Gohar Vartanyan: a scout must always keep himself under control. The legendary Soviet intelligence officer Gevorkian Gohar died - this is a “treasure”

Gevork Vartanyan photography

Wife – Gohar Levonovna Vartanyan (born 1926).

Richard Sorge, Nikolai Kuznetsov - Heroes of the Soviet Union - legendary intelligence officers of the 20th century. Their activities had a significant impact on the course of major strategic operations during the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War, moreover, on their results in general. In Soviet foreign intelligence, which has sustained worldwide recognition as one of the best intelligence services in the world, they are a measure of skill, a kind of bar of the highest professional level, courage, and heroism.

Among intelligence officers, illegal immigrants stand apart. Even decades later, they do not have the right to speak publicly about their work and life. The biographies of these people sometimes entirely or most of them remain sealed under seven seals. This is the specificity of the profession.

Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan occupies a special place among illegal intelligence officers. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, third after R. Sorge and N. Kuznetsov, when he had more than 40 years of intelligence work behind him. This highest title was awarded to him for exceptional results in the service of the Fatherland, which cannot be disclosed in this article with the exception of only some touches from the distant 1940s - 1950s, when he was still a boy, then a youth and a very young man, making increasingly significant steps as a hereditary illegal intelligence officer.

Father G.A. Vartanyan worked as director of an oil mill at Stepnaya station near Rostov. He was associated with Soviet foreign intelligence, and in 1930, when Gevork was 6 years old, an Iranian citizen and his family went to Iran on an intelligence mission. The family had four children: two daughters and two sons. At that time, Gevork, of course, did not yet know what his parents were doing. My father was imprisoned several times on suspicion of connections with Soviet foreign intelligence. His mother visited him and brought him parcels. And since in a Muslim country a woman is not supposed to walk down the street alone, she took her son with her. During the father's imprisonment, the Soviet station in Iran helped the family. The son began to notice how his mother received something and gave it to his father secretly. By the age of twelve, he already clearly understood that his father was an intelligence officer.

Gevorg studied at an Iranian school, and Farsi became his second native language. Despite the fact that he had to grow up far from his homeland, he grew up a patriot. The father raised the whole family in the spirit of patriotism, love for the motherland, the Soviet Union, and Russia. Somehow he got both newspapers and books, the children read Pushkin and Lermontov.

At the age of less than 16, Gevork also threw in his lot with Soviet foreign intelligence. The first task received from the resident in Tehran - to put together a group of like-minded people - he completed quickly. The group included 7 people - Armenians, Assyrians, one Lezgin. These were young men 17–18 years old, all from the Soviet Union. In 1937–1938, for one reason or another, their families were deported to Iran, but despite this, they all remained patriots of their country.

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The newly created group received the task of conducting external surveillance of fascist agents in Tehran. At that time, the fascist station was headed by the famous intelligence officer Franz Mayer. Before the war, he worked in Moscow, was also at the front in Poland, spoke excellent Iranian and Russian languages, and knew how to masterfully impersonate and change clothes. But the guys kept him under surveillance. They lacked professionalism, but their senior comrades suggested how best to conduct observation and taught. Naturally, an experienced intelligence officer could not help but notice such surveillance, but he was unlikely to take it seriously.

For a year and a half, the group monitored the fascist station in Tehran and during this time identified about 400 agents among Iranians working for Germany. These were the highest officials of the Shah's palace, ministers, and large manufacturers. They were preparing a springboard for the German invasion of the territory of the Soviet Union from the south of Iran. If Stalingrad fell, such an invasion would take place. But in August 1941, Soviet and British troops entered Iran, and a little later - American troops. All identified fascist stations were arrested and mostly recruited to work for the Soviet Union and England. Those few who firmly stood on the fascist position were deported to the USSR. Later, after the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, they agreed to cooperate with the Soviet Union and in this capacity returned to Iran.

When Soviet troops entered Iran, Franz Mayer hid. The group searched for him for a year and a half and eventually found him. It turned out that he got a job as a gravedigger at an Armenian cemetery. Observation of him was restored, however, in 1943, when the group of G.A. Vartanyan finally received a message from the Center that he could be taken, he was suddenly captured by British intelligence.

In 1941, during a very complex operation, two members of the group G.A. Vartanyan “lit up.” They had to be transferred to the Soviet Union to avoid arrest and punishment. Gevork Vartanyan, who had contact with them, was then detained by the police. He pretended that he agreed to help in the search, drove around the city with the police, showing the places where those two had been, the people with whom they allegedly communicated. Everyone he pointed out was arrested and kept in prison for about six months. These were people who were not directly involved in the case, but who interfered with the work of Soviet intelligence.

Gevork Vartanyan himself spent three months in prison then, but he managed to obtain information about what was happening outside. Having learned that two of the “exposed” members of his group had already been transferred to the Soviet Union, he no longer worried and continued to cling tightly to his legend. This was the only failure in my entire life.

