Vyacheslav Kevorkov - KGB officer. One of the most famous employees of domestic special services, who was actively involved in journalism after his resignation. The author of several high-profile books - The Kremlin Operetka, The Secret Channel, Confession Before Execution from the series Top Secret, What are the Presidents talking about? Secrets of the first persons.
It was he who served as the prototype for Vitaly Slavin, a KGB officer from the television series TASS authorized to declare. Has a reputation as one of the most mysterious personalities of the XX century.
Youth Officer
Vyacheslav Ervandovich Kevorkov was born in Moscow on July 21, 1924. After graduation, he entered the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. Now it is the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The university has been working in Moscow on Bolshaya Sadovaya since 1919. To this day, it is intended for the training of officer personnel in various fields.
Among his graduates are many famous scientists. For example, academician and translator Evgeny Chelyshev, as well as science fiction writer Arkady Strugatsky and actor Vladimir Etush. During the Second World War, Kevorkov Vyacheslav finished it.
By the way, at birth his last name was Gevorgyan, which the future intelligence officer soon replaced.
Service in Germany
Immediately after the end of World War II, Kevorkov Vyacheslav joined the translator of the Allied military administration, which was based in Berlin. Having proved himself well at this place of work, he transferred to the General Staff of the Soviet Army. There he worked under the command of the Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasilevsky. He also took part in the processes of exposing military personnel working for the Third Reich in Germany.
In 1950 he was transferred to the USSR Ministry of State Security, which was then led by Colonel General Viktor Abakumov. In the Ministry, Kevorkov Vyacheslav took the post of operative in the counterintelligence system. Over time, he rose to the post of deputy chief.
Secret channel
In 1969, Kevorkov Vyacheslav played a key role in creating a direct communication between the leaders of the USSR and Germany. The channel for secret communications was created on the personal instructions of the head of the state security committee, Yuri Andropov. Kevorkov became an important figure for creating this message from the Soviet side, bypassing diplomatic channels. Thus, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, and Willy Brandt, German Chancellor, got the opportunity to communicate directly, without the threat of leaks or wiretapping.
Later Kevorkov based on these events released the novel "The Secret Channel". Thanks to such communication, the leaders of the two European powers managed to hold negotiations that put an end to the war on the European continent. The result of the negotiations was the signing of the Soviet-West German Treaty, which took place in 1970.
This agreement affirmed the inviolability of the borders between the GDR and the FRG; the parties also promised to respect the integrity of all states within their current borders. Germany refused claims to East Prussia, primarily to the Kaliningrad region, and the USSR promised in the future not to impede the peaceful reunification of Germany, if the prerequisites for this arise.
Slavin prototype
Kevorkov was friends with the Soviet and British journalist Victor Louis, who was closely associated with the KGB and repeatedly performed committee tasks in countries around the world. Also among close friends was the famous writer Julian Semenov. He made Kevorkov the prototype of the protagonist of his novel and the series "TASS is authorized to declare."
In the film, Slavin is played by Yuri Solomin. According to the script, he is a KGB colonel who flies to Africa to deal with a CIA agent working in Moscow, gathering information about the situation in the fictional country of Nagonia.
In the course of the film, the hero of Solomin is accused of murder, goes to jail, but he still manages to transfer important secret documents and prevent the coup in Nagonia, which was prepared by American intelligence agencies.
Organ Careers
Meanwhile, Kevorkov’s career in the state security organs went uphill. In 1972, he became head of the third department of the Second Main Directorate of the KGB, which was responsible for counterintelligence.
The department was responsible for 12 departments, each of which worked in a certain direction. The 3rd department was responsible for relations with Germany.
In these years, thanks in large part to Kevorkov, Soviet intelligence managed to expose the network of agents of foreign intelligence services. To do this, Vyacheslav Yervandovich (at that time already major general of the KGB), with the support of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, created a security service.
It is known that Kevorkov spoke closely with the KGB chairman Yuri Andropov, with whom he was well acquainted with fulfilling special tasks in the FRG, as well as with the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev. With the latter, thanks in large part to connections with his daughter Galina.
Spy Journalism
Seriously journalism Kevorkov engaged in the 90s, after he left the service in state security. It was at this time that he decided to become a writer Kevorkov. The Kremlin Operetka became his first documentary novel.
It is dedicated to the events of the August coup of 1991 , which took place in Moscow. There is not a single gram of fiction in it, all the facts cited in it are based on real documents, mainly on the materials of a criminal case against the leaders of the State Emergency Committee.
The novel contains many details that were not previously known to a wide circle of readers. It is especially important that the author himself was a direct participant in those events, he saw the whole situation from the inside. From August 19 to August 22, he spent most of the time at the walls of the White House. At that time, Kevorkov served as deputy general director of the TASS news agency, for this reason his activities were also under suspicion, which is why he was repeatedly called for interrogations, but was not convicted of anti-government actions.
The novel “Kremlin Operetka” was published at the Gaia Publishing House in Moscow in 1997.
