of intelligence tell of the participation of women in the operations that helped bring closer the victory in the Great Patriotic War. Why women are sometimes indispensable in intelligence, what specific abilities give them the advantage over men and who was the prototype of the female radio operator Kät in the famous [Soviet] TV series “Seventeen Moments of Spring” are among the questions answered by a leading expert from the SVR History Hall [Museum], retired colonel Vladimir Antonov,

- Vladimir Sergeyevich, the discussions about the role of women in intelligence have been going on for a long time. It is understandable: the fairer half of humanity and intelligence services, the combination of mystery and secrecy with the female qualities - this [theme] is unlikely to become boring any time soon. So, can intelligence be woman’s business?

- There is no reason to hide that most ordinary people, far removed from intelligence business, believe that this is not an occupation for women, that intelligence is a male-only profession requiring self-control, courage, willingness to take risks, and even to sacrifice oneself in order to achieve a goal.

But in such a unique area of ​​human activity as intelligence, women are in no way inferior to men, and in some ways even surpass them. As the history of the world’s intelligence services testifies, the fairer sex copes with its demands perfectly, being a worthy and, sometimes, even a formidable rival of men in terms of the extraction of other people’s secrets.

- And yet - a formidable rival - no more and no less?

“Female intelligence officers are the most dangerous adversaries and they are the most difficult to expose,” said one of the leading American counterintelligence officials Charles Rossel in his lecture nearly a century ago.

- Well, that’s the assessment of an American. But what is the opinion of Russian intelligence officers on this score?

- They perceive the expression “intelligence officers are not born, they are made” as a truth that does not require any proof. The fact is that intelligence, due to the nature of its tasks, requires a unique person with the necessary personal and professional qualities and life experiences who can be trusted to do the job in a particular region of the world.

Of course, various paths lead women to intelligence profession. However, choosing them as operatives or agents is certainly not accidental. This is especially true in illegal intelligence. It is not enough to be fluent in foreign languages ​​and in the basics of the art of intelligence. An illegal must be a kind of an artist, so that one day, for example, he can impersonate somebody from the aristocratic circles, and the next day, say, a minister or a priest. Needless to say, more women are capable of this kind of transformation than men.

Those female intelligence officers who worked abroad as illegals always had to deal with the increased demands on their physical and psychological endurance. In addition, they may not always have had the opportunity to work only with the people they liked. Often, the situation was exactly the opposite, and therefore they had to be able to keep their feelings under control.

Here is what the remarkable Soviet illegal intelligence officer Galina Ivanovna Fyodorova, who has worked abroad for more than twenty years, said: “Some believe that intelligence is not the most suitable activity for a woman. In contrast to the stronger sex, a woman is more sensitive, fragile, more easily vulnerable, more closely tied to the family and the home, more prone to nostalgia. By nature, she is destined to be a mother, so the absence of children or the long separation from them is especially difficult for her. All this is true, but these same little weaknesses give a woman powerful leverage and influence in the sphere of human relationships.”

- What are the main character traits of women which make their work in intelligence productive?

- Experts agree that a woman is more observant than a man, and, also, her intuition is more developed. Representatives of the fairer sex love to delve into details - well, as you know, the devil himself is hidden in them. In addition, women are more methodical, assiduous, and patient than men.

Moreover, female intelligence officers are entrusted with organizing meetings with agents when the appearance of men happens to be undesirable.

And, if you add their physical appearance to all this, then any skeptic will have to admit that women rightfully occupy a worthy place in the ranks of the intelligence service of any country and are its genuine amplifier.

-But from the non-professionals, you can often hear that if beautiful women are used in intelligence, it’s only as “honey traps” for the carriers of the secrets which are sought after. Here, the famous Mata Hari is usually considered the standard. What do you say to that?

 - In general, in addition to Mata Hari, Marthe Richard, the star of the French military intelligence during the First World War, is also well-known in this respect. She was the mistress of the German naval attaché in Spain, Major von Krohn, and was able not only to find out the important secrets of German military intelligence, but also to paralyze the work of the agent network von Krohn created in the country.

