Women spies. Five famous Soviet intelligence officers

On the anniversary of the execution of Mata Hari, Izvestia remembers the most famous women"golden age" of world espionage.

On October 15, 1917, Mata Hari, a dancer, courtesan, spy and double agent, was executed in France on charges of spying for Germany. Before the execution, she refused the blindfold required by the condemned.

Finding herself face to face with the firing squad, Mata Hari blew a kiss - according to one version, to the soldiers who shot her, according to another - to the lawyer who was present there, and also to her last lover.

Immortalized in numerous books and films, Mata Hari has become one of the most famous female spies in world history. But far from the only one. The 20th century, with its passion for luxurious outfits and beautiful life, raging against the backdrop of wars redrawing the world map, brought to light a whole galaxy of women whose main weapons in the struggle for information were their beauty and love.

Code name N-21

Mata Hari didn't know how to dance. This was repeatedly stated by her first husband, a Dutch officer. She herself indirectly confirmed this, attributing her success to a carefully thought-out legend, as well as the decision to perform almost naked.

When in 1905, either having run away from her husband, or simply leaving him after a divorce, she arrived in Paris under her real name and with virtually no money, the Dutchwoman Margaretha Gertrude Zelle had no choice but to impress the sophisticated public, and she succeeded.

In 1895, at the age of 18, she married Captain Rudolph McLeod according to an advertisement. The marriage was unsuccessful, but together with her husband, the future Mata Hari lived for several years in Indonesia, where she was actively studying local traditions in order to escape from family troubles.

She later used this knowledge to create the famous image of an exotic princess - a performer of oriental dances. In the wake of the exotic fashion that was sweeping the Old World at that time, the image enjoyed incredible success - by the beginning of the First World War, she was a famous artist and a successful courtesan, whose fans included high-ranking politicians and officers.

But Mata Hari was useful not only with her connections. With the outbreak of war, the Netherlands declared neutrality and she, the holder of a Dutch passport, could freely move between Germany and France, separated by front lines.

It is not known exactly when and how she was recruited by German intelligence. But it is known that she was given the code name H-21, and in 1916, French counterintelligence officers received the first information about her espionage for Germany.

After this, Mata Hari was converted (it is also possible that she herself offered her services to French intelligence, valuing them at a million francs).

On a small mission, she was sent to Spain, where the French intercepted a German radiogram, from which it followed that “agent N-21” continued to work for the Germans - perhaps the Germans deliberately handed over the exposed agent to the enemy. After this, she was arrested and, despite the efforts of lawyer Mata Hari, who knelt before the court, she was sentenced to death.

Photo courtesy of the press service of Channel One

Many historians believe that in reality the effect of Mata Hari’s work on both the Germans and the French was minimal, but even if this was the case, she played her role with incredible chic - until the very end.

In 1934, 17 years after her death, The New Yorker magazine dedicated an article to the story of Mata Hari. On the day of her execution, she was dressed in “an elegant suit, custom-made especially for the occasion, and a pair of new white gloves,” the text emphasized.

A woman who is loved and loving

Maria Zakrevskaya-Benckendorf-Budberg, common-law wife of Maxim Gorky and H.G. Wells, diplomat, baroness, whom the British suspected of working for German intelligence and the OGPU, the OGPU - in collaboration with the British and Germans, and Germany, respectively, of working for the USSR intelligence services and Great Britain.

An aristocrat, the wife of diplomat Ivan Benckendorff, before the revolution she and her husband lived in Berlin and Estonia, where Benckendorff had a family castle. After her husband was killed by her own peasants, Maria moved to Petrograd, where she began an affair with the English diplomat Lockhart (later the head of the British committee in charge of propaganda and foreign intelligence during the Second World War).

In 1918, Lockhart found himself at the center of the “three ambassadors plot” scandal and was expelled from the country on charges of attempting to organize a coup. Mura, as her family called her, was arrested along with him, but later unexpectedly released.

According to one version, it was then that she could have been recruited by Soviet intelligence.

Soon after this, Maria Budberg became first a secretary and then common-law wife Gorky, who was 24 years older than her. She spent all the years of his life abroad with the writer, but when Gorky prepared to return to Russia in 1933, Mura did not follow him.

She moved to London, where she became the common-law wife of the writer H.G. Wells, whom she had known since 1914. She remained with him until the writer’s death in 1946.

“She was, first of all, a beloved and loving woman,” Vladimir Barakhov, director of the A. M. Gorky archive, later recalled about her.

The reason for accusing Mura of espionage were frequent moves, close relations with the most influential people of his time, the connection with Lockhart left by the Cheka without consequences, as well as archival documents published by the British intelligence service MI-5, which indicate that the baroness living in London may be spy for the Soviet government.

However, if these accusations had any basis, Maria Budberg turned out to be happier than many of her colleagues - neither before nor after her death in 1974 they were never confirmed.

"Kursk Nightingale" in service in Paris

The daughter of peasants from the Kursk province, performer of Russian romances Nadezhda Plevitskaya rose to the zenith of fame on the eve of the First World War - in 1909, the famous opera singer Leonid Sobinov noticed her at the Nizhny Novgorod fair and brought her to St. Petersburg.

Soon Plevitskaya was already singing at court - while Nicholas II, who called her “the nightingale of Kursk,” listened to Plevitskaya, lowered his head and cried, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna gave her a diamond brooch for her inspired singing.

After the revolution, Plevitskaya and her husband, White Guard General Nikolai Skoblin, moved to Paris, where in 1930 she was recruited by OGPU officers: taking advantage of the fact that the singer was actively touring Europe, her husband collected the necessary information in emigrant circles.

In 1937, trying to place Nikolai Skoblin at the head of the most influential emigrant organization, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), the NKVD, with the assistance of Skoblin and Plevitskaya, kidnapped General Evgeniy Miller, who headed the union, in Paris.

After this, Skoblin fled the country and later died in Spain under unclear circumstances.

Plevitskaya was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and died in a French prison in 1940, shortly after France was occupied by Germany.