In 1942, the British opened an intelligence school in Iran, where they trained intelligence officers to be deployed into the territory of the USSR. On instructions from the Center G.A. Vartanyan managed to enroll in this school. He successfully passed all interviews and checks. The British had no doubts. Gevork knew Russian well. His father had by that time become a major businessman and had a prominent position in society. His nationality also played a role, since intelligence officers were sent mainly to the Caucasian and Central Asian republics.

Classes at school were conducted secretly - two people in a group. To this day, Gevork Andreevich is grateful to this English school, because it was there that he mastered the basics and skills of intelligence - he learned two-way radio communications, recruitment and much more. The training lasted 6 months. All this time, other students of the school were under the supervision of his group, their identities were established, all data and photographs were collected. The British sent those who completed their training to India, where they learned parachute jumping, and then were parachuted into the territory of the USSR. Almost everyone there expected failure and re-recruitment. Gevork had a hand in this.

The British soon became suspicious, as they were receiving too much misinformation. An inspection was carried out at the school, which Gevork Vartanyan passed without a hitch. However, when his course was coming to an end, the leadership of Soviet foreign intelligence decided to put an end to the school - there was too great a risk that it would be transferred to the south of the country, to the locations of the British troops, where control over it would be lost. The Soviet resident announced to English that Soviet intelligence knew about the existence of such a school, after which it was immediately closed.

For the period from 1940 to 1951, while G.A. Vartanyan worked in Iran, and dozens of recruitments were carried out. Everything is based on ideas. The famous intelligence officer, Soviet resident in Iran I.I. Agayants called Gevork Vartanyan’s group “light cavalry” because they used only bicycles for transportation. In 1943, they got their first captured German motorcycle. This was real wealth - no one escaped surveillance on a motorcycle.

One of the group members G.A. Vartanyan had a younger sister, Gohar. When she turned 16, she became the first and only girl to work in the group. Very brave and resourceful, she kept up with her comrades. Based on her tips, there were many recruitments, and traitors were also identified. A feeling arose between Gevork and Gohar, which soon grew into love. In 1946 they got married. Gevork and Gohar spent their entire lives, many years of difficult and dangerous work together. Gevork Andreevich considers it a great happiness for himself that he always had a faithful friend next to him, who never let him down and made his life calmer. The couple still like to repeat that if they had to live their lives all over again, they would not want a different fate for themselves. In 2006, they celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

Group G.A. Vartanyan was directly involved in ensuring security at the Tehran Conference of 1943. All members of the group were mobilized to prevent a terrorist attack, information about which was received from the Soviet Union from Nikolai Kuznetsov. The group was the first to establish that a German landing party of six radio operators had been dropped on the outskirts of Tehran, 70 kilometers from the city. They were immediately taken under surveillance. From a villa prepared specially for this by local agents, a group of radio operators established radio contact with Berlin in order to prepare a springboard for the terrorists, who were to be led by the famous Otto Skorzeny, who at one time rescued Mussolini from captivity. Agents G.A. Vartanyan, together with the British, took direction finding and deciphered all their messages. Soon the entire group was captured and forced to work with Berlin “under the hood.” At the same time, in order to prevent the landing of the second group, during the interception of which losses on both sides could not be avoided, they were given the opportunity to convey that they had been exposed. Upon learning of the failure, Berlin abandoned its plans.

G.A. Vartanyan and his agents worked without thinking about awards and titles. After preventing a terrorist attack in Tehran in 1943, the group received a telegram of gratitude from the head of the department in Moscow. This was the only insignia for the entire war. Only in 1994, when the SVR was headed by E.M. Primakov, G.A. Vartanyan received five military awards at once as a soldier of the Great Patriotic War and World War II. He was awarded his first military rank of captain at the age of 44, in 1968. After 7 years he became a colonel.

Until 1951 G.A. Vartanyan and his wife worked in Iran. Until 1954, his father continued to work there. The work was interesting and difficult; we had to identify double agents working for both sides and catch traitors. They also collaborated with military intelligence.

When the situation in Iran became calmer, the Vartanyans asked the Center to allow them to return to their homeland, the Soviet Union, to receive higher education. In 1951 they came to Yerevan and entered the Institute of Foreign Languages. Upon graduating from the institute in 1955, they immediately received an offer to continue working and agreed.

What followed was three decades of illegal intelligence work. All these years, Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan worked together as one group, without allowing a single failure. In 1975, Gevork Vartanyan was awarded the rank of colonel.

1984 is a special year in the life of Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Leonovna Vartanyan. They were awarded high awards from the Motherland.