Yet, this exotic method of using women in intelligence is the exception rather than the rule. However, the intelligence services of some countries, primarily Israel and the United States, are actively using this approach to obtain classified information. But such things are typically used by the counterintelligence services of these states rather than their intelligence services.

- Vladimir Sergeyevich, you spoke about special feminine qualities that are invaluable from the point of view of intelligence. In what way can they help when a woman and a man work together in the field?

- Of course, the combination of the best psychological qualities of both men and women, especially those working in illegal intelligence positions, represents the strong point in any intelligence service. And, in reality, such intelligence tandems as Goar and Gevork Vartanyan, Anna and Mikhail Filonenko, Leontina and Morris Cohen, Elizaveta and Mikhail Mukasey, Galina and Mikhail Fyodorov and many others, are inscribed in golden letters in the history of Russian foreign intelligence.

- More recently, the names of the spouses, prominent illegal intelligence agents Lyudmila and Vitaly Nuykin, as well as Tamara and Vitaly Netyksa, have also been declassified.

- Yes. In general, the history of the intelligence service of our country was written by thousands of its officers, and many of them can be called not just very good, but exceptional. In the Hall [Museum] of Foreign Intelligence History at the SVR headquarters, there is a memorial plaque on which the names of many of the SVR officers are inscribed - the best of the best among the  intelligence officers in more than a century of its activity. And the most prominent place among them is occupied by female intelligence officers.

- If you conduct a survey on which woman is considered a symbol not just of a female intelligence officer, but also of female fortitude in this profession, then surely and deservedly the first place will be taken by the fictional radio operator Kät from the [Soviet] TV series “Seventeen Moments of Spring.” It is known that the director Tatiana Lioznova imported a lot of lyrical details into the series. The dramatic scene of Katya Kozlova - Kät’s giving birth was originally in the book by Yulian Semenov, and he, as is well known, used materials from the Soviet intelligence services for his novels. Therefore, the question arises - was there a real-life prototype of the radio operator Kät?

- I will answer in the affirmative. The prototype of Kät was the Soviet intelligence officer Anna Fyodorovna Kamayeva. And Vyacheslav Tikhonov, who played the role of Stierlitz [the series’ main character], in turn, learned a lot from her husband, also an illegal intelligence officer Mikhail Ivanovich Filonenko. They were good friends until the death of the couple.

Anna Kamayeva came into the intelligence service in the late thirties. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, she was included in the Special Group under the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (NKVD). It was a top secret group, directly subordinated to the head of the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria, and, in fact, dealt with foreign intelligence, parallel with the intelligence department of the NKVD. Later, on the basis of this group, the 4th Directorate of the NKVD was created, which was engaged in collecting intelligence and performing the acts of sabotage behind the enemy lines.

- What did the Special Group do?

- The officers of the Special Group were trained to wage a secret war on our own territory. They began to prepare and implement a sabotage plan in the case of the capture of Moscow by Nazi troops. Where could Hitler and his associates arrange the celebrations to mark the fall of the Soviet capital? There were very few options - either in the Kremlin or in the Bolshoy Theater. Therefore, the NKVD decided that it was necessary to prepare the sabotage of these objects. At the same time, the leadership of the NKVD proceeded from the fact that Hitler and other leaders of the Third Reich would definitely take a personal part in the planned celebrations.

Anna Kamayeva was assigned a crucial role - to attempt to assassinate Hitler. Various scenarios for completing this task were being worked out, but all of them clearly indicated: the assassin had no chance of surviving. Giving such a task, the leadership of the NKVD knew that they were sending the girl to certain death, but they were sure that Anna would carry out the order successfully.

Fortunately, the whole plan remained on paper. Moscow withstood the offensive of the Nazis. The troops of the Western Front, commanded by General of the Army Georgy Zhukov managed to stop and then push the Wehrmacht troops away from the capital.