Dancer with the Legion of Honor

Another woman who put her stage fame at the service of intelligence was the American-French dancer Josephine Baker. Beginning her career in the 1920s in the United States, she moved to Paris by the 1930s. It was in her performance that the public of the French capital first saw the Charleston dance.

On the eve of the war, Josephine Baker shone in the Folies Bergere cabaret, and after the occupation of France she began working for French intelligence - fortunately, her fame and charm made her a desirable interlocutor for the Germans, Japanese and Italians. Baker recorded the data she received from them on scores with invisible ink.

After the liberation of France, the dancer was awarded medals of Resistance and Liberation, the Military Cross and, in 1961, the Order of the Legion of Honor. During the war, she was also promoted to lieutenant and received a pilot's certificate. After Josephine Baker died, a crater on Venus was named in her honor.

"Mother" of female ninjas

But espionage became a woman's profession long before the 20th century. Back in the 16th century, a wife Japanese samurai Mochizuki Chiyome put the training of female spies on stream. On the instructions of her husband’s uncle, the great military leader Takedoya Shingen, she opened a boarding house in the village of Nazu, into which she accepted orphaned girls under the guise of charity.

However, along with a basic education, her pupils also received an understanding of other subjects - for example, how to extract information by any means available to them, and also, according to some sources, practiced martial arts.

Mochizuki Chiyoma is often credited with creating the first school to train female ninjas, but in fact, her students were primarily engaged in collecting the information necessary for the military leader Shingen, freely traveling around the country as geishas, ​​fortune tellers and actresses.

Evgenia Priemskaya

Exactly one hundred years ago, on October 15, 1917, a death sentence was carried out at a military training ground in Vincennes (a suburb of Paris). The firing squad fired a salvo that ended the life of Mata Hari, perhaps the most famous spy of the 20th century and one of the most mysterious figures in the First World War. As noted in some sources, after the shooting, one of the officers approached the woman’s body and, just to be sure, shot her in the back of the head with a revolver.

Mata Hari, real name Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was born in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden on August 7, 1876. She was the only daughter and second child in a family of four children, Adam Zelle and Antje van der Meulen. The father of the future spy was the owner of a hat shop. In addition, he managed to make successful and effective investments in the oil industry, so he became a fairly rich man who did not skimp on education for his children. Until the age of 13, Margareta attended only upper-class schools. But in 1889 Adam Zelle went bankrupt and soon after divorced his wife, who died in 1891. So the family was completely destroyed. After the death of her mother, her father sent Margareta to her godfather in the small town of Sneek. Afterwards she continued her studies in Leiden, where she received the profession of a teacher in kindergarten, however, when the director of the local school began to openly flirt with the girl, her offended godfather took her from this school. A few months later, the girl left Sneek to join her uncle in The Hague. According to another version, it was Margareta who became the culprit of the scandal with the director of the school, having accepted his advances, the community of the town did not forgive the young girl for her frivolous behavior, and it was with this that her imminent departure was connected.

Drastic changes in the girl’s life led to the fact that in 1895 she met 39-year-old Captain Rudolf McLeod, a Dutchman of Scottish origin, through an advertisement and almost immediately married him. At that time, Margaret was only 18 years old. It’s difficult to say what exactly prompted the girl to take such a hasty step. Perhaps it was because she did not have sufficient means of subsistence, so she decided to marry a wealthy man. She could also strive for the calm and measured life that she had in childhood.

Margaretha Gertrude Zelle, circa 1895

After the wedding, the newly married couple moved to the island of Java (then it was the Dutch East Indies, today it is Indonesia). Here they had two children - a son and a daughter, but their family life clearly did not work out; it was impossible to call it happy. Margareta's husband turned out to be an alcoholic who behaved quite aggressively with his wife and often raised his hand to her; on top of everything else, he openly supported his mistresses. In the end, Margareta began to lead a similar life, who did not sit at home, as was expected of a decent wife, but had fun at local officer receptions, which often became the cause of family scandals. Disappointed with her wife, the girl moved to live with another Dutch officer, Van Redes.

For a long time, Margareta studied Indonesian traditions, in particular, she worked in a local dance group. In 1897, for the first time in her correspondence, she called herself the artistic pseudonym Mata Hari (literally from the Malay language “eye of the day” or more simply - the sun). After long and persistent persuasion, the girl returned home to her legal spouse, however aggressive behavior remained the same. Therefore, trying to distract herself and forget the hated family life, Mata Hari continued to study local culture and traditions.

Margaretha's cheese died in 1898 at the age of two. It is believed that he died from complications of syphilis, which was passed on to him from his parents. At the same time, the spouses themselves claimed that he was poisoned by the servant. In any case, their family life collapsed completely after that. After returning back to Holland, the couple divorced in 1903. At the same time, Rudolph sued his wife for the right to raise their daughter, who died in August 1919 at the age of 21. The suspected cause of her death was complications of syphilis. In any case, the death of her son and the collapse of family life were a serious test for Margaret, who, after returning to Europe, was left without a livelihood, experiencing real poverty.

She decided to go to Paris to earn money. In the capital of France, she first performed as a circus rider, choosing for herself the name “Lady Gresha McLeod.” Great fame came to her in 1905, when she became famous throughout Europe as a performer of “oriental style” dances, at the same time she began performing under the pseudonym Mata Hari, under which name she forever went down in history. Some of her dances were something very close to modern striptease, which was still an unusual phenomenon for Western viewers of the 20th century. Often at the end of the number, which was performed on stage in front of a narrow circle of connoisseurs, she remained almost completely naked. Mata Hari herself said that she was reproducing real sacred dances of the East, which were supposedly familiar to her from childhood. She mystified her interlocutors in every possible way with various stories of a romantic nature. For example, she told me that she was a real princess - the daughter of King Edward VII and an Indian princess, that she had a horse that only allowed its owner to saddle it, that she spent her childhood in the East and was brought up in a monastery and other stories that created the necessary for her mysteriously romantic background. It is worth noting that Mata Hari, as they say, found her niche; at the beginning of the 20th century, Europe experienced great interest in everything that was connected with the East and ballet, as well as erotica. Great success Mata Hari in Paris soon spread to other European capitals.

