Two years ago, on June 21, 2017, one of the "golden galaxy" of legendary Soviet intelligence officers, Major General Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov, passed away. It is he who is called the true "father" of the famous special purpose unit of the KGB of the USSR "Vympel".
Soviet illegal intelligence
Legendary man, Yuri Drozdov not in vain earned the nickname Faberge in intelligence. He had a truly unique ability to turn any information into a real diamond, which was not ashamed to present to the higher management. And this information was obtained by the illegal intelligence subordinate to him.
In the structure of the USSR foreign intelligence, illegal work was assigned a very large role. And it was illegal intelligence that reached its true heights - Soviet agents were panicked in the West, because they did not know who was actually secretly working for the Soviet Union. The very structure of illegal intelligence took shape back in the 1920s, when the young Soviet state did not have diplomatic relations with most countries of the world. There was nowhere to get information - there were no official diplomatic workers, trade attachés, correspondents. Therefore, only illegal work remained.
In July 1954, within the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, which was responsible for foreign intelligence, on the basis of the 8th department, Directorate "C" was created - illegal intelligence. According to the widespread version, the department received as its name the capital letter of the surname of its founder, the master of illegal intelligence, General Pavel Sudoplatov.
Office "C" was a serious and ramified structure, including both analytical and service and intelligence departments, specializing in areas - Western Europe, North America, the Middle East, Hindustan and so on. The Cold War was going on and it depended on illegal intelligence no less than in the 1920s.
The heights reached by the Soviet illegal intelligence in the 1960s - 1980s, there is a huge contribution of the hero of this article - Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov, most of whose adult life was spent in the service in the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, including the Directorate "C", in charge of illegal intelligence.
From gunner to scout
The life path of Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov is amazing. He was born on September 19, 1925 in Minsk in the family of Ivan Dmitrievich Drozdov (1894-1978) and Anastasia Kuzminichna Drozdova (1898-1987). Drozdov Sr. was an officer in the tsarist army, fought on the fronts of the First World War, where he received the St. George's Cross. In February 1942, when the Great Patriotic War was already blazing, Ivan Drozdov, a 48-year-old former tsarist officer, went to the front as a simple Red Army soldier, went through the entire war and received a medal "For Courage".
Yuri Ivanovich also managed to fight in the Great Patriotic War. In July 1943, as a 17-year-old boy, he began serving in the Red Army and in 1944 he graduated from the 1st Leningrad Artillery School, which at that time was evacuated to Engels. From January 1, 1945, Yuri Drozdov - at the front as the commander of a fire platoon of the 57th separate anti-tank destroyer division of the 52nd Guards Rifle Division. For the destruction of 2 75-mm cannons, 1 anti-aircraft gun, 5 machine guns with crews and up to 80 enemy soldiers in the battles for Berlin, Lieutenant Drozdov was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
In 1956, Yuri Drozdov graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages and was soon hired by the USSR State Security Committee. He was sent to work in the official representation of the KGB of the USSR in the intelligence "Stasi" of the MGB of the GDR in Berlin. One of the first serious operations of Yuri Drozdov was his participation in the exchange of an illegal Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel for an American reconnaissance pilot Powers. Drozdov himself, under the pseudonym "Jurgen Drives", acted as Abel's German cousin.
He began his operational career in the official representation of the KGB of the USSR under the "Stasi" - the Ministry of State Security of the GDR in Berlin (since August 1957). Participated in the operation to exchange the Soviet illegal intelligence officer Rudolf Abel (under the pseudonym "Jurgen Drives" played the role of Abel's German cousin) for the American spy pilot Powers.
In 1958, the CIA allowed Abel to correspond with his family at home. The Center decided to join it from the territory of Germany. Abel's cousin, a petty employee Jurgen Drives, who lives in the GDR, was "made". They were instructed to become me. Jurgen established a correspondence with Abel through a lawyer, - then recalled Yuri Drozdov in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
In 1963, after six years of service in Germany, Drozdov was sent to advanced training courses for operational personnel, and then he was given a new, very important assignment. From August 1964 to 1968 Yuri Drozdov was a resident of the foreign intelligence of the KGB of the USSR in China.
In order to represent the responsibility of the new position, it must be said that it was at this time that China finally fell out with the Soviet Union. The Cultural Revolution was under way in China, Beijing tried to crush part of the world communist movement, having achieved special successes in Southeast Asia. And in such a situation, the tasks of the resident of the Soviet intelligence were very large-scale.
It is likely that it was precisely for his service in China that Yuri Ivanovich was promoted - in 1968 he was transferred to the central office of the PGU KGB, worked as the deputy head of the Department "C" of the illegal intelligence of the KGB of the USSR.