Later, it was in Zhukov’s reception room, having arrived there to receive a medal for the participation in the large-scale sabotage actions against the Nazis, that Anna Kamayeva met her future husband Mikhail. He, in turn, received an order from Zhukov to head a reconnaissance and sabotage detachment, which [later] carried out an unprecedented raid on the enemy’s rear in the Moscow region.

- And ever since then they have worked together?

- No, their paths immediately parted, and for many months. Anna continued her service as a radio operator in one of the partisan detachments operating in the Moscow region, and Mikhail was appointed a commissar in a partisan detachment that fought deep behind the Nazi lines.

Mikhail Ivanovich fought in Ukraine. In the Nazi-occupied Kiev, he led a reconnaissance and sabotage group of the special section “Olymp” of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD. Later, while performing a sabotage operation in Poland, Mikhail was seriously wounded. Doctors were able to save his life, but he became permanently disabled. Mikhail Ivanovich left the hospital with a cane, which he never parted with for the rest of his life. He met with Anna again only after the war.

- And what did Anna Fyodorovna do after the defeat of the Germans in the Moscow region?

- When the immediate threat of the capture of the capital passed, she was recalled to Moscow and she began to work again in the central office of the 4th Directorate. Then she was sent to foreign language courses at the Higher School of the NKVD. She improved her knowledge of Spanish and studied Portuguese and Czech languages. The intelligence leadership planned to send her to do illegal intelligence work abroad.

- After the war, Anna and Mikhail got married. Soon their son was born. But they could hardly enjoy a quiet family life. They went through intense training for illegal intelligence work in Latin America. At the same time, their young son also studied Czech and Spanish. The leadership decided that he also had to go with his parents in order to provide a confirmation for one of the points of the cover story which was developed for them.

The trial run of the Filonenkos as illegal intelligence officers before they were sent on a long-term mission took place in difficult conditions. To start with, they had to pose as refugees from Czechoslovakia and attain legal status in Shanghai, China where many Europeans settled after the war. The Filonenkos, together with their little son, crossed the Soviet-Chinese border through an “opening” specially prepared for them, at night, in a blizzard and in snow that was waist-deep.

Moreover, Anna Fyodorovna was then pregnant again. However, they made it safely to Harbin, where the first and most dangerous stage of their legalization took place. Their daughter was born in Harbin. According to legend, the “refugees from Czechoslovakia” were zealous Catholics, therefore, in accordance with European traditions, the newborn was baptized in a local Catholic cathedral.

- Well, did Anna Fyodorovna scream in Russian like the radio operator Kät when she gave birth abroad?

- No, she didn’t. But, in all other respects, Anna Kamayeva is the prototype of the female radio operator from “Seventeen Moments of Spring.”

- How did the Filonenkos' work proceed from there?

- The journey to Latin America took them several years. Once they settled there, they began to carry out the intelligence assignments of the Center. Their main task was to identify the plans of the United States, primarily dealing with the military and political matters in relation to the Soviet Union. Such information was easier to obtain in Latin America than in the United States. The fact is that the Americans shared their plans with their Latin American partners because they counted on them in a potential future war against the USSR.

- Very soon we will all celebrate the 75th anniversary of the [Allied] Victory in Europe. How did the intelligence officers help the Victory, what important information did they gain?

- Female intelligence officers who were active in Europe on the eve of the war, and on the territory of the Soviet Union temporarily occupied by Nazi Germany, wrote glorious pages in the chronicle of the heroic achievements of Soviet foreign intelligence. The war years have proven that women are no less capable than men of carrying out important intelligence missions.

Already on the eve of World War II, a Russian emigrant, the famous opera singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya, whose singing was admired by Fyodor Shalyapin, Alexander Vertinsky and Leonid Sobinov, was actively working for Soviet intelligence in Paris.

Together with her husband, General of the White Army, the commander of the Kornilov division, Nikolay Skoblin, Plevitskaya helped expose the anti-Soviet work of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which carried out terrorist attacks against Soviet Russia. Thanks to the information received from these Russian patriots, the Soviet counterintelligence arrested over a dozen agents of the ROVS operating in the USSR and discovered the safe houses for terrorists in Moscow, Leningrad, and the Caucasus region.