European newspapers wrote about her: “This naked dancer is the new Salome, who makes any men lose their heads.” She herself said this about herself: “I never knew how to dance well, people came to look at me in crowds only because I was the first who dared to appear naked in front of the public.” It is worth noting that she often danced truly naked. Unlike Isadora Duncan, who performed in transparent robes, Mata Hari performed completely naked. Her rather curvy body wore nothing but jewelry and accessories that covered her breasts.

She soon began to enjoy her fame and glory and began to gain numerous wealthy admirers. One of them was a French rich man who invited Mata Hari to perform at the Museum of Oriental Art. Her photographs captivated most of the male population of the Old World, over time she became a very successful courtesan and was in contact with numerous high-ranking politicians, military men and other influential people in various European countries, including France and Germany. Biographers would later estimate that she had more than a hundred different lovers.

They did it to her quite often expensive gifts, but despite this she experienced financial difficulties and quite often borrowed money. It is believed that one of her passions was card games, which could be spent playing large sums money. Before the outbreak of World War I, Mata Hari met a police official from Germany. Some researchers believe that it was at that moment that she came to the attention of the German intelligence services. In 1911 the famous Milanese opera house La Scala engaged Mata Hari for the winter season. At the same time, she even negotiated with Sergei Diaghilev about performing in his ballet, but they ended in nothing. In the summer season of 1913, she performed in the capital of France at the Folies Bergere theater, and on March 23, 1914, she signed a contract with the Berlin Metropole Theater, she was supposed to perform in the ballet “The Thief of Millions.” The premiere of the ballet was scheduled for September 1, 1914, but a month before this date the First World War broke out.

On August 6, 1914, the dancer left Berlin for Switzerland. However, she was denied entry into this country, while her luggage managed to cross the border in a freight car. Mata Hari was forced to return back to the capital of Germany, from where she went to her homeland - the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, she found herself in a rather difficult situation, since she had previously lost all her belongings. Mutual friends introduced her to Consul Karl Kramer, who headed the official German information service in Amsterdam. One of the German intelligence departments was hidden under the roof of this service. By the end of the autumn of 1915, German intelligence finally recruited Mata Hari, who could move freely around Europe as a citizen of a neutral country. Her first task was to find out in Paris the immediate plans for the offensive of the Allied troops. In December 1915, Mata Hari arrived in France, where she began to carry out this mission.

From Paris they left for Spain, this trip was also of a reconnaissance nature. On January 12, 1916, she arrived in Madrid, where she contacted the military attaché of the German Embassy, ​​Major Calle. The latter immediately ordered the information received to be transferred to Consul Kramer in Amsterdam. This encryption was intercepted by British intelligence. After meeting Calle in Madrid, Mata Hari returned to The Hague via Portugal. As a Dutch citizen, she could travel from France home and back, but the countries at that time were divided by the front line, so her route usually ran through Spain and Great Britain. Over time, her movements attracted the attention of Allied counterintelligence.

Mata Hari in 1915

IN once again Having returned to Paris in the second half of 1916, Mata Hari learned that a person close to her, Staff Captain Vadim Maslov, after being wounded near Verdun, was undergoing treatment at the Vittel resort, located in a restricted front-line zone. Vadim Maslov was an officer in the Russian expeditionary force, he was half her age, but at the same time he wanted to take her as his wife. In order to get to her lover, Mata Hari turned for help to the French military authorities, who set her a condition: to obtain secret information from her high-ranking German acquaintances. And she agreed to these conditions, essentially becoming a double agent.

Early next year, the French sent her on a minor mission to Madrid, where Allied suspicions of her spying for Germany were finally confirmed. The radio exchange between a German agent in Madrid and the center was again intercepted, in which agent H-21, recruited by the French, appeared, who arrived in Spain and received an assignment from the local German station to return to Paris again. Perhaps the Germans deliberately declassified Mata Hari because they wanted to get rid of the double agent by handing him over to the enemy. One way or another, on the morning of February 13, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in Paris on charges of espionage. She was placed in the Faubourg-Saint-Denis prison in Saint-Lazare. The interrogations of the alleged spy continued for four months, the last one taking place on June 21, 1917. At the same time, the woman insisted that she worked exclusively in the interests of France and in Madrid lured important information from Major Calle. The trial of Mata Hari began on July 24, 1917 and was held behind closed doors. The very next day, Margaretha Gertrude Zelle was sentenced to death. Appeals filed by her lawyer and appeals for clemency to the French President led nowhere. On October 15, 1917, the death sentence was carried out.

After the execution, Mata Hari’s body was not claimed by any of her relatives, for this reason it was transferred to the anatomical theater. So her head was embalmed and preserved in the Paris Museum of Anatomy. But in 2000 it turned out that the head was missing. According to experts, the loss occurred even earlier - in 1954, when the museum was being moved. In any case, this episode only added mysticism and mystery to the already rather complicated life story of Mata Hari.

Today, some historians believe that the harm from Mata Hari’s activities (her effectiveness as an intelligence officer) was seriously embellished. It is unlikely that the information actually obtained by her (if such a thing existed at all) was of significant value to the warring parties. According to historian E.B. Chernyak, the death sentence could have been influenced not by Mata Hari’s espionage activities, but by her connections with representatives of the French political and military elite. The danger of disclosing information about these connections, the fear of making them widely public, could have influenced the quick imposition of the death sentence.

Possessing a number of undeniable talents and a rich imagination, Mata Hari played the role of a high-society spy. She played it from beginning to end: until the charges were brought, the trial and the death penalty. All this fit perfectly into her “cinematic” biography of an exotic oriental dancer, femme fatale and spy, providing her with greater fame than other, much more effective intelligence officers of her time.

To summarize, we can say that Mata Hari became one of the most famous women of the 20th century. Having lived only 41 years, she was able to go down in history, forever inscribing her name in it. The biography of this woman, the history and description of her life, the photographs that have survived to this day are still the subject of increased attention not only from numerous historians (both professionals and amateurs), but also from ordinary people all over the world.