At this time, the Vartanyan couple were in one of the Western countries. Gohar, who usually received all messages, received a very short telegram that day. A short telegram is always an alarming sign: either the intelligence officer is in danger, or some misfortune has happened to loved ones at home. While Gevork Andreevich was deciphering the telegram, his wife watched him. Then she said that while reading, he turned pale.

“You have been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union,” he read, “and your wife has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner.” The feeling, according to Gevork Andreevich, was difficult to convey: joy, happiness... In the evening, the couple celebrated it as a holiday with a family dinner in a restaurant.

Until 1986, the Vartanyan couple worked in the West, Far and Middle East. In 1986, they returned to their homeland, but remained “closed” and only in 2000 they first appeared on television live with Vadim Kirpichenko and Tatyana Samuolis.

G.A. Vartanyan was awarded the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Second Class of the Patriotic War, the medals “For the Defense of the Caucasus”, “For the Victory over Germany”, the titles “Honorary Security Officer”, “Honorary State Security Officer”.

Gevork Andreevich loves classical music: Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Russian classical literature. He is interested in football and supports domestic sports clubs. Together with his wife, he played tennis and swimming. He still remains in excellent physical shape, which he considers himself indebted to during his service, during which he must not lose vigilance for a moment, but must remember the laws of conspiracy and, most importantly, always remain energetic and young at heart.

Lives and works in Moscow.

http://www.peoples.ru/military/scout/gevork_vartanyan/index1.html

Father - Andrey Vasilievich Vartanyan (born 1888). Mother - Vartanyan Maria Savelyevna (born 1900).

Wife – Gohar Levonovna Vartanyan (born 1926).

Richard Sorge, Nikolai Kuznetsov - Heroes of the Soviet Union - legendary intelligence officers of the 20th century. Their activities had a significant impact on the course of major strategic operations during the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War, moreover, on their results in general. In Soviet foreign intelligence, which has sustained worldwide recognition as one of the best intelligence services in the world, they are a measure of skill, a kind of bar of the highest professional level, courage, and heroism.

Among intelligence officers, illegal immigrants stand apart. Even decades later, they do not have the right to speak publicly about their work and life. The biographies of these people sometimes entirely or most of them remain sealed under seven seals. This is the specificity of the profession.

Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan occupies a special place among illegal intelligence officers. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, third after R. Sorge and N. Kuznetsov, when he had more than 40 years of intelligence work behind him. This highest title was awarded to him for exceptional results in the service of the Fatherland, which cannot be disclosed in this article with the exception of only some touches from the distant 1940s - 1950s, when he was still a boy, then a youth and a very young man, making increasingly significant steps as a hereditary illegal intelligence officer.

Father G.A. Vartanyan worked as director of an oil mill at Stepnaya station near Rostov. He was associated with Soviet foreign intelligence, and in 1930, when Gevork was 6 years old, an Iranian citizen and his family went to Iran on an intelligence mission. The family had four children: two daughters and two sons. At that time, Gevork, of course, did not yet know what his parents were doing. My father was imprisoned several times on suspicion of connections with Soviet foreign intelligence. His mother visited him and brought him parcels. And since in a Muslim country a woman is not supposed to walk down the street alone, she took her son with her. During the father's imprisonment, the Soviet station in Iran helped the family. The son began to notice how his mother received something and gave it to his father secretly. By the age of twelve, he already clearly understood that his father was an intelligence officer.

Gevorg studied at an Iranian school, and Farsi became his second native language. Despite the fact that he had to grow up far from his homeland, he grew up a patriot. The father raised the whole family in the spirit of patriotism, love for the motherland, the Soviet Union, and Russia. Somehow he got both newspapers and books, the children read Pushkin and Lermontov.

At the age of less than 16, Gevork also threw in his lot with Soviet foreign intelligence. The first task received from the resident in Tehran - to put together a group of like-minded people - he completed quickly. The group included 7 people - Armenians, Assyrians, one Lezgin. These were young men 17–18 years old, all from the Soviet Union. In 1937–1938, for one reason or another, their families were deported to Iran, but despite this, they all remained patriots of their country.

The newly created group received the task of conducting external surveillance of fascist agents in Tehran. At that time, the fascist station was headed by the famous intelligence officer Franz Mayer. Before the war, he worked in Moscow, was also at the front in Poland, spoke excellent Iranian and Russian languages, and knew how to masterfully impersonate and change clothes. But the guys kept him under surveillance. They lacked professionalism, but their senior comrades suggested how best to conduct observation and taught. Naturally, an experienced intelligence officer could not help but notice such surveillance, but he was unlikely to take it seriously.