Moreover, thanks to these efforts, including those by Plevitskaya and Skoblin, the foreign intelligence of the USSR was able to disorganize the activities of the ROVS in the pre-war years, thereby depriving Hitler of the opportunity to actively use over 20 thousand members of this organization in the war against the USSR.

The pre-war period and the Second World War radically changed the approach to intelligence in general and to the role of the female intelligence officers in particular. The people of goodwill in Europe, Asia and America were acutely aware of the danger that Nazism posed to all mankind. And so, during the war, hundreds of these people from different countries voluntarily offered their services to Soviet foreign intelligence, carrying out its assignments in different regions of the world.

For example, on the eve of the war, Fyodor Parparov, a resident [station chief] of the Soviet illegal intelligence service in Berlin, maintained operational contact with the source codenamed “Marta” - the wife of a prominent German diplomat. She regularly received information about the negotiations of the German Foreign Office with the diplomatic representatives of England and France. From these documents, it appeared that London and Paris were more concerned about the fight against communism than about the establishment of the system of collective security in Europe and the joint pushback against the fascist aggression.

“Marta” was also able to obtain information about a German intelligence agent in the General Staff of Czechoslovakia who regularly sent to Berlin top secret materials about the state and combat readiness of the Czechoslovak army. Thanks to this information, Soviet intelligence took measures to expose this German agent and get him arrested by the Czech counterintelligence.

In addition to Parparov, other Soviet intelligence officers also operated in Berlin before the war. Among them was the [Soviet] military intelligence agent Ilse Stöbe (operational codename “Alta”), a journalist whose contact was the German diplomat Rudolf von Sheliha (“Aryan”). He sent important materials to Moscow with warnings about the impending German attack on the USSR.

Already in February 1941, “Alta” reported the formation of three army groups of the German Wehrmacht and the direction of their main attacks on Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. In early 1943, “Alta” and “Aryan” were arrested by the Gestapo and executed [They were arrested and executed in the fall of 1942].

Zoya Rybkina, who later became widely known as the children’s literature writer Zoya Voskresenskaya, Elizaveta Zarubina, Elena Modrzhinskaya, Leontina Cohen, Kitty Harris, all worked for Soviet intelligence on the eve and during the war. They did their work often risking their lives. But they were all driven by a sense of duty and true patriotism, the desire to protect the world from the Nazi aggression.

- But the most important information during the war did not come only from abroad?

- Indeed, it constantly came from the numerous reconnaissance and sabotage groups of the NKVD, operating near or far from the front lines in the temporarily occupied Soviet territory.

Without exaggeration, the female intelligence officers from the special-purpose detachment “Pobediteli” [Victors], as well as many other combat units of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, who obtained very important information during the war years, made an indelible mark in the history of our country’s intelligence service.

The intelligence officer of the “Pobediteli” detachment, Lydia Lisovskaya, was the closest assistant of our legendary intelligence officer Nikolay Ivanovich Kuznetsov, who operated in the Nazi-occupied territory under the name of the German officer Paul Siebert. While working as a casino waitress at the headquarters of the occupation forces in Ukraine, she helped Kuznetsov make acquaintances with German officers and collect information about the high-ranking fascist officials in the city of Rovno in western Ukraine.

Lisovskaya recruited her first cousin Maria Mikota to work for Soviet intelligence. On the instructions of the Center, Mikota became an agent of the Gestapo and subsequently informed the partisans about all the punitive raids of the Nazis. It was through Mikota that Nikolay Kuznetsov met SS officer Ulrich von Ortel, who was a member of the group of the German commando Otto Skorzeny. From Ortel, Kuznetsov first received information that the Nazis were preparing an attempt on the life of the leaders of the USSR, the U.S. and Great Britain Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during their meeting in Tehran in the fall of 1943.

Also, in 1943, on an assignment from Kuznetsov, Lisovskaya was able to get a job as a housekeeper for the commander of the Special Forces in the East, Major General Max Ilgen. With the direct participation of Lisovskaya, Ilgen was kidnapped in Rovno.