Sources of information:
https://ria.ru/spravka/20160807/1473729485.html
http://interesnyefakty.org/mata-hari
http://stuki-druki.com/authors/Mata-Hari.php
Open source materials

Scout of the "Winners" squad Maria Mikota.
Photo courtesy of the author

The debate about the role of the female factor in intelligence has not subsided for many years. Most ordinary people, far from this type of activity, believe that intelligence is not a woman’s business, that this profession is purely male, requiring courage, self-control, and a willingness to take risks and sacrifice oneself in order to achieve the goal. In their opinion, if women are used in intelligence, it is only as a “honey trap,” that is, to seduce gullible simpletons who are carriers of important state or military secrets. Indeed, even today special services A number of states, primarily Israel and the United States, actively use this method to obtain classified information, but it has been adopted by counterintelligence rather than by the intelligence services of these countries.

The legendary Mata Hari or the star of French military intelligence during the First World War, Martha Richard, are usually cited as the standard for such a female intelligence officer. It is known that the latter was the mistress of the German naval attache in Spain, Major von Kron, and managed not only to find out important secrets of German military intelligence, but also to paralyze the activities of the intelligence network he created in this country. Nevertheless, this “exotic” method of using women in intelligence is the exception rather than the rule.

OPINION OF PROFESSIONALS

What do the scouts themselves think about this?

It is no secret that some professionals are skeptical about female intelligence officers. As he wrote in one of his works famous journalist Alexander Kondrashov, even such a legendary military intelligence officer as Richard Sorge spoke about the unsuitability of women for conducting serious intelligence activities. According to the journalist, Richard Sorge attracted female agents only for auxiliary purposes. At the same time, he allegedly stated: “Women are absolutely not suited for intelligence work. They have little understanding of high politics or military affairs. Even if you recruit them to spy on by their own husbands, they will have no real idea what their husbands are talking about. They are too emotional, sentimental and unrealistic."

It should be borne in mind here that the outstanding Soviet intelligence officer allowed himself to make this statement during his trial. Today we know that during the trial, Sorge tried with all his might to get his comrades-in-arms and assistants, among whom there were women, out of harm’s way, to take all the blame upon himself, to represent his like-minded people innocent victims own game. Hence his desire to belittle the role of women in intelligence, to limit it to solving only auxiliary tasks, to show the inability of the fair sex to independent work. Sorge knew well the mentality of the Japanese, who consider women second-class creatures. Therefore, the point of view of the Soviet intelligence officer was clear to Japanese justice, and this saved the lives of his assistants.

Among foreign intelligence officers, the expression “intelligence officers are not born, they are made” is perceived as a truth that does not require proof. It’s just that at some point, intelligence, based on the tasks that have arisen or assigned, requires a specific person who enjoys special trust, has certain personal and business qualities, professional orientation and the necessary life experience in order to direct him to work in a specific region of the globe.

Women come to intelligence in different ways. But their choice as operatives or agents, of course, is not accidental. The selection of women for illegal work is carried out especially carefully. After all, it is not enough for an illegal intelligence officer to have a good command of foreign languages ​​and the basics of intelligence art. He must be able to get used to the role, be a kind of artist, so that today, for example, he can pass himself off as an aristocrat, and tomorrow as a priest. Needless to say that most women master the art of transformation better than men?

Those intelligence officers who had the opportunity to work in illegal conditions abroad were always subject to increased demands also in terms of endurance and psychological endurance. After all, illegal women have to live for many years away from their homeland, and even organizing an ordinary vacation trip requires comprehensive and in-depth study in order to eliminate the possibility of failure. In addition, it is not always possible for a woman who is an illegal intelligence officer to communicate only with those people she likes. Often the situation is just the opposite, and you need to be able to control your feelings, which is not an easy task for a woman.

A remarkable Soviet illegal intelligence officer, who worked for more than 20 years in special conditions abroad, Galina Ivanovna Fedorova, said in this regard: “Some people believe that intelligence is not the most suitable activity for a woman. In contrast to the stronger sex, she is more sensitive, fragile, easily wounded, more closely tied to the family, home, and more predisposed to nostalgia. By nature itself she is destined to be a mother, so the absence of children or long-term separation from them is especially difficult for her. All this is true, but the same small weaknesses of a woman give her powerful leverage in the sphere of human relationships.”

DURING THE YEARS OF THE WAR

The pre-war period and the Second World War, which brought unprecedented troubles to humanity, radically changed the approach to intelligence in general and to the role of the female factor in it in particular. Most people of good will in Europe, Asia and America were acutely aware of the danger that Nazism brought to all humanity. During the harsh years of war, hundreds of honest people from different countries voluntarily threw in their lot with the activities of our country’s foreign intelligence service, carrying out its missions in various parts of the world. Women intelligence officers who operated in Europe on the eve of the war and on the territory of the Soviet Union, temporarily occupied by Nazi Germany, also wrote bright pages in the chronicle of the heroic achievements of Soviet foreign intelligence.

A Russian emigrant worked actively in Paris for Soviet intelligence on the eve of World War II. famous singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya, whose voice was admired by Leonid Sobinov, Fyodor Chaliapin and Alexander Vertinsky.

Together with her husband, General Nikolai Skoblin, she contributed to the localization of the anti-Soviet activities of the Russian All-Military Union (EMRO), which carried out terrorist acts against the Soviet Republic. Based on the information received from these Russian patriots, the OGPU arrested 17 EMRO agents abandoned in the USSR, and also established 11 terrorist safe houses in Moscow, Leningrad and Transcaucasia.

It should be emphasized that thanks to the efforts of Plevitskaya and Skoblin, among others, Soviet foreign intelligence in the pre-war period was able to disorganize the EMRO and thereby deprived Hitler of the opportunity to actively use more than 20 thousand members of this organization in the war against the USSR.

Years of hard times during the war testify that women are not capable of worse than men carry out critical reconnaissance missions. Thus, on the eve of the war, the resident of Soviet illegal intelligence in Berlin, Fyodor Parparov, maintained operational contact with the source Martha, the wife of a prominent German diplomat. She regularly received information about negotiations between the German Foreign Ministry and British and French representatives. It followed from them that London and Paris were more concerned about the fight against communism than about organizing collective security in Europe and repulse fascist aggression.

