In the summer of 1978, an employee of the GRU Swiss residency, Vladimir Rezun, asked for asylum in the West. After a while, the defector appeared in England, and a few years later, one after another, sensational books about the Soviet past began to appear in the West, signed "Viktor Suvorov". Under this odious pseudonym, the traitor to the Motherland Rezun tried to go down in history.
Geneva. Representation of the USSR in the UN. Here the future writer Viktor Suvorov worked in the diplomatic field.
In fairness, it should be admitted that Rezun's literary and journalistic talent cannot be taken away, unless, of course, he wrote his books himself, and not a group of obscure literary blacks. But as a scout Rezun did not show himself in any way. In one of his most striking literary creations - the story "Aquarium" - Rezun persistently pursues the following idea: in Soviet strategic intelligence, all employees, they say, were divided into two unequal groups. One group is those who bring valuable information in their beak, gleaned from the agents they have recruited. The second group is everyone else. The first are the elite, intelligence wolves. They are their own masters, they plan the most complicated multi-step operations, they are forgiven a lot, because the life and activities of "Aquarium" is built on the principle "Winners are not judged." Rezun openly admires them, his entire book is a hymn to seasoned scouts who extract enemy secrets. The lot of the rest is to help and assist them in every possible way.
So, in real life, Rezun was one of those who helped and assisted the elite. His official "roof" is the permanent representation of Russia to the UN in Geneva, where he was listed as some kind of third-rate clerk. In the Swiss residency of the GRU, that is, at his main job, Rezun was also in the wings. He did not show himself in any special way, did not recruit a valuable agent, did not bring enemy secrets in his beak. But, probably, he really wanted this, so he sniffed with a secret officer of the British intelligence SIS in the hope of finding interesting sources of information with his help. However, the Englishman turned out to be more cunning, and soon Rezun himself fell for the bait. In Aquarium, a book largely autobiographical, Rezun explains the reasons for his failure and, as a result, his escape to the West by the fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong hour and thus became objectionable to his bosses. He was ordered to be removed, and Rezun, saving his life, was forced to flee to England.
Vladimir Rezun. Early 1970s
But those who knew Rezun well from work in the GRU have another explanation for the reason for the betrayal. The fact is that Rezun showed, to put it mildly, an increased interest in males. On this basis, he came to terms with some foreigner. The foreigner, as it turned out later, was skillfully set up by the enemy special services, and then they began to blackmail him. It is now on such "weaknesses" as non-traditional sexual orientation, they turn a blind eye and even find a lot of excuses for perverts. And in the "totalitarian" USSR, these "weaknesses" were considered a crime and were punished under the corresponding article of the Criminal Code. So, confused with a foreign fagot, Rezun committed a felony, which meant not only a prison term, but also the end of his foreign career. I had to apply for political asylum in England. There they have always found and continue to find shelter of all kinds of swindlers who are shining on prison bunks in their homeland. So Rezun was sheltered.
There was no sense from him, as from a scout, because Rezun had nothing to do with serious secrets. But his biting pen served Western propaganda well. Once in the West, Rezun quickly realized which books his new owners were interested in, and began to write them at the speed of light. His concept of the outbreak of World War II (more precisely, not his, but skillfully revised by him and abundantly supplied with "evidence") played the role of heavy artillery on the fronts of the information war that the Anglo-Saxons waged against the Soviet Union.
London. British intelligence headquarters. Her employees hooked Rezun
In the USSR, Vladimir Rezun, a GRU captain who fled to the West, was sentenced to death in absentia. By the way, Rezun himself reported this with some pride at every opportunity: here, they say, how I managed to annoy the system! For this, they say, he suffered … Then Boris Yeltsin, becoming president, with his highest decree forgave all the traitors and traitors, including Rezun, and the halo of the martyr somehow immediately faded. Later, in Rezun's books, meticulous researchers found so many falsifications, inconsistencies and distorted quotes that the bright image of Rezun the historian also faded. But the dull image of the traitor has not gone anywhere. And, although the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR in relation to Rezun was canceled by the Yeltsin decree, no one canceled his rightful place in the history of all-Russian betrayal.
