Once I saw on TV on a news program how the general was handing out a document on rehabilitation to an elderly man. Out of journalistic habit, she wrote: “Anatoly Markovich Gurevich, the last of the surviving members of the“Red Capella”. Lives in St. Petersburg. Soon I went there to find Anatoly Gurevich.
It turned out to be difficult. At the information kiosk, I was told that, according to the new rules, I must first ask if Gurevich would agree to transfer his address to a stranger. My business trip seemed to be failing.
And then I called the organization "Children of the besieged Leningrad": I always went to them when I came to the northern capital. She told about her search. And suddenly in this organization they said to me: “But we know him well. He performed with us. Write down your phone number and address."
The next day I went to see him. An elderly man opened the door for me, in whose smile and gestures one could feel the ability to win people over to him. He invited me to his office. Every day I came to him, and our conversation continued until the evening. His story was surprisingly frank and confidential. And his wife, caring Lydia Vasilievna, when she saw that he was tired, interrupted us, inviting us to the table.
… Anatoly Gurevich studied in Leningrad at the Institute "Intourist". Preparing to become a guide, I studied German, French, Spanish. He was a notable student at the institute. He played in an amateur theater, learned to shoot at a shooting range and headed a detachment of the Air Defense Forces. From a young age, he showed a breadth of interests, a willingness to endure big overloads. In 1937, Gurevich volunteered for Spain, where there was a civil war. Becomes an interpreter at the headquarters of the international brigades. When he returned to the USSR, he was offered to enter the military intelligence service. He was trained as a radio operator and cipher officer. In the Lenin Library, he studied Uruguayan newspapers, the street plan of the capital of Uruguay, its sights. Before he hit the road, the Main Intelligence Directorate racked their brains a lot to confuse his tracks. First, as a Mexican artist, he will travel to Helsinki. Then to Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Paris.
On the outskirts of Paris, he meets with a Soviet intelligence officer. He gives him a Mexican passport and in return receives a Uruguayan passport in the name of Vincente Sierra. So for the coming years, Gurevich will become a Uruguayan …
There are many paradoxical stories associated with intelligence. One of them: the Soviet intelligence center never created an organization called the Red Capella.
Even before the war, scattered reconnaissance groups appeared in different European countries - in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, each of which worked autonomously. At a powerful German radio intercept station, several radio stations were found working. Still not knowing how to penetrate the secret of the cipher, German specialists carefully wrote down each radiogram, put them in a special folder on which was written: "Red Chapel." So this name was born in the depths of the Abwehr and remained in the history of World War II.
Gurevich arrives in Brussels. Here he meets with Soviet intelligence officer Leopold Trepper. They walk towards each other, holding magazines with bright covers. Trepper gives the "Uruguayan" Kent information about the Brussels reconnaissance group, which he previously created. Kent becomes the head of the intelligence group in Belgium.
Gurevich has such a "legend": he is the son of wealthy Uruguayan businessmen who recently died, leaving him with a substantial inheritance. Now he can travel the world. Gurevich settled in a quiet boarding house surrounded by flower beds. Here he liked both the good-natured hostess and the exquisite cuisine. But one day you have to urgently leave your usual place. The owner informed him that one of the rooms had been booked by a businessman from Uruguay. Gurevich realized that he would fail. In the morning, under a plausible pretext, he leaves the boarding house.
As befits a wealthy man, he rents a spacious apartment in the center of Brussels. In these days, Gurevich, he resembles a man who was thrown into the river, barely taught to swim. However, we must pay tribute to his natural savvy. Living in someone else's image, he tries to remain himself. What was Gurevich doing in Leningrad? He studied constantly. He decided to become a student in Brussels and entered a school called “For the Chosen”. Children of state officials, senior officers, large businessmen study here. At this school, Gurevich is busy studying languages. Communicating with students, he learns a lot of valuable things that are of interest to Soviet intelligence. According to the "legend" Gurevich came to Brussels to do business, and so he enters to study at a commercial institute.
In March 1940, Gurevich received an encrypted message from Moscow. He needs to leave for Geneva and meet with the Soviet intelligence officer Sandor Rado. It was necessary to find out why the connection with him was cut off. Nobody knew, maybe Rado was arrested and Gurevich would fall into a trap.
“I was only given the address, name and password,” said Anatoly Markovich. - Arriving in Geneva, it was as if I accidentally came to the street that was indicated in the encryption. I began to watch the house. I noticed that people often came out of the doors with rolls of geographic maps. The store was located here. I called Sandor Rado, and soon we met. Sandor Rado was a geographer. He was a staunch anti-fascist. Of his own free will, he began to help Soviet intelligence. In Geneva, under his leadership, radio stations operated, which transmitted messages to Moscow.