Information was also received from Martha about a German intelligence agent in the General Staff of Czechoslovakia, who regularly supplied Berlin with top secret information about the state and combat readiness of the Czechoslovak armed forces. Thanks to this data, Soviet intelligence took measures to compromise him and arrest him by the Czech security authorities.

Simultaneously with Parparov, in the pre-war years, other Soviet intelligence officers also worked in the very heart of Germany, in Berlin. Among them was Ilse Stöbe (Alta), a journalist in contact with the German diplomat Rudolf von Schelia (Aryan). Important messages were sent from him to Moscow warning of an impending German attack.

Back in February 1941, Alta announced the formation of three army groups under the command of Marshals Bock, Rundstedt and Leeb and the direction of their main attacks on Leningrad, Moscow and Kyiv.

Alta was a staunch anti-fascist and believed that only the USSR could crush fascism. At the beginning of 1943, Alta and her assistant Aryan were arrested by the Gestapo and executed along with the members of the Red Chapel.

Elizaveta Zarubina, Leontina Cohen, Elena Modrzhinskaya, Kitty Harris, Zoya Voskresenskaya-Rybkina worked for Soviet intelligence on the eve and during the war, carrying out its tasks sometimes at the risk of their lives. They were driven by a sense of duty and true patriotism, the desire to protect the world from Hitler's aggression.

The most important information during the war came not only from abroad. It also constantly came from numerous reconnaissance groups operating close to or far from the front line in temporarily occupied territory.

Readers are well aware of the name of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, whose majestic death became a symbol of courage. Seventeen-year-old Tanya is a reconnaissance fighter of the group special purpose, part of front-line intelligence, became the first of 86 women Heroes of the Soviet Union during the war period.

Women intelligence officers from the special forces detachment “Winners” under the command of Dmitry Medvedev, the operational reconnaissance and sabotage group of Vladimir Molodtsov, operating in Odessa, and many other combat units of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, who obtained important information during the war years, also wrote unfading pages in the history of intelligence of our country. strategic information.

A modest girl from Rzhev, Pasha Savelyeva, managed to obtain and transport to her detachment a sample of chemical weapons that the Nazi command intended to use against the Red Army. Captured by Hitler's punitive forces, she was subjected to monstrous torture in the Gestapo dungeons of the Ukrainian city of Lutsk. Even men can envy her courage and self-control: despite the brutal beatings, the girl did not betray her comrades in the squad. On the morning of January 12, 1944, Pasha Savelyeva was burned alive in the courtyard of the Lutsk prison. However, her death was not in vain: the information received by the intelligence officer was reported to Stalin. The Kremlin's allies in the anti-Hitler coalition seriously warned Berlin that if Germany used chemical weapons, retaliation would inevitably follow. So, thanks to the feat of the scout, the chemical attack Germans against our troops.

Scout of the “Winners” detachment Lydia Lisovskaya was Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov’s closest assistant. Working as a waitress in the casino of the economic headquarters of the occupation forces in Ukraine, she helped Kuznetsov make acquaintances with German officers and collect information about high-ranking fascist officials in Rivne.

Lisovskaya involved her cousin Maria Mikota in intelligence work, who, on instructions from the Center, became a Gestapo agent and informed the partisans about all punitive raids of the Germans. Through Mikota, Kuznetsov met SS officer von Ortel, who was part of the team of the famous German saboteur Otto Skorzeny. It was from Ortel that the Soviet intelligence officer first received information that the Germans were preparing a sabotage action during a meeting of the heads of the USSR, USA and Great Britain in Tehran.

In the fall of 1943, Lisovskaya, on the instructions of Kuznetsov, got a job as a housekeeper for the commander of the eastern special forces, Major General Ilgen. On November 15, 1943, with the direct participation of Lydia, an operation was carried out to kidnap General Ilgen and transport him to the detachment.

THE COLD WAR YEARS

War hard times, from which Soviet Union came out with honor, was replaced by many years cold war. The United States of America, which had a monopoly on atomic weapons, did not hide their imperial plans and aspirations to destroy the Soviet Union and its entire population with the help of these deadly weapons. Atomic war The Pentagon planned to unleash it against our country in 1957. It took incredible efforts on the part of all our people, who had barely recovered from the monstrous wounds of the Great Patriotic War, exerting all his strength to thwart the plans of the United States and NATO. But in order to make the right decisions, the political leadership of the USSR needed reliable information about the real plans and intentions of the American military. Female intelligence officers also played an important role in obtaining secret documents from the Pentagon and NATO. Among them are Irina Alimova, Galina Fedorova, Elena Kosova, Anna Filonenko, Elena Cheburashkina and many others.

WHAT ABOUT “COLLEAGUES”?

The years of the Cold War have sunk into oblivion, today's world has become safer than 50 years ago, and foreign intelligence plays an important role in this. The changed military-political situation on the planet has led to the fact that today women are less used in operational work directly “in the field.” The exceptions here, perhaps, are again the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and the American CIA. IN last women not only perform the functions of “field” operational workers, but even lead intelligence teams abroad.

The coming 21st century will certainly be the century of the triumph of equality between men and women, even in such a specific area human activity, as intelligence and counterintelligence work. An example of this is the intelligence services of such a conservative country as England.

Thus, the book “Scouts and Spies” provides the following information about the “elegant agents” of the British intelligence services: “More than 40% of the MI6 intelligence and MI5 counterintelligence officers in Great Britain are women. In addition to Stella Rimington, who was until recently the head of MI5, four of the 12 counter-intelligence departments are also headed by women. In a conversation with members of the British Parliament, Stella Rimington said that in difficult situations, women are often more decisive and, when performing special tasks, are less susceptible to doubts and remorse for their actions compared to men.”

According to the British, the most promising is the use of women in efforts to recruit male agents, and an increase in female personnel among the operational staff as a whole will lead to an increase in the efficiency of operational activities.

