"Viktor Suvorov. Inside soviet military intelligence (англ) " - читать интересную книгу автора

own wish.
After the Finnish scandal, Stalin did not order a purge of the GRU. It
is probable that at that time there was nobody to purge, but he still
ordered the execution of General Proskurov, the new head of the GRU, and his
staff because of Proskurov's disagreement with him over the Hitler-Stalin
pact. In June 1940 General Filipp Golikov was appointed chief of the GRU.
Under Golikov the GRU was reborn amazingly quickly into an effective
intelligence force. There has been much speculation about this period. Did
the GRU know of the plans for Germany's attack on the Soviet Union or not?
The best answer to the question must lie in Golikov's own survival. Seven
leaders before him and two after him were murdered, yet he went on to become
Stalin's Deputy of Personnel and Marshal of the Soviet Union. The political
leadership may not take the right decision, even with the best information
that Golikov could give, but it will not bite the hand that feeds it.
The war had begun with a catastrophic defeat for the Soviet Union. In
the first few hours the German Army succeeded in securing a strategic
initiative. Thousands of serviceable aircraft were destroyed on their
airfields and thousands of tanks burned in their own parks.
It may have been that Stalin spared Golikov in order to give him a
testing assignment. He was certainly told to take himself abroad and revive
and renew the GRU agent network which had been cut off immediately. He went
first to England and then to the United States and, to give him his due,
this time he succeeded in carrying out his work in an exemplary manner. For
his visits to Great Britain and the United States he naturally did not use
faked documents. He came, with a numerous entourage, as the head of an
official Soviet military delegation to obtain American and British
armaments. For the chief of the GRU and his colleagues the doors of secret
factories and laboratories were opened - the very places Soviet intelligence
had been trying for decades to penetrate. This historical visit was the
beginning of intense penetration by Soviet military intelligence of the
armaments industries of America and Britain. Golikov also succeeded, albeit
only temporarily, in establishing communications with GRU illegals who were
functioning on territory occupied by Germany; but this also signalled the
beginning of GRU penetration of the German general staff from many different
quarters. The consequences of this were that, beginning with Stalingrad,
even top secret plans of the German High Command were known to Soviet
front-line generals before they were known to the German field commanders.
And the Soviet military leadership was equally enlightened as to the plans
of its allies, the Americans and the British. Churchill bears witness to the
fact that Stalin enumerated several points as to the contents of British top
secret plans, though he attributes such enlightenment to Stalin's genius in
foreseeing the future. The only thing that is not clear is why Stalin did
not display a similar clairvoyancy with regard to Hitler's intentions in
1941 and the beginning of 1942.
In the autumn of 1941 Golikov returned from the United States, an
another exceptionally successful visit. He could not, of course, expect to
keep his post, but he stayed alive, and even kept his General's rank. On 13
October he was relieved of the command of the GRU and appointed commander of
the 10th Army.
Later, in 1944, Stalin gave Golikov yet another chance to expiate his