From August 1975 to October 1979, Yuri Drozdov was in a new super-responsible position as a resident of Soviet intelligence in the United States, working under the guise of the formal post of Deputy Permanent Representative of the USSR to the UN. It was the highest honor and great responsibility - to be responsible for all Soviet intelligence in the main potential enemy of the Soviet Union - the United States of America. Moreover, in that difficult period, when the world political situation again aggravated - conflicts flared up in Africa and Asia.
Illegal Intelligence Chief
In November 1979, Yuri Drozdov, a resident of the KGB PGU in the United States, was appointed deputy head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR - head of Department "C". Thus, under the command of Yuri Ivanovich was all Soviet illegal intelligence, including secret operations in third world countries. Yuri Drozdov headed the Soviet illegal intelligence service for twelve years - until 1991.
Already in December 1979, Yuri Drozdov had to participate in the development of an operation to storm the palace of Afghan President Hafizullah Amin in Kabul. It was the storming of Amin's palace, in which Yuri Ivanovich's direct subordinates also participated, that was followed by the introduction of Soviet troops into the territory of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the almost ten-year tragic epic of the Afghan war.
Naturally, the Department "C" of the PGU of the KGB of the USSR, which was headed by Yuri Drozdov, fell a huge burden. The intelligence officers of the department worked in Afghanistan itself, conducted illegal intelligence in neighboring countries, which supported the Afghan mujahideen and carried out the recruitment and training of their detachments on their territory. But in addition to directing the intelligence itself, Yuri Ivanovich had one more merit just in those years - it was he who stood at the origins of the legendary special forces "Vympel".
Father of "Vympel"
In the 1970s, the leadership of the KGB of the USSR took care of the formation of special-purpose units capable of performing special tasks in the framework of special operations. This is how group "A" - "Alpha" appeared, the main function of which was the fight against terrorism, and group "B" - "Vympel", intended for a completely different job.
On December 31, 1979, Major General Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov reported to the chairman of the KGB of the USSR Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov about the storming of the palace of Hafizullah Amin. The operation, as you know, was carried out by the forces of the special forces of the KGB of the USSR "Zenith" and "Thunder", the special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces (the so-called "Muslim battalion"). In this regard, Drozdov suggested Andropov to form a personnel unit as part of the KGB PGU to carry out such operations.
For a whole year, Drozdov's idea was discussed by the leaders of the KGB of the USSR, until on July 25, 1981, a closed resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the creation of a unit was issued. Officially, the order to create the Vympel Special Forces Group of the KGB of the USSR was signed on August 19, 1981. The main task of the group was called the conduct of operations outside the Soviet Union during a special (threatening) period.
Group "Vympel" became part of the Department "C" of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. From the very first days of its existence, General Drozdov took the most active part in its formation, control over the selection of personnel, and the training of the group. After all, he himself was not just a scout, but a military officer, a war hero. The very first commander of the Vympel Group was Captain 1st Rank Evald Grigorievich Kozlov, who came to Directorate C of the KGB PGU after serving in the Caspian Flotilla and graduating from the Military Diplomatic Academy.
Employees of state security agencies, military counterintelligence, servicemen of the border troops of the KGB of the USSR, who had undergone special training in courses for improving the operational staff, were selected to serve in Vympel. Naturally, the Afghan war became the baptism of fire of "Vympel".
The first team of "Vympel" consisted of 100 to 200 people who passed the most severe selection and individual training. At the same time, the main emphasis was not even on the skill of using weapons and physical training, which, of course, were already at their best, but on the intellectual, strong-willed, psychological qualities of the fighters. Drozdov himself called Pennant an intellectual special forces. And he was, of course, right.
There are no former security officers
Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov by the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union was already a middle-aged man of retirement age. He devoted his whole life to the service of the Motherland. In June 1991, shortly before his 66th birthday, Major General Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov retired, leaving the post of deputy head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. So when in August 1991 stormy events took place, referred to in Russian history as a coup, the legendary intelligence officer was no longer in the service. Formally. Because, as you know, there are no former Chekists.
Yuri Ivanovich headed the Namakon analytical center, the backbone of which was made up of the same former employees of political and military intelligence who still wanted to use their experience and knowledge for the benefit of the interests of the state.
Also, Yuri Drozdov was actively involved in social activities, was the Honorary President of the Association of Veterans of Special Forces and Special Services "Vympel-Soyuz", since until recently he was deeply respected among the employees of special forces and had indisputable authority.
Peru Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov owns a number of books, among which it is especially worth noting "Notes of the Chief of Illegal Intelligence". Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov lived a very long and interesting life. He passed away on June 21, 2017, before reaching his 92nd birthday. Major General Drozdov was buried with military honors at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.