The next piece was the already mentioned "Secret Channel", which tells about the organization of special communications between the highest leadership of Germany and the USSR to establish a peaceful situation in Europe.
House on Lubyanka
The next novel by Kevorkov was released after a long break only in 2005 in the series "Top Secret". This time it was dedicated to the work of the counterintelligence department in the USSR in the 1950s. This is the 4th book, the author of which is Kevorkov Vyacheslav. "Confession before the execution" is dedicated to the figure of Victor Abakumov. At that time, he served as Minister of State Security of the USSR.
The book describes a mysterious and sinister building on Lubyanka Square, which has scared many Soviet citizens for decades. What happened behind these walls, who was the main character? This is what the author is trying to figure out.
Riddle of Abakumov
The main character of the novel is Victor Abakumov, a dark person, not completely unraveled and understood by contemporaries. During World War II, he led the main counterintelligence department SMERSH. He was later the Minister of State Security. However, in this high post he worked only 5 years, and in 1951 he was arrested by personal order of Stalin. He was accused of treason and organizing a Zionist conspiracy in the Ministry of State Security.
Immediately, a sentence was not passed to Abakumov and he lived in prison until Stalin's death. However, after that he was not acquitted and released. On the contrary, he was charged again. This time, Abakumov was found guilty of the fact that on his personal order the Leningrad Case was fabricated . Under this common name, a series of lawsuits in the Soviet Union is known in the late 1940 - early 1950s. They were directed against party and state leaders of the republics that were part of the USSR.
On December 19, 1954, a closed court sentenced in the case of Abakumov, he was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in the town of Levashovo near Leningrad.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1997, the case of Abakumov was reviewed. The sentence was retrained under the article military-official crimes, the execution was replaced by 25 years in prison.
What really happened remains unclear so far. About 100 volumes of the criminal case of Viktor Abakumov were never declassified.
Legendary person
In 2010, the publishing house "7 Days" released another novel, the author of which was Kevorkov - "Victor Louis. A man with a legend." It is dedicated to the mysterious and tragic fate of a friend of the writer, a Soviet and English journalist who carried out instructions from the KGB.
Working for one of the best intelligence services in the world, he was partly an adventurer, while an extremely resourceful person who always found a way out of almost any situation. So who was he really and how did he manage to get exclusive information for his reports and publications? Kevorkov is trying to answer these questions.
Who is Victor Louis?
In this book, Victor Louis speaks frankly about himself for the first time. For example, how he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for working for a dozen intelligence agencies around the world at the age of 20, but managed to escape punishment by anticipating the death of Stalin.
Here is a lot of information about the scandalous memories of the leader’s daughter - Svetlana Alliluyeva, which Louis transmitted to the West. As it turns out, he worked not only for Soviet, but also for American intelligence. With his help, overseas learned about the upcoming resignation of Nikita Khrushchev and received memoirs of the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee, which he personally dictated to the tape recorder.
All these memories were carefully recorded by Vyacheslav Kevorkov, with whom they were close friends. The author himself notes that during the life of Louis there were many versions and rumors about his work and fate. Many just fantasized. Victor himself told his life to the author already being seriously ill. Then Kevorkov received permission to publish his memoirs after death.
Victor Louis died in London in 1992, is buried in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
Presidential Secrets
Another novel by Kevorkov was "What are the presidents talking about? Secrets of the first persons." In it, the author narrates that problems with the leak of information from special services have existed at all times. For example, when the Soviet Union was negotiating with its closest NATO allies, which, in turn, required complete secrecy, special secret channels of special communications were created for this.
First, negotiations were conducted in this way with Charles de Gaulle, and later with Willy Brandt. Thanks to this book, readers for the first time learn all the details of the Soviet-West German summits.
State Security Guide
Kevorkov worked not only independently, but also in the group. So, he took part in the creation of the collection "KGB Travel Guide for Cities of the World". Among the authors - professionals, Soviet intelligence. They talk about work in different parts of the globe - Berlin, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Delhi.
With the help of their frank stories, not only the sights of these cities, but also the way of life of their residents, the details of the operations that the KGB officers carried out abroad, become well acquainted with a wide circle of readers. One of the storytellers is Vyacheslav Kevorkov. Books disperse in a large circulation.
Retirement
Having finished work in the state security organs, Kevorkov went to retire. Today, he left Russia and lives in Germany, near Bonn. It is well known from open sources that he still maintains contact with German politician Egon Bar. In the 70s, he worked as Minister for Special Assignments and Economic Cooperation with the Federal Republic of Germany.
He, like Kevorkov, was one of the participants in the creation of a secret communication channel between the highest leadership of the USSR and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969.
Last romantic
In 2014, Vyacheslav Kevorkov turned 90 years old. For the anniversary of the famous scout, the state-run Rossiya television channel prepared a documentary program, The Last Romantic of Counterintelligence.
The film was released on July 27, gathering a large audience at the screens. A lot of archival materials and personnel were used in the picture. The film was based on a detailed and frank interview of Vyacheslav Kevorkov himself.