The influx of women into the intelligence services is largely due to increased lately the number of male employees willing to leave the service and go into business. In this regard, the search and selection of candidates for work in the British intelligence services among female students of the country's leading universities has become more active.

Another sophisticated reader might probably say: “The USA and England are prosperous countries; they can afford the luxury of attracting women to work in the intelligence services, even in the role of “field players.” As for Israeli intelligence, it actively uses in its work the historical fact that women have always played and continue to play a major role in the life of the Jewish community in any country in the world. These countries are not our decree.” However, he will be wrong.

So, at the beginning of 2001, the Minister for All Intelligence Services Republic of South Africa became Lindiwe Sisulu. She was 47 years old at the time, and she was not new to the intelligence services. In the late 1970s, when the African National Congress party was still underground, it passed special training in the ANC military organization “Spear of the People” and specialized in intelligence and counterintelligence. In 1992, she headed the security department of the ANC. When a parliament united with the white minority was created in South Africa, she headed the committee on intelligence and counterintelligence. Since the mid-1990s, she worked as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. According to available information, the previously considered independent National Intelligence Agency also came under its control.

WHY DO INTELLIGENCE NEED THEM?

Why are women encouraged to serve in intelligence? Experts agree that a woman is more observant, her intuition is more developed, she likes to delve into details, and, as we know, “the devil himself lurks in them.” Women are more diligent, more patient, more methodical than men. And if we add their external data to these qualities, then any skeptic will be forced to admit that women rightfully occupy a worthy place in the ranks of the intelligence services of any country, being their adornment. Sometimes female intelligence officers are entrusted with carrying out operations related, in particular, to organizing meetings with agents in those areas where the appearance of men, based on local conditions, is extremely undesirable.

The combination of the best psychological qualities of both men and women conducting intelligence abroad, especially from illegal positions, is the strength of any intelligence service in the world. It is not for nothing that such intelligence tandems as Leontina and Morris Cohen, Gohar and Gevork Vartanyan, Anna and Mikhail Filonenko, Galina and Mikhail Fedorov and many others - known and unknown to the general public - are inscribed in golden letters in the history of foreign intelligence of our country.

When asked what the main qualities, in her opinion, an intelligence officer should have, one of the foreign intelligence veterans, Zinaida Nikolaevna Batraeva, answered: “Excellent physical training, learning abilities foreign languages and the ability to communicate with people.”

And today, even, unfortunately, quite rare publications in the media devoted to the activities of female intelligence officers convincingly indicate that in this specific sphere of human activity, representatives of the fair sex are in no way inferior to men, and in some ways they are superior their. As the history of the world's intelligence services teaches, a woman copes well with her role, being a worthy and formidable opponent of a man when it comes to penetrating into other people's secrets.

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE ADVICE

And in conclusion, we present excerpts from lectures by one of the leading American counterintelligence officers of his time, Charles Russell, which he gave in the winter of 1924 in New York at a gathering of US Army intelligence officers. Almost 88 years have passed since then, but his advice is relevant for intelligence officers in any country to this day.

Advice to counterintelligence officers:

“Women intelligence officers are the most dangerous enemy, and they are the most difficult to expose. When meeting such women, you should not let likes or dislikes influence your decision. Such weakness can have fatal consequences for you.”

Advice to scouts:

“Avoid women. With the help of women, many good scouts were caught. Don't trust women when you're working in enemy territory. When dealing with women, never forget to play your part.

A Frenchman who had escaped from a German concentration camp stopped at a café near the Swiss border, waiting for night to fall. When the waitress handed him the menu, he thanked her, which surprised her. When she brought him beer and food, he thanked her again. While he was eating, the waitress called a German counterintelligence officer because, as she later said, such a polite man could not be German. The Frenchman was arrested."

The basic rule of conduct for a scout:

“Beware of women! History knows many cases when women contributed to the capture of male intelligence officers. You should pay attention to a woman only if you suspect that she is an agent of the enemy’s intelligence or counterintelligence service, and then only if you are confident that you are in complete control of yourself.”

December 25th, 2010

The history of scouts and spies has always attracted people. After all, it seems that such work is full of adventures and dangers. But history has confirmed that espionage is not an exclusively male activity. Women also did this. The recent scandal with Anna Chapman has again revived interest in representatives of this secret profession. Who were the most famous female spies in history?

The most famous spy of all time is Mata Hari (1876-1917). Her real name is Margarita Gertrude Celle. As a child, she managed to get a good education, as her father was rich. The girl lived for 7 years in an unhappy marriage on the island of Java with her drinking and dissolute husband. Returning to Europe, the couple divorced. To earn a living, Margarita begins a career first as a circus rider, and then as an oriental dancer. The interest in the East, ballet and erotica was so great that Mata Hari became one of the celebrities of Paris. The dancer was recruited German intelligence even before the war, but during it she began to collaborate with the French. The woman needed money to cover her gambling debts. It is still not known for certain what high-ranking fans told her, and what Mata Hari conveyed as an agent. However, in 1917 she was captured by the French military, who quickly sentenced her to death. On October 15, the sentence was carried out. The true reason for the artist’s death may have been her numerous connections with high-ranking French politicians, which could have affected their reputation. Most likely, the role of Mata Hari as a spy is exaggerated, but the dramatic plot of the seductive agent attracted the interest of cinema.

(1844-1900) better known by her nickname La Belle Rebelle. During the American Civil War, she was a spy for the southern states. The woman passed on all the information she received to General Stonewall Jackson. No one could have suggested espionage activity in the innocent questions of the soldiers of the Northern States Army. There is a known case when on May 23, 1862, in Virginia, it was Boyd who crossed the front line in front of the northerners to report on the impending offensive. The spy was shot from rifles and cannons. However, the woman dressed in a blue dress and cap was not afraid. When the woman was captured for the first time, she was only 18 years old. However, thanks to a prisoner exchange, Boyd was freed. But a year later she was arrested again. This time a link awaited her. In her diaries, the spy wrote that she was guided by the motto: “Serve my country until my last breath.”