[Let’s also note] the legendary Africa de las Heras, a native of Spain, who began cooperating with Soviet foreign intelligence in 1937 during the civil war in her homeland. To this day, [many] operations in which she took part are classified. In 1942, Africa was sent to the “Pobediteli” detachment as a radio operator, but more than once she had to participate in the combat operations during which she demonstrated a great deal of courage and bravely performed command assignments.

In the summer of 1944, Africa returned to Moscow, where she was offered a position in the illegal intelligence section. She accepted it and, after the war, worked abroad for almost twenty years. Returning to the USSR, she took part in the education of the younger generation of illegal intelligence officers and passed on to them her truly invaluable experiences.

- Just recently in an interview [English translation provided here], our declassified illegal intelligence officer Tamara Ivanovna Netyksa very fondly recalled “Marya Pavlovna” - Africa de las Heras. She considered her second mother who taught Spanish to her and her husband Vitaly.

- The name of colonel Africa is immortalized in gold letters on the memorial plaque of the SVR. But many of her intelligence colleagues will remember her forever under her operational pseudonym “Patria” - which translated from Spanish means “Homeland.” And she did not choose this pseudonym by chance - after all, to her the Soviet Union really became the second homeland.

Africa de las Heras was on the forefront of intelligence combat for over 45 years. And, of course, to accomplish even a small part of that which she had done in illegal intelligence work is possible only if one serves the highest ideals. Sergey Yesenin once wrote the following lines: "I envy those who spent their lives in battle, who defended a great idea." These lines fit very well with Patria’s personality.

- In 1945, the war ended, but for Soviet foreign intelligence, including its female officers, the battle continued even after the Victory?

- Yes. The war years gave way to the long years of the Cold War. The United States of America did not hide its imperial plans and aspirations to destroy the Soviet Union with the help of atomic weapons. But in order to make the right decisions, the leadership of the Soviet Union needed reliable information about the real plans of the Americans. Female intelligence officers played an important role in obtaining the classified Pentagon documents. Among them are Anna Kamayeva-Filonenko, Irina Alimova, Galina Fyodorova, Elena Kosova, Elena Cheburashkina, and many others.

- The situation in the world now is also, unfortunately, far from calm and therefore new tasks arise for the Russian intelligence. Do you think that women will play a key role in their completion?

- I’ll put it this way. The century-long history of our foreign intelligence service has proven the importance of women’s participation in its work. And, therefore, of course, they will make a worthy contribution to protecting the security and interests of Russia in the future.




Sunday, July 26, 2020

Armenian Diaspora Newspaper: Interview of Goar Vartanyan, Veteran KGB Illegal Intelligence Officer


The Russian-language Armenian diaspora newspaper Noyev Kovcheg [Noah’s Ark] published an interview of Goar Vartanyan, a former KGB illegal intelligence officer, in March 2016. Together with her husband Gevork, she was tasked with intelligence assignments in numerous countries for more than three decades. Their identities were declassified by the SVR in 2000. Goar Vartanyan died in November 2019 at the age of 93. Below is my English translation of the interview available only on this blog.

Elena Knyazeva: Former Illegal Intelligence Officer Goar Vartanyan - You Can Accomplish Anything You Want, The Main Thing Is to Know Why You Are Doing It

Noyev Kovcheg March 16-31, 2016

February 17 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the legendary intelligence officer Gevork Andreyevich Vartanyan, known mainly due to the Teheran operation, when, thanks to his group, the assassination attempt on the heads of three Allied states - Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill - was prevented. But this is only one of his many exploits. It is said that when one of the top Soviet leaders read the submission for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on Gevork Andreyevich, he asked in amazement: “Did he really do all this?!”, the chairman of the KGB of the USSR replied: “Of course, but not by himself! With his wife... “

[His wife] Goar Levonovna was at that time awarded the Order of the Red Banner – one of the highest [Soviet] state awards. Today she is our interlocutor. [The interview was conducted by Elena Knyazeva].