Gurevich taught Sandor Radu a new cipher and gave him a radio communication program. Subsequently, Sandor Rado wrote about this meeting: “Kent gave a detailed and sensible briefing. He really knew his job."
Even if Gurevich could not do anything more significant, this successful trip to Geneva and his meeting with Sandor Rado would be worthy to go down in the history of military intelligence.
The code he gave to the Geneva Resistance group was in use for four years. Sandor Rado sent hundreds of radio messages to Moscow. Many of them were so valuable that they seemed to have fallen to the scouts from Hitler's own headquarters. Geneva in those days received many emigrants from Germany, including those who understood that Hitler was leading the country to ruin. Among them were people from high-ranking circles in Germany who had extensive information, they also had friends in Berlin who shared their views. Valuable information flocked to Geneva.
Gurevich rents a villa in the suburbs of Brussels on Atrebat street. The radio operator Mikhail Makarov, who arrived from Moscow, lives here. According to his passport, he is also Uruguayan. There is another experienced radio operator in this group - Kaminsky. Here is Sophie Poznanska, who is trained as a cryptographer. The neighbors are unhappy that music is often played in the villa in the evenings. So the underground tried to drown out the sounds of Morse code.
Gurevich shows a rare skill - he finds a way out in the most difficult situations. He needs money to maintain a villa with underground workers, and he himself has a luxurious apartment.
Gurevich decides to become a real businessman in order to earn money for exploration.
The millionaires Singer live in the same house with him. He often visited them in the evenings - to play cards, listen to music. The Singer's daughter Margaret is especially pleased with his arrival. Young people clearly sympathize with each other. The Singers are about to leave for the United States, as the war is already on the doorstep of Belgium. Gurevich more than once told the Singers about his dream - to open his own company. The Singers are ready to help him. They will hand over the premises to him, as well as their business connections. They ask him to take care of Margaret as she refuses to travel with her parents. Soon, a message appeared in the press about the opening of the Simeksko trading company. Gurevich becomes its president. He opens branches in other cities. Margaret as hostess invites guests. Gurevich and Margaret live in a civil marriage.
This reputable company receives orders from the Wehrmacht quartermaster service. Gurevich made an incredible combination. The German military is transferring money to the Simeksko account, which goes to the maintenance of the Soviet reconnaissance group.
If you were to create a series dedicated to Gurevich, it could be called “Seventeen Moments of Victory”. Of course, he was lucky, but he himself showed a rare resourcefulness.
Gurevich receives a new difficult and dangerous task. He needs to get to Berlin and meet with the German members of the Resistance. The radiogram was sent to Kent in August 1941. Troubled time in Moscow. When compiling the radiogram that Kent received, an oversight was made, which would lead to a terrible tragedy, at the end of which an executioner, a rope noose and a guillotine would appear in a dark dungeon … phone numbers.
Gurevich recalled: “I arrived in Berlin by train and went to look for one of the addresses. I knew only the name and surname - Harro Schulze-Boysen. Who this person was, I, of course, did not know. Climbing the stairs, I read the inscriptions on the copper plates of the doors. I was extremely surprised - generals and admirals lived in the house. I thought there was some mistake. An underground worker cannot live in such a house. I decided to call from a pay phone booth. A woman's voice answered me: "Now I will approach you." A beautiful woman came out of the house. It was Schulze-Boysen's wife. Her name was Libertas. In a lively conversation, I gave her the password. Libertas said her husband was away on a business trip. But I must return in the evening. She asked me not to call again. I felt my accent. I realized that Libertas was aware of her husband's affairs. She made an appointment for me: "Tomorrow my husband Harro will come to the subway near your hotel."
The next day, at the appointed time, I stood near the subway. Suddenly I saw a German officer coming towards me. Frankly, I felt creepy. I thought that I was going to end up in the dungeons of the Gestapo. But coming up to me, the officer gave me the password. It was Harro Schulze-Boysen. To my surprise, he invited me to visit. In his office, I saw books in different languages, including Russian.
“That evening my surprise knew no bounds. Harro Schulze-Boysen put a bottle of … Russian vodka on the table. He raised a toast to the victory of the Red Army. And this is in Berlin, in the days when the Wehrmacht troops were on the outskirts of Moscow."
Gurevich took out a notebook and in sympathetic (invisible) ink began to write down strategically important information that Schulze-Boysen had communicated to him. Here, for the first time, the name of the city sounded - Stalingrad, where a grandiose battle will unfold, which will be called the decline of Hitler's military power. Schulze-Boysen announced the plans of the Hitlerite command for 1942. The main blow will be delivered in the south. The purpose of the operation is to cut the Volga and seize the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus. The German armed forces are experiencing an acute shortage of gasoline. In his notebook, Gurevich also writes down information about how many and at which factories in Germany are produced combat aircraft. No chemical warfare devices have yet been installed on German aircraft. However, the warehouses contain a large amount of toxic substances. And another important message: in the city of Petsamo, during the offensive, German intelligence seized a safe with the diplomatic code of the Soviet Foreign Commissariat. The radio messages that are sent through diplomatic channels are not a secret for the German leadership. Schulze-Boysen also said - where is Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia.