For a year and a half, the group monitored the fascist station in Tehran and during this time identified about 400 agents among Iranians working for Germany. These were the highest officials of the Shah's palace, ministers, and large manufacturers. They were preparing a springboard for the German invasion of the territory of the Soviet Union from the south of Iran. If Stalingrad fell, such an invasion would take place. But in August 1941, Soviet and British troops entered Iran, and a little later - American troops. All identified fascist stations were arrested and mostly recruited to work for the Soviet Union and England. Those few who firmly stood on the fascist position were deported to the USSR. Later, after the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, they agreed to cooperate with the Soviet Union and in this capacity returned to Iran.

When Soviet troops entered Iran, Franz Mayer hid. The group searched for him for a year and a half and eventually found him. It turned out that he got a job as a gravedigger at an Armenian cemetery. Observation of him was restored, however, in 1943, when the group of G.A. Vartanyan finally received a message from the Center that he could be taken, he was suddenly captured by British intelligence.

In 1941, during a very complex operation, two members of the group G.A. Vartanyan “lit up.” They had to be transferred to the Soviet Union to avoid arrest and punishment. Gevork Vartanyan, who had contact with them, was then detained by the police. He pretended that he agreed to help in the search, drove around the city with the police, showing the places where those two had been, the people with whom they allegedly communicated. Everyone he pointed out was arrested and kept in prison for about six months. These were people who were not directly involved in the case, but who interfered with the work of Soviet intelligence.

Gevork Vartanyan himself spent three months in prison then, but he managed to obtain information about what was happening outside. Having learned that two of the “exposed” members of his group had already been transferred to the Soviet Union, he no longer worried and continued to cling tightly to his legend. This was the only failure in my entire life.

In 1942, the British opened an intelligence school in Iran, where they trained intelligence officers to be deployed into the territory of the USSR. On instructions from the Center G.A. Vartanyan managed to enroll in this school. He successfully passed all interviews and checks. The British had no doubts. Gevork knew Russian well. His father had by that time become a major businessman and had a prominent position in society. His nationality also played a role, since intelligence officers were sent mainly to the Caucasian and Central Asian republics.

Classes at school were conducted secretly - two people in a group. To this day, Gevork Andreevich is grateful to this English school, because it was there that he mastered the basics and skills of intelligence - he learned two-way radio communications, recruitment and much more. The training lasted 6 months. All this time, other students of the school were under the supervision of his group, their identities were established, all data and photographs were collected. The British sent those who completed their training to India, where they learned parachute jumping, and then were parachuted into the territory of the USSR. Almost everyone there expected failure and re-recruitment. Gevork had a hand in this.

The British soon became suspicious, as they were receiving too much misinformation. An inspection was carried out at the school, which Gevork Vartanyan passed without a hitch. However, when his course was coming to an end, the leadership of Soviet foreign intelligence decided to put an end to the school - there was too great a risk that it would be transferred to the south of the country, to the locations of the British troops, where control over it would be lost. The Soviet resident announced to English that Soviet intelligence knew about the existence of such a school, after which it was immediately closed.

For the period from 1940 to 1951, while G.A. Vartanyan worked in Iran, and dozens of recruitments were carried out. Everything is based on ideas. The famous intelligence officer, Soviet resident in Iran I.I. Agayants called Gevork Vartanyan’s group “light cavalry” because they used only bicycles for transportation. In 1943, they got their first captured German motorcycle. This was real wealth - no one escaped surveillance on a motorcycle.

One of the group members G.A. Vartanyan had a younger sister, Gohar. When she turned 16, she became the first and only girl to work in the group. Very brave and resourceful, she kept up with her comrades. Based on her tips, there were many recruitments, and traitors were also identified. A feeling arose between Gevork and Gohar, which soon grew into love. In 1946 they got married. Gevork and Gohar spent their entire lives, many years of difficult and dangerous work together. Gevork Andreevich considers it a great happiness for himself that he always had a faithful friend next to him, who never let him down and made his life calmer. The couple still like to repeat that if they had to live their lives all over again, they would not want a different fate for themselves. In 2006, they celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

Group G.A. Vartanyan was directly involved in ensuring security at the Tehran Conference of 1943. All members of the group were mobilized to prevent a terrorist attack, information about which was received from the Soviet Union from Nikolai Kuznetsov. The group was the first to establish that a German landing party of six radio operators had been dropped on the outskirts of Tehran, 70 kilometers from the city. They were immediately taken under surveillance. From a villa prepared specially for this by local agents, a group of radio operators established radio contact with Berlin in order to prepare a springboard for the terrorists, who were to be led by the famous Otto Skorzeny, who at one time rescued Mussolini from captivity. Agents G.A. Vartanyan, together with the British, took direction finding and deciphered all their messages. Soon the entire group was captured and forced to work with Berlin “under the hood.” At the same time, in order to prevent the landing of the second group, during the interception of which losses on both sides could not be avoided, they were given the opportunity to convey that they had been exposed. Upon learning of the failure, Berlin abandoned its plans.