Goar Levonovna, since your name was declassified in 2000, many articles, interviews, and books have been published about you and [even] a movie was made. And yet, let’s start from the very beginning, with Tehran in the late 1930s. Was that when your family moved there from Armenia?

- Yes, I was about six years old, and Tehran became my hometown, the city of my childhood. There I went to school, first to an Armenian school, I studied there for three years, then it was closed. I wanted to go to a French school, but it was already overcrowded, so I was sent to an Iranian school. I graduated from the 12th grade [high school] and got a very good education.

- Did you study in Farsi? And do you know the Iranian culture from the inside?

- Yes. Farsi became my mother tongue. As for something specifically Iranian... Tehran was then a completely European city, there were no veils. On the contrary, the shah prohibited the veils. Nobody could board a bus or a trolley with a veil. And then they brought them back again. I have the best memories of Iran and Iranians. They were very respectful of us, Armenians, and of the people of any other nationality as well. I had many Iranian friends, they are good people.

- And there, in Tehran, you met your future husband ...

- There was really no official acquaintance. One might say that we grew up together. They were just friends of my older brother and he was one of them... I was 13, and he was 15. We ran back and forth as a gang, around our courtyard, into the street.

- So, there was no love at first sight?

- No, we were just good friends. Then, when I was 15 or 16, a kind of romance began to take shape. For birthdays, New Year’s Eve celebrations, other holidays, we would get together with our whole company at home, we sang and danced. And gradually [romantic] relations between us began to develop.

- At the age of 16, Gevork Andreyevich already started working for [Soviet] intelligence, he organized a group of his peers. Tell me, was this some kind of a romantic, teenage game, or was it a serious matter, driven by conviction?

- It was very serious. My brother was in that group, then I joined, too. I understood that we were helping the Homeland. Because that was a tough time... When the war began and our cities surrendered one by one, we listened to the radio reports with tears in our eyes. We had a huge map, and we moved flags on it, and all the time there were reports: surrender, surrender, surrender... And we felt as if we were there where this was taking place. And then, when the course of the war changed, when our cities began to be liberated, we moved our flags again. This was how we lived. We were a part of it.

- And how did Gevork decide to take you, a girl with pigtails, into a reconnaissance group?

- It didn’t happen right away. He had his eye on me and first gave me small assignments. And then, more serious ones. The guys worked a lot, much more than me. And, also, at that time, in Iran, a girl couldn’t stay on the street alone for a long time, especially in the evening. They protected me well, I was the only girl among them. They were very kind, all from good families, they knew each other very well and trusted each other - and this was very important. They were all physically fit and worked well as a team. When you know that you are doing something important, something that’s necessary, you already behave differently. You can no longer live irresponsibly, you live for a goal.

- You were called the “light cavalry” because you all rode bicycles...

- Yes, our chief, intelligence officer Ivan Agayants, called us as a joke. After all, we had no cars or motorcycles, only bicycles. And more often than not, this is exactly how we conducted our reconnaissance [surveillance], because you couldn’t run after the other side on foot. And being on bicycles was less suspicious. But when necessary, we also went on foot.

- Yes... Before the interview I was walking to your place from our editorial office on the Suvorovsky Square, along the Mir Prospect, to the Astrakhan Lane. And maybe, who knows, someone was doing the surveillance... Or is it an outdated method at today’s level of technological development?

- And why not? I think that it is still being used. Are there alternatives? It has been like that in all countries and it will continue being so. The intelligence officer is always on the alert, but at the same time not to such an extent that you think that you are always being watched. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do any work, and pretty soon you’ll go crazy.

- The Tehran operation was probably the most stressful time in your work in Iran?

- Yes, it was very stressful. After all, they [the leaders] all gathered at the Soviet embassy. And we lived right next to the embassy, ​​in the very center of the city.

- I understand that you can’t disclose to us all the details of your work. But can you still lift the veil a little bit for us, the uninitiated? So, you received the assignment. And…

- We received the assignment, but I was not directly involved in the surveillance. I did the investigations, it was easier for me to do that.

- And what do you mean by investigations?