Who was he - Harro Schulze-Boysen and how did it happen that he began to help Soviet intelligence? In the early 1930s, he studied at the University of Berlin. In those days, political disputes about the future of the country raged here. Harro Schulze-Boysen, together with his friends, began to publish a magazine called "Opponent". The magazine provided a tribune for students of a wide variety of views. There was no place on its pages for the Nazis.
Schulze-Boysen grew up in a family that was proud of their ancestry. Harro was the great-nephew of Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, who was the founder of the German navy. A super-powerful battleship, which had no equal during the war, was named after him. Harro grew up to be an independent and courageous person. After Hitler came to power, the Gestapo drew attention to the student magazine "Opponent", officers in black uniforms appeared in the editorial office. They arrested Harro Schulze-Boysen and his friend Henry Erlander. The Gestapo decided to subject them to severe torture. In the courtyard of the prison, executioners with rubber truncheons lined up in two rows. Henry Erlander was dragged out of the cell. He was thrown through the line. Two dozen thugs beat him from both sides with a mocking laugh: “Give him some more boots! It seems to him not enough! " In front of Harro's eyes, his friend was beaten to death.
Harro's mother was busy about the fate of her son. Unlike Harro, she was a staunch fascist. Among her friends was Hermann Goering, who was called "the second after Hitler."
Harro's mother turned to him. Goering promised to help her. Harro was released from prison. However, while still in his cell, he vowed to avenge his friend's death. He realized that his country fell into the hands of cruel and insidious punishers. When the war began, his sympathies turned to the USSR. He believed that the Red Army would free his homeland from the brown plague. Goering, at the request of his mother, took Harro to work in the Ministry of Military Aviation, which he headed. Harro read many documents that were classified as state secrets. He established contact with Soviet intelligence through his friend Arvid Harnak, who worked in the Ministry of Economy. In the 30s, Arvid Harnak came to the USSR as part of a delegation that studied the planned economy. Harnak visited many cities and construction sites in the Soviet Union. He did not hide his anti-fascist views and sympathies for the Soviet country. During the trip, Soviet intelligence drew attention to him. This is how passwords, secret meetings, and then a radio transmitter appeared.
Subsequently, Harnack and Schulze-Boysen met and became friends. These two, risking their lives, collected information for Soviet intelligence, they became the center of the Berlin group of anti-fascists, who considered it their duty to fight the Nazi regime.
Gurevich returns to Brussels and gets to work. The supposedly blank pages of a notebook come to life under the influence of reagents, and Kent sends one by one encryptions to the intelligence center. He passes part of the texts to the radio operator Makarov. Transmitters in Brussels work for 5-6 hours, which was unacceptable from a security point of view. The scouts understood this, but courageously carried out their military duty. They did not know that these days a car with a powerful direction finder was driving around the streets of Brussels - "a miracle of technology," as the German officers called it. Once in the suburb of Brussels on the street Atrebat, the German radio operators caught the signals of the radio transmitter. They managed to locate the house from where the radio communication sounds were coming from. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, Makarov managed to throw encrypted messages into the fireplace. He was arrested and pushed into a car. Radio operator David Kaminsky jumped out of the window, but fell, wounded, in the street. The Gestapo arrested him, as well as the encryptor Sophie Poznanska and the owner of the villa, Rita Arnu. It happened on the night of December 13, 1941.
In the morning, Leopold Trepper, who had arrived from Paris, knocked on the door of the villa. He saw the overturned furniture, the crying mistress Arnu. Leopold Trepper said he got the address wrong. His documents were in order, and he was released. On the phone, he informed Kent about the pogrom at the villa. “I shouted at him,” Gurevich said. - He broke all the rules of conspiracy. Leopold went to Paris. I, too, had to urgently hide. But what about Margaret? She knew nothing of my secret life. I told her that my compatriots had been caught in speculation. The police will possibly check the cases of all Hispanics. So I'd better leave. She asked with tears to take her with her. We got to Paris and then to Marseille, which was in an unoccupied part of France. In this city, I prudently opened a branch of my company Simeksko. The firm was profitable, and we led a normal life. They lived here for almost a year."
Further secrets and different versions begin. Who issued the addresses of the underground and the cipher they used? Anatoly Gurevich believed that the code was issued by one of the radio operators, unable to withstand the torture.