G.A. Vartanyan and his agents worked without thinking about awards and titles. After preventing a terrorist attack in Tehran in 1943, the group received a telegram of gratitude from the head of the department in Moscow. This was the only insignia for the entire war. Only in 1994, when the SVR was headed by E.M. Primakov, G.A. Vartanyan received five military awards at once as a soldier of the Great Patriotic War and World War II. He was awarded his first military rank of captain at the age of 44, in 1968. After 7 years he became a colonel.

Until 1951 G.A. Vartanyan and his wife worked in Iran. Until 1954, his father continued to work there. The work was interesting and difficult; we had to identify double agents working for both sides and catch traitors. They also collaborated with military intelligence.

When the situation in Iran became calmer, the Vartanyans asked the Center to allow them to return to their homeland, the Soviet Union, to receive higher education. In 1951 they came to Yerevan and entered the Institute of Foreign Languages. Upon graduating from the institute in 1955, they immediately received an offer to continue working and agreed.

What followed was three decades of illegal intelligence work. All these years, Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan worked together as one group, without allowing a single failure. In 1975, Gevork Vartanyan was awarded the rank of colonel.

1984 is a special year in the life of Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Leonovna Vartanyan. They were awarded high awards from the Motherland.

At this time, the Vartanyan couple were in one of the Western countries. Gohar, who usually received all messages, received a very short telegram that day. A short telegram is always an alarming sign: either the intelligence officer is in danger, or some misfortune has happened to loved ones at home. While Gevork Andreevich was deciphering the telegram, his wife watched him. Then she said that while reading, he turned pale.

“You have been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union,” he read, “and your wife has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner.” The feeling, according to Gevork Andreevich, was difficult to convey: joy, happiness... In the evening, the couple celebrated it as a holiday with a family dinner in a restaurant.

Until 1986, the Vartanyan couple worked in the West, Far and Middle East. In 1986, they returned to their homeland, but remained “closed” and only in 2000 they first appeared on television live with Vadim Kirpichenko and Tatyana Samuolis.

G.A. Vartanyan was awarded the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Second Class of the Patriotic War, the medals “For the Defense of the Caucasus”, “For the Victory over Germany”, the titles “Honorary Security Officer”, “Honorary State Security Officer”.

17.02.1924 - 10.01.2012
Hero of the Soviet Union

IN Artanyan Gevork Andreevich (operational pseudonym - “Amir”) - Soviet illegal intelligence officer, employee of the First Main Directorate of the USSR State Security Committee, colonel.

Born on February 17, 1924 in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Armenian. The son of the director of an oil mill, a citizen of Persia (since 1935 - Iran). In 1930, he and his parents went to Iran, to the city of Tabriz, and from 1936 to Tehran. His father organized his own business and became the owner of a confectionery factory, while collaborating with Soviet intelligence.

Since February 1940, G.A. Vartanyan also linked his fate with intelligence. He worked in Iran throughout the 1940s. During the Great Patriotic War, he actively participated in identifying numerous German agents in Tehran (in total, about 400 German agents and their informants were identified).

In 1943, a group of 19-year-old G.A. Vartanyan foiled an assassination attempt on the leaders of the “Big Three” - the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - J.V. Stalin, W. Churchill and F.D. Roosevelt - during the famous Tehran Conference (November 28 - December 1, 1943), which was planned by the intelligence of Nazi Germany. One of the most secret operations of the Third Reich was paralyzed by a flock of boys led by a young Soviet intelligence officer. G.A. Vartanyan’s “light cavalry” on bicycles discovered German agents, signalmen and radio operators one after another. A few days before the meeting of the leaders of the Big Three, the NKVD of the USSR, together with the British intelligence service Mi-6, made arrests in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and four hundred German agents did not even have time to understand what had happened. Some of them were arrested, and most were converted. Some were handed over to the British, and others, who were very persistent, were deported to the Soviet Union.

He also had to work against the allies - in those same years, a British secret intelligence school was operating in Tehran, training agents to be sent to the Soviet Union. Vartanyan gained the trust of British intelligence officers and was enrolled as a cadet in this intelligence school. He managed to identify the rest of the cadets, as well as some of the spies previously sent to the USSR. Soon, at the request of the Soviet authorities, the British were forced to close their intelligence school.

In 1943, he was arrested and imprisoned for three months in an Iranian prison, interrogated and beaten. The Iranians tried to obtain evidence of Vartanyan’s involvement in the death of one of the German intelligence informants, an Iranian citizen, as well as information about Vartanyan’s work for Soviet intelligence. He denied all charges and was released due to lack of evidence. Since 1942, Gohar Levonovna Oganes (b. 1926) worked in Vartanyan’s group, who became his wife in 1946. However, for the purposes of further intelligence work, the Vartanyan spouses had to register their marriage and have weddings three times in different countries.