- An investigation meant that you had to find out where the object [of interest] lived, what he did and when, who he communicated with. You establish his daily routine, his habits... You do this through neighbors, through acquaintances. You know, it was then in Tehran, as in Armenia now, everyone knew each other. This was not Moscow. There, if you wanted, you could find out a lot. But, let’s not go into details. The work went on continuously. In two years, our group tracked down about four hundred people associated with the German intelligence services.

- And during this time Gevork Andreyevich managed to infiltrate the British intelligence school, ended up in prison, you carried him parcels - this is described, in particular, in the film Tehran-43: The True Story. Is the story from the film really true?

- Every film always has a bit of poetic license. At the beginning of the film, there is a scene - Gevork Andreyevich is running barefoot down the street. How could this be?! We didn’t even have any acquaintances who would run barefoot down the street. Or, my mother is at home with some kind of a headscarf. Nothing like that ever happened. But these are just small details. In general, the film is good and many of the events are presented accurately.

- After the war, in 1946, you and Gevork Andreyevich got married, and, according to your biography, soon left for Yerevan?

- We wanted to leave Tehran for Yerevan in 1946. But we were told – you need to stay for another five years. So, we stayed. What else could we do? Indeed, for us, especially for Zhora [Gevork], this was his life. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else. And, in 1951, we left for Yerevan.

- And how did the Soviet Yerevan appear to you after Tehran? Did you easily get accustomed to new realities?

- We knew everything about it. We received [Soviet] magazines and newspapers, we were aware of everything. We were told: “Oh, you know, it’s hard even to get bread right now!” And we answered: “What our people eat, we will eat, too.” Neither I nor my family members saw anything bad [about moving there], we only saw the good. But when we arrived at the Yerevan hotel - we first stopped there - we noticed that the decanter on the table in the hotel room was empty; there was no water in it. I called the hotel employee, he came, took the decanter and went to the toilet. I was confused - why did he go there? Did he want to wash the decanter? But he poured water into it, brought it, put it on the table [and said] “Here’s the water for you. I said: “I don’t drink the water from the tap.” And [he said] “Here we drink from the tap. The Yerevan water is the best!”

- And then you studied five years at the Yerevan Institute of Foreign Languages?

- Yes, I majored in French and George in English, but then I [also] switched to English, because we met so little: his classes were in the morning, and mine in the afternoon. And I wanted us to be together. We graduated from the institute among the best, Zhora was the best student. He was a member of the trade union committee of the Institute, he was well respected.

And it was like that in every place [we lived] ...

- It was his personality, probably, he attracted people, pulled them toward him?

- He was very relaxed. With his actions, his attitude, his kindness, his modesty, he imperceptibly attracted people to himself ... It’s not that he specifically wanted this. That was how he was as a person. He was respected and people appreciated his qualities.

- Well, if he hadn’t had these qualities, he probably wouldn’t have become such a great intelligence officer?

- These were his human qualities. Even if he hadn’t been an intelligence officer, he would still have been a good man. He loved his work and said: “If I were born again, I’d still do the same thing.” These words are now written on his tombstone... He loved his Homeland very much, he loved the Soviet Union, it’s not that he loved Armenia or Russia - for him, they were the same. And he devoted his whole life to this. He worked until the last minute. He was 88 years old when ... he died within 20 days. It’s been two years since he is gone.

- How did he and you get over the collapse of the USSR? Did you think that this might happen, or you didn’t know anything about it?

- No. It was an unexpected blow for everyone. We were on vacation outside the city during those days. After Georgy received news about it [the Soviet breakup], he immediately went to work. But let’s not talk about politics. See what is happening now all over the world, both in America and in Europe. And what is happening in Ukraine…

- You graduated from the institute - and a new stage of your life began?

- We arrived in Moscow, went through a short training there - in truth, we were already experienced intelligence professionals - and left for the West. [And we stayed] for a long time. We worked in different countries, changed citizenship several times, participated in many operations, but the time has not come to talk about it yet.

- And more than once you had to change names, pretend to be other people ... Is it difficult to get used to a new identity?