French writer Gilles Perrault found a German officer who made the arrests in a villa in Brussels. He said that the owner of the villa remembered the name of the book, which was always on the table of her guests. The Gestapo found the book from second-hand booksellers in Paris. This book served as the basis for the discovery of the secret of the cipher. German specialists began to read the radiograms that had accumulated in the folder of the Red Chapel. The turn came to encryption, in which the names and addresses of the Berlin underground fighters were indicated. Harro Schulze-Boysen was arrested at work. His wife Libertas was detained at the station, she tried to leave. Arvid Harnak and his wife were arrested.
“Harro Schulze-Boysen and his friends were real heroes. People like them helped save many lives of our soldiers,”Anatoly Gurevich said about the underground workers.
In November 1942, Gurevich and his wife Margaret were arrested. Only during interrogations did Margaret find out that she fell in love with a Soviet intelligence officer.
Gurevich was able to prove that she was not involved in his affairs. In the cell, he learns that he has fallen into a trap. On his behalf, encrypted messages were sent to the Moscow intelligence center. At the same time, he allegedly reports that he is at large and continues to conduct reconnaissance. In desperation, Gurevich decides to join the radio game that the Abwehr started. He hopes that in some clever way he will be able to convey that he is arrested and is working under control. And over time he succeeded.
Gurevich was able to establish a special relationship with the Abwehr officer Pannwitz, who was in charge of the affairs of the "Red Chapel". He knew that Pannwitz was involved in a punitive operation against the Czech village of Lidice, which had been wiped out. British paratroopers were also killed there. With all the audacity of a desperate Gurevich told Pannwitz that he was concerned about his fate. He cannot be captured by the allies. The British will not forgive him for the death of their parachutists. What was left for him? Surrender to Soviet troops. The story may seem incredible, but Pannwitz will indeed end up in Moscow. Pannwitz looked at Kent's work without his previous control. And he managed to convey a hidden message that he was under arrest.
Gurevich learned about the death of Harro Schulze-Boysen. Once he was the first to report that the Wehrmacht would advance in the south. He will not have time to learn about our victory in Stalingrad.
He will be led to execution in December 1942, in the very days when the divisions of the Red Army were squeezing the ring around the encircled Nazi troops. Arvid Harnak was executed along with him. A terrible execution awaited Libertas. Her head was cut off on the guillotine. Harnack's wife, Mildred, and all the women who participated in the Red Chapel, died on the guillotine. More than 100 people were executed in total. Some were hanged, others were shot.
… Kent, together with Pannwitz, his secretary Kempka and the German radio operator Stluka, travels to Austria. Pannwitz informs Gurevich that his wife Margaret gave birth to a son in a concentration camp. Pannwitz was tasked with setting up bases in Austria for those who would fight after Germany's defeat. But now everyone is concerned about their salvation. Essentially, Kent commands the group's actions. Around the house where they took refuge, shots and commands in French are heard. Kent does not lose his composure in this situation. He goes out onto the porch and shouts in French: “I am a Soviet officer! We are carrying out the task of the Soviet intelligence!"
At his request, they are taken to Paris. Gurevich comes to the Soviet consulate. Explains that he would like to bring his jailer Pannwitz to Moscow. In June 1945, Gurevich and the German group were sent to Moscow by plane. “I wanted to drive through Red Square. I dreamed about it, - said Anatoly Markovich. - I had a backpack full of documents from the Red Capella. They will help you figure it out. But the car turned towards the building of the NKVD.
A fast court issued a ruling to Gurevich: 20 years of forced labor camps under the article - treason to the Motherland. He worked in Vorkuta on the construction of mines.
In 1955, under an amnesty, he was released. But he was not amnestied. He began to write to high authorities, seeking amnesty. And someone, having read his letter, was indignant: "He is still writing!"
On the train, Gurevich met a pretty girl, Lida Kruglova. On the days when they are preparing for their honeymoon, an order comes for his new arrest. He was sent to a Mordovian camp. Instead of a wedding dress, his bride will wear a quilted jacket and go to see the prisoner Gurevich. Will wait for his release. For the rest of his life, he will call her his guardian angel. She turned out to be a man of rare kindness.
Nevertheless, Gurevich will achieve his complete rehabilitation. The stigma of the traitor will be removed from his name. In the archive they will find a document confirming that Gurevich informed Moscow that he was working under control. The intelligence center approved his radio game. He lived a long life. Anatoly Markovich Gurevich died in 2009, he was 95 years old.
… When I was in St. Petersburg, I always went to see the Gurevichs. I was amazed at his goodwill. Having survived so many dangers and injustices, Anatoly Markovich did not become embittered, retained an enlightened smile and humor. His positivity is also one of the victories he has won in his life.