(1833-1893). And the northerners had their own spies. Polina Cushman was an American actress; she also did not remain indifferent during the war. And she was eventually caught and sentenced to death. However, the woman was later pardoned. With the end of the war, she began to travel around the country, talking about her activities and exploits.

(1907-1948). Yoshiko was a hereditary princess, a member royal family Japan. The girl got so used to someone else’s role that she loved to dress in men’s clothes and had a mistress. As a member of the imperial family, she had direct access to the representative of the royal Chinese dynasty, Pu Yi. In the 1930s, he was about to become the ruler of the province of Manchuria, a new state under Japanese control. In essence, Pu Yi would become a puppet in the hands of the cunning Kawashima. At the last moment, the monarch decided to refuse this honorary title. After all, it would be she who would essentially rule the entire province, listening to Tokyo’s orders. But the girl turned out to be more cunning - she placed poisonous snakes and bombs in the royal bed in order to convince Pu Yi of danger. He eventually succumbed to Yoshiko’s persuasion and in 1934 became Emperor of Manchuria.
(1910-1963). This woman was engaged in more than just diplomatic activities in Washington. The intelligence officer's career began with her marriage to the second secretary of the American embassy. He was 20 years older than Amy, she traveled with him around the world, not hiding her numerous novels. The husband did not mind, because he was an agent of British intelligence - his wife’s entertainment helped to obtain information. After the unexpected death of her husband, agent "Cynthia" heads to Washington, where she continues to help the country with cheap temptation and bribery. The Englishwoman used her bed to obtain valuable information from French and Italian employees and officers. Her most famous spy trick was opening a safe. French Ambassador. Through skillful actions, she was able to do this and copy the naval code, which then helped the Allied troops to land in North Africa in 1942.
(b. 1943). This woman studied politics at a good school, but after visiting the GDR in 1968, she was recruited by intelligence officers there. The woman simply fell in love with the handsome blond Schneider, who turned out to be a Stasi agent. Gabriela managed to get a position in 1973 Federal service German intelligence in Pullach. In fact, she was a spy for the GDR, passing on the secrets of Western Germany for 20 years. Communication with Schneider continued throughout this time. Gabriela had the pseudonym "Leinfelder", during her service she managed to rise through career ladder to a senior government official. The agent was exposed only in 1990. The following year she was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison. Having been released in 1998, Gast now works in an ordinary Munich engineering office.
(1907-2000). The German communist Ursula Kuczynski already in her youth actively participated in political activity. However, after marrying an architect, she was forced to move to Shanghai in 1930. It was then that the Soviet secret services recruited her, giving her the pseudonym “Sonya.” Ruth collected information for the USSR in China, collaborating with Richard Sorge. The husband had no idea what his wife was really doing. In 1933, the woman took a special course at an intelligence school in Moscow, then returned to China and continued collecting valuable data. Then there was Poland, Switzerland, England... Sonya's informants even served in the intelligence services of the United States and Europe. Thus, with its help, invaluable information was obtained about the creation of an atomic bomb in the United States directly from the project engineers! Since 1950, Werner lived in the GDR, writing several books there, including the autobiographical “Sonya Reports.” It is curious that twice Ruth went on missions with other intelligence officers, who, only according to impeccable documents, were listed as her husbands. However, over time, they really became like that, out of love.
(1921-1945). This Frenchwoman was already a widow at the age of 23; she decided to join the ranks of British intelligence. In 1944, the woman was sent to occupied France on a secret mission. She landed by parachute. At the destination, Violetta not only transmitted data on the number and location of enemy forces to headquarters, but also carried out a number of sabotage actions. The April part of the tasks was completed, the woman returned to London, where her little daughter was waiting for her. In June, Jabot is back in France, but now the mission ends in failure - her car is detained, the ammunition for the shootout runs out... However, the girl was captured and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which became famous for its brutal torture and medical experiments on prisoners. Having gone through a series of tortures, Violetta was executed in February 1945, just a few months short of the Victory. As a result, she became only the second woman in history to be posthumously awarded the St. George Cross (1946). Later, the intelligence officer was awarded the Military Cross and the Medal for Resistance.