- No. It is very easy. The more ordinary life you lead, the better your [intelligence] work fares. You just need to live in an ordinary way and have around you ordinary people, friends, have a pleasant environment. When your circle is stable [well-established], then you can go further, and more influential people will be ready to take you in. And then you can go wherever you want and make a contact with those whom you need. There are people who live in isolation – from home to work to home - and their day is over. We never lived like that, we lived openly [surrounded by friends]. You need to be able to say a few words to everyone, to a wide variety of people. This should come to you naturally. [For instance] You just met me, and I invite you for a cup of coffee, and you come.

- Yes, but I know that you are an intelligence officer (laughing).

- I’ve been like that since childhood. We were open-hearted people, and in our house, it was like that, too. If there was no ring at the door, my mother was surprised: no one came by to see us today! What is going on? Here I am doing the same thing. When we moved to this building, no one was friends with each other. And now we - four or five neighbors - are as close as family members. I brought everyone together, I can’t live without that, you know. Life’s meaning to help others, to say something to them, to do something for them.

- Outwardly, your life looked very ordinary, but [at the same time] you sent and received encrypted messages, you were a radio operator, and, after all, your transmitter was installed somewhere...

- Yes, that’s true. The work went on all the time. But it wasn’t anything special... It was simply – our work. Every day I would get up and think - what is today, with whom am I meeting? We would come to Moscow on vacation, we studied [new] languages ​​- both German and Arabic. When necessary, you can do anything. The most important thing is to know why. And if you don’t have that, then everything falls through, nothing will work out. But if you love your country, your Homeland, you can do it. What else do you need? When people don’t live abroad, they do not feel for the Homeland like that. [They complain] “Oh, this is bad, and this is not so good…” Go see how it is [abroad]. There they also complained. When it was difficult for us here, I thought what are they complaining about? They have everything. I was even angry. When we would come here, Georgy would take his wallet and go to the store, as if we had never left. And for them [abroad] all that was unthinkable?! Three people stand in line: “Oh. [This is too much]. Let’s go somewhere else.” Then [compare] to the lines [in the USSR] ... But we were happy: that’s our country. Our life! Of course, we wanted it to be better, it was unpleasant for us that it was like that. Now there is everything, but...

- Yes, there is everything, but something is still missing?

- Yes. But one must hope and believe that everything will be alright. This is what you need to hold on to. If it were not for my family, my friends, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) personnel, who supported me during these two years, I would not have gotten back on my feet at all. I thought that I, too, would go soon after him, and that it was all over... But they didn’t let me fall into despair. I am so lucky to have such devoted people around me. Both here and in Yerevan.

- Do you visit Yerevan often?

- I'm going there in May to be at the unveiling of a memorial plaque at our Institute. They are great! At first they wanted to place it on the house [where we lived], but then they decided - no, it’s better there. Let students see and remember.

- Goar Levonovna, you are still active, you meet with young people and share your experiences?

- Yes, just recently I was at an event at the First Moscow Cadet Corps with the participation of the Moscow Association of Suvorov and Nakhimov Military school graduates and cadets. What wonderful guys they are! I talked to them, they attentively listened to my every word and then they asked so many questions! One young man asked, “What was the best day in your life?” I thought a bit and said: “When Georgy Andreyevich said that he was in love with me.” Then everyone started to applaud! They liked it so much! And I don't know why I said that.

- Did you live in peace and harmony with Gevork Andreyevich?

- Very much so. I am a lucky woman, there was such a great person next to me all my life. We were together all the time. We lived together for 65 years and never quarreled once. Because we discussed everything, talked it through. We loved and respected each other since childhood. I have just returned from the cemetery, I am always so sad when I return from there. There is a monument to him there, it is as if he is looking at you. When you come, it is as if he is greeting you. And when you leave, it is as if he is asking: “Are you leaving already?” It is very difficult for me without him. And it’s difficult not only for me.  Our colleagues in the SVR used to say: “Georgy Andreyevich walked down the corridor – what a great day!” And now they have lost Zhora, they miss him a lot. But, we must live on, we must believe in the best, and never lose hope.