In 1951, G.A. Vartanyan and his wife left Iran and graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​at Yerevan University. The intelligence spouses were sent abroad to carry out intelligence missions of particular importance through the First Main Directorate of the USSR State Security Committee. Over the course of 35 years of work abroad, they did not allow a single failure; not a single agent or informant they recruited was lost. For this reason, no details of this lifelong business trip abroad have been declassified, down to the host countries, the cover legend, and even the exact list of foreign languages ​​that G.A. spoke. Vartanyan. It is only known that he knew 8 foreign languages, 5 of them perfectly. It can be assumed that the main work of the Vartanyan spouses was aimed at identifying plans and information about the activities of NATO countries in Europe.

U Kaz of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (“closed”) dated May 28, 1984 for the results achieved in collecting intelligence data and the courage and heroism shown to Colonel Vartanyan Georgy Andreevich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

By the same Decree, the Hero’s wife, Gohar Levonovna Vartanyan, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1986, the Vartanyan couple returned to their homeland - the Soviet Union. Since 1992, Colonel G.A. Vartanyan has been in reserve. Until the end of his days, he continued to work as an adviser to the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, using his experience to train future illegal agents for work abroad.

On December 20, 2000, on the day of the 80th anniversary of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the name of G. A. Vartanyan was declassified. According to authoritative experts, Hero of the Soviet Union G. A. Vartanyan is one of the hundred great intelligence officers of the world.

Lived in the hero city of Moscow. Died January 10, 2012. He was buried at Troekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Colonel (1975). Awarded the Soviet Orders of Lenin (05/28/1984), the Red Banner, the Patriotic War, 2nd degree (03/11/1985), the Red Star, the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th degree (2004), medals “For the Defense of the Caucasus” , “For victory over Germany”, other medals, as well as orders and medals of foreign countries, including the Order of Honor (2009, Armenia).

Soviet intelligence officer Gohar Vartanyan turned 85 on January 25, 2011. There are several materials from Nikolai Dolgopolov from Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the married couple of intelligence officers Vartanyan, who are still serving in the Foreign Intelligence Service.

You can watch a film about the work of Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan in Tehran.

Nikolai Dolgopolov. Illegals. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Week", May 28, 2004

The Young Guard publishing house has just published a book by journalist Nikolai Dolgopolov, “Geniuses of Foreign Intelligence.” The author made a daring and largely successful attempt to find and talk to people who participated in the most successful operations of the most secret of intelligence services. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" today publishes an excerpt from the chapter "Illegals" about G.A. Vartanyans - it was thanks to Gevork and his group that they managed to prevent the assassination attempt on Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during the Tehran Conference of 1943.

Holy of holies in any intelligence service

An illegal is an intelligence officer working in a foreign country not under his own name and using someone else’s documents. Illegal immigrants usually, as they say in intelligence, “settle” in a foreign country for years. Often in such cases, illegal immigrants work in pairs under the guise of a married couple. Unlike intelligence officers who legally work abroad under cover and, if arrested, are subject to deportation or short-term imprisonment, illegal immigrants risk their lives every day and every hour. The legislation of almost all major powers provides for long periods of severe prison isolation and even the death penalty. The preparation of an illegal immigrant is extremely expensive for the country, but the results it brings, if successful, pay for the costs incurred many times over. Classic examples of illegal immigrants are Rudolf Abel, aka William Fisher, Konon Molodoy, the Fedorovs... The first Hero of the Soviet Union in the history of foreign intelligence, Nikolai Kuznetsov, was also an illegal immigrant sent for a short period of time on a special mission to the rear of the Nazis.

In the history of our foreign intelligence service, Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan is the second, after the legendary intelligence officer, partisan Nikolai Kuznetsov, Hero of the Soviet Union. His wife Gohar Levonovna is a holder of the Order of the Red Banner. A detailed story about their actions, including very recent ones, may be published by the middle of this, still new century. In the meantime, I’m opening only a few pages of the fantastic, decades-long career of illegal immigrants.

Let's start with the fact that it was largely thanks to Gevork and his group, called the “Light Cavalry,” that they managed to prevent an assassination attempt on the “Big Three” - Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during the Tehran Conference of 1943.

Tehran Conference

This was the name of one of the most important conferences of the heads of the three allied states who fought against Hitler during the Second World War. It took place from November 28 to December 1, 1943 in Tehran. The USSR was represented by Stalin, Great Britain by its Prime Minister Churchill, and the USA by President Roosevelt. At the Tehran Conference, the Declaration on joint actions in the war against Germany and on post-war cooperation between the three powers was adopted.

How old is Vartanyan? What about his wife? May the married couple forgive me, but I approached the house in the Mira Avenue area with a feeling of trepidation. And immediately - a pleasant surprise. Beautiful, young-looking woman in a fashionable dress, high heels:

Hello, I am Gohar Levonovna.

Tall, with silent, soft movements, the owner is elegant in a European way:

Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan, - and a young, strong handshake.

Did German intelligence really try to destroy the Big Three in 1943? After all, at the end of August 1941, our troops entered Iran from the north, and British troops from the south. The head of Iran, Reza Shah, did not observe the promised neutrality and helped Hitler with all his might. So we had to take control of the situation.

At that time, there were about 20 thousand Germans in Iran,” Vartanyan explains with barely noticeable, but still permeating oriental intonations. - Military instructors, intelligence officers under the guise of all sorts of traders, businessmen, engineers.

Gevork Andreevich, how old were you in 1943?

Look much younger than your age.

This is probably the profession that makes you hold on. After all, I consciously and deliberately began working for Soviet intelligence at the age of 16. I was given the name Amir. He worked under him in Iran until 1951. Yes, everything started to go from February 1940.

Why didn't The Long Jump work?

This has never happened in the history of the world's intelligence services. And thanks to relative warming, it is unlikely to happen anymore. Hitler intended to put an end to the three leaders of the Big Three in one fell swoop. And the Germans called the entire operation to physically eliminate the heads of three states “The Long Jump.” Dozens of books have been written about both this and the Tehran Conference. But the details of the impending assassination attempt and, most importantly, how they managed to prevent it - all this remained in some kind of fog. Is it true that the first news about the impending terrorist attack was actually sent from the Belarusian forests by intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, the future Hero of the Soviet Union No. 1 from foreign intelligence?

I give the floor to Hero No. 2 Amir - Gevork Vartanyan:

It's all true. The first report came from Nikolai Kuznetsov. In Rovno he managed to get SS Sturmbannführer Ulrich von Ortel to talk. Paul Siebert - Kuznetsov was generous and friendly with Ortel. He lent it to the German and gave him cognac. And soon the SS man began to perceive the blond chief lieutenant as his old friend. What are the secrets and omissions between fellow fighters? At first, von Ortel promised to repay the monetary debt to Chief Lieutenant Siebert with Persian carpets. And then he not only blurted out to Paul about the operation in Tehran, but also offered to participate in it. And Nikolai Ivanovich immediately conveyed to the Center: an assassination attempt on the heads of three states is possible in Tehran. Ortel himself was transferred to Iran along with a group of SS men. Moscow was very worried. The station began to take all measures and worked with unimaginable tension. I also included our group. We got involved very actively.

In Iran, in the area of ​​Lake Kum, at the end of the summer of 1943, the Germans dropped Otto Skorzeny with a team of proven paratroopers and saboteurs. They entrusted the operation to Hitler’s favorite personally. He had a wealth of experience. It was Skorzeny - the “man with the scar” - who in September 1943, together with a hundred of his bandits, recaptured Il Duce Mussolini from the Italian partisans. But we learned about this later. Skorzeny was never allowed to get involved. But we found six radio operators-paratroopers, whom the Germans dropped near Tehran, near the city of Qom.

But Qom is a small town, full of mosques. You can light up instantly. I’ve been to those parts: every European is looked at with obvious suspicion.

The Nazis had powerful agents there. There was a powerful cover that had not yet been destroyed by Soviet intelligence. We didn't have access there. As for the Europeans, in Qom the Germans changed into local clothes. Repainted. They used henna in Iran with all their might. Someone with a dyed beard even worked as a mullah.

Thus began their "Long Jump". The Germans began to move towards Tehran on ten camels. They took with them a walkie-talkie, weapons, and equipment. They were careful, and the hundred-kilometer-long journey was covered in ten days. Near Tehran we boarded a truck and finally reached the city. We settled there in a secret villa, right on one of the central streets - Naderi, not far from the embassies of the USSR and Great Britain. The agents prepared everything well for them.

- These six were supposed to kill Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill?

No. The task of that advanced group of radio operators is to establish contact with Berlin. And then, with the help of Iranian agents, which we did not finish off, to prepare the conditions for a terrorist landing. They established radio contact with Berlin. We just got into direction finding. And our group was given a specific goal - to find this radio station in the huge Tehran. We completed the task. Found.

- Exactly your “Light Cavalry”?

Yes. We found where this group is located.

- But how?

They ran through the streets day and night for 14-16 hours. “I went home only when it was completely dark,” Gohar Levonovna decisively enters. - Cold, hot, scary - they still searched.

Gohar is a great guy,” Gevork Andreevich chuckles. - She was such a girl with pigtails, but she was brave. And we found German radio operators. So then they worked “under the hood” of our intelligence and the British: they transmitted information to Berlin under someone else’s dictation. But don’t think that the Germans are such simpletons. One of their radio operators managed to broadcast a conventional sign: we are working under control. In Germany they realized that the operation had begun with a crushing failure. The Germans did not dare to send the main group led by Skorzeny to certain failure. So there was no Long Jump.

- So Otto Skorzeny was in Tehran after all?

And near Qom, and in Tehran, but before that. He himself admitted this somewhere in the mid-seventies in an interview: he had to, following Hitler’s orders, destroy the Big Three. I studied the situation, hung around the embassies of Great Britain and the USSR. They are nearby, in the center. And especially near the American one, which is much further away, in a deserted place at that time.

Did I understand correctly: it was US President Roosevelt who was at greatest risk because of this remoteness?

He had to, as required by protocol, stay at his embassy. But then he agreed with Stalin’s proposal: it was safer to live in a Soviet one.

A few more questions. You probably watched the film "Tehran-43" with Alain Delon in the title role? What about the truth of life?

There is a truthful moment in the film: the saboteurs were planning to infiltrate the British embassy through the water canal and carry out a terrorist attack just on Churchill’s birthday - November 30th. The rest is great: Alain Delon, Paris, bandits and beauties...

- Sometimes they say that a bomb was defused in the utility room of one of the embassies.

We've never heard anything like this. But the fact that between the embassies of the USSR and Great Britain, which were very close, ours and the British broke through the wall is true. They stretched a six-meter tarpaulin and set up something like a corridor. Their and our machine gunners and machine gunners were lying there: the safety of the passage there and back was ensured for all participants in the Tehran Conference.

- In modern terms, was there a decisive purge carried out before the Tehran Conference?

We had to clear it all out. We worked together with the agents, looking for approaches. If the slightest suspicion arose, the person was temporarily arrested. Doubts were not confirmed, and after the Tehran Conference he was released. And before the conference and during it, we worked day and night.

Nikolai Dolgopolov. How "The Lion and the Bear" was saved. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Week", October 19, 2007

Sir Winston Churchill's granddaughter Celia Sandis met our intelligence officer Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan, who saved the life of her grandfather, the British Prime Minister, Stalin, and also US President Roosevelt in 1943.

The English television company Big Apple and TV Center are filming a multi-part documentary series about the history of Russian-British relations over four centuries. One of the main figures in the film “The Lion and the Bear” will be Celia Sandis. Who better to be in the center of the film, which tells about the long-term confrontation between Stalin and her grandfather Winston Churchill. Sandis says about his relative: “The wisdom of my grandfather is as relevant today as ever. The principles of Winston Churchill continue to serve people.”

And Friday’s filming of “The Lion and the Bear,” organized at the request of the film’s British and Russian producers at the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service, might never have happened. Operation “Long Jump” to destroy the “Big Three” in Tehran was then prepared, on the orders of Hitler, by the head of the sabotage units of Nazi Germany, SS Standartenführer Otto Skorzeny. The first news of the impending assassination attempt came from the dense Belarusian forests. Future Hero of the Soviet Union No. 1 from foreign intelligence Nikolai Kuznetsov, also Lieutenant Paul Siebert, managed to get the SS man Ulrich von Ortel to talk: over good cognac, he not only blurted out information about the operation to his friend Paul, but also offered to participate in it.

"Light Cavalry" knew no mercy

But by the will of fate, Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan, the future Hero of the Soviet Union No. 2, became one of its important characters. However, then, in November 1943, the 19-year-old boy was called only by his first name. An intelligence officer and the son of a Soviet intelligence officer who worked in Iran under the cover of a large merchant, Gevork received his first assignment from resident Ivan Agayants back in February 1940: to gather a group of like-minded people. All seven turned out to be about the same age - Armenians, Lezgins, Assyrians - and communicated with each other in Russian and Farsi. The parents of these children were expelled from the USSR after 1936, or they themselves were forced to leave so as not to fall into the meat grinder of repression. It seemed like outcasts, but there was such a craving, a love for the Motherland. No remuneration, they worked on a purely ideological basis. Where does operational training come from - Agayants and his men trained this company of barefoot soldiers, nicknamed “light cavalry,” literally on the move. They conducted external surveillance of the Germans and identified Iranian agents.

And since 1941, the pretty schoolgirl Gohar also joined the “cavalry”. Looking ahead, I will say that Gevork later married this girl with pigtails three times. First on June 30, 1946 in Tehran, and then twice more in other countries and each time under different names: after all, a couple of our illegal intelligence officers moved around the world, worked in different states, the names of which are still prohibited to give, in total more 40 years.

But let's go back to 1943. Kuznetsov’s message from near Rovno greatly alarmed Moscow: the great homebody Stalin was going to Iran. The residency worked with incredible stress. Naturally, the “light cavalry” was also involved.

We got involved very actively,” Gevork Andreevich remembers everything in detail. - Six German radio operators, dropped near the holy city of Qom, managed to reach Tehran. Thus began Operation Long Jump to destroy Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