From left to right: Regina Renchon ("Tigy"), wife of Georges Simenon, Simenon himself, Josephine Baker and her first husband, Count Pepito Abbitano. It is unknown who is fifth at the table. And there’s probably a waiter, always ready to pour some champagne.
(1906-1975). This American woman's real name was Frieda Josephine MacDonald. Her parents were a Jewish musician and a black laundress. Because of her origin, she herself suffered a lot - already at the age of 11 she learned what a pogrom in the ghetto was. In America, Baker was not liked because of the color of her skin, but in Europe she gained fame during the Parisian tour of the Revue Negre in 1925. An unusual woman walked around Paris with a panther on a leash, she was nicknamed "Black Venus". Josephine married an Italian adventurer, thanks to which she acquired the title of count. However, her place of activity remained the Moulin Rouge, and she also starred in erotic films. As a result, the woman made a great contribution to the development and promotion of all types of black culture. In 1937, Baker easily renounced her American citizenship in favor of French, but then the war began. Josephine became actively involved in the action, becoming a spy for the French resistance. She often visited the front and even trained to be a pilot and received the rank of lieutenant. She also financially supported the underground. After the end of the war, she continued to dance and sing, acting in television series along the way. Baker devoted the last 30 years of her life to raising children whom she adopted in different countries peace. As a result, a whole rainbow family of 12 children lived in her French castle - a Japanese, a Finnish, a Korean, a Colombian, an Arab, a Venezuelan, a Moroccan, a Canadian and three Frenchmen and a resident of Oceania. It was a kind of protest against the policies of racism in the United States. For her services to her second homeland, the woman was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and the Military Cross. At her funeral, official military honors were provided on behalf of the country - it was carried out with 21 rifle salvos. In the history of France, this was the first woman foreign origin, whose memory was thus honored.
Nancy Wake(Grace Augusta Wake)(b. 1912). The woman was born in New Zealand, and unexpectedly received a rich inheritance, she moved first to New York and then to Europe. In the 1930s, she worked as a correspondent in Paris, denouncing the spread of Nazism. With the German invasion of France, the girl and her husband joined the ranks of the Resistance, becoming its active member. Nancy had the following nicknames and pseudonyms: “White Mouse”, “Witch”, “Madame Andre”. With her husband, she helped Jewish refugees and Allied soldiers cross the country. Afraid of being caught, Nancy left the country herself, ending up in London in 1943. There she was trained as a professional intelligence officer and returned to France in April 1944. In the Overan area, the intelligence officer was involved in organizing the supply of weapons, as well as recruiting new members of the Resistance. Nancy soon learned that her husband had been shot by the Nazis, who demanded that he indicate the location of the woman. The Gestapo promised 5 million francs for her head. As a result, Nancy returns to London. Post-war she was awarded the Order of Australia and the George Medal. Wake published her autobiography, White Mouse, in 1985.
(b. 1943). The former British model, by the will of fate, turned out to be a “call girl”. In the 60s, it was she who provoked a political scandal in England, called the Profumo Affair. Christine herself acquired the nickname Mata Hari of the 60s. While working in a topless cabaret, she simultaneously entered into a relationship with the British Minister of War John Profumo and the USSR naval attache Yevgeny Ivanov. However, one of the beauty’s ardent admirers pursued her so persistently that the police, and later journalists, became interested in this case. It turned out that Christine was extracting secrets from the minister, then selling them to her other lover. During the outbreak loud scandal Profumo himself resigned, soon the Prime Minister, and then the Conservatives lost the elections. The minister, left without work, was forced to get a job as a dishwasher, while Christine herself earned herself another more money- after all, the beautiful spy was so popular with journalists and photographers.
Anna Chapman(Kushchenko) (b. 1982). This story became public only recently. The girl moved to England in 2003, and since 2006 in the USA she has headed her own real estate search company. On June 27, 2010, she was arrested by the FBI and on July 8 admitted that she had carried out intelligence activities. The girl tried to get information about US nuclear weapons, politics in the East, and influential people. The press was interested in a beauty with the appearance of a fashion model. It turned out that Anna carried out her actions while still in London. She was in a relationship with a certain peer from the House of Lords and even approached the princes. Anna was recently deported to Russia.

By the way, everyone is discussing how beautiful Chapman is. Do you like her?

Nathan Hale

Considered to be the first American spy. In his homeland, he became a symbol of his people’s struggle for independence. As a young patriotic teacher, Hale joined the army at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. When Washington needed a spy, Nathan volunteered. He obtained the necessary information within a week, but at the very last moment he signaled not to his own, but to the English boat, which resulted in the death penalty.

Major John Andre

The British intelligence officer was well known in the most best houses New York during the American Revolutionary War. After he was caught, the intelligence officer was sentenced to death by hanging.

James Armistead Lafayette

Became the first African-American agent during the American Revolution. His reports were instrumental in the defeat of British forces at the Battle of Yorktown.

Belle Boyd

Miss Boyd became a spy when she was 17 years old. She served the Confederacy in Dixie, the North, and England throughout the American Civil War. For her invaluable assistance during the campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, General Jackson promoted her to the rank of captain, took her as his aide-de-camp, and allowed her to attend all reviews of his army.

Emeline Pigott

She served in the Confederate Army in North Carolina. She was arrested several times, but each time after her release she returned to her activities.

Elizabeth Van Lew

Elizabeth was the most valuable Northern spy during the American Civil War in 1861. After her resignation in 1877, for the rest of her life she was supported by the family of a federal soldier, whom she had once helped escape.

Thomas Miller Beach

He was an English spy who served in the Northern Army during the American Civil War. He was not officially caught, but he had to give up his espionage activities.

Christian Snook Gyurhronje

The Dutch traveler and Islamic scholar undertook a scientific trip to Arabia and spent a whole year in Mecca and Jida under the guise of a Muslim lawyer.

Fritz Joubert Duquesne

In 10 years, he managed to organize the largest German spy network in the country. He himself explained this by the desire to take revenge on the British for the burning of his family estate. Recent years The spy spent his life in poverty in a city hospital.

Mata Hari

A modern prototype of the femme fatale. An exotic dancer, she was executed for spying for Germany in 1917.

Sydney Reilly

The British spy was nicknamed the "King of Spy." The super agent organized many conspiracies, and therefore became very popular in the film industry of the USSR and the West. It is believed that James Bond was based on him.

Cambridge Five

Network core Soviet agents in Great Britain, recruited in the 30s of the 20th century at the University of Cambridge. When the network was discovered, none of its participants were punished. Participants: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, John Cairncross.

Richard Sorge

Soviet intelligence officer during the Second World War. He also worked as a journalist in Germany and Japan, where he was arrested on charges of espionage and hanged.

Virginia Hall

An American volunteered for special operations during World War II. While working in occupied France, Hall coordinated the activities of the Vichy Resistance, was a correspondent for the New York Post, and was also on the Gestapo's "most wanted" lists.

Nancy Grace Augusta Wake

With the German invasion of France, the girl and her husband joined the ranks of the Resistance, becoming its active member. Fearing being caught, Nancy left the country herself, ending up in London in 1943. There she was trained as a professional intelligence officer and returned to France a year later. She was involved in organizing arms supplies and recruiting new members of the Resistance. After her husband's death, Nancy returned to London.

George Koval

A Soviet atomic intelligence officer obtained for Moscow in the mid-1940s the most valuable information on the Manhattan nuclear project in the USA and was recently posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia for this.

Elias Bazna

Worked as a valet English Ambassador in Turkey. Taking advantage of the ambassador's habit of picking up from the embassy secret documents home, began making photocopies of them and selling them to the German attaché Ludwig Moisisch.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Spouses Julius and Ethel, American communists, became the only civilians executed in the United States for transferring American nuclear secrets to the USSR.

Klaus Fuchs

A German nuclear physicist came to England in 1933. Klaus worked on the top-secret British atomic bomb project and later on the American Manhattan Project. He was arrested and imprisoned after it became clear that he was passing information to the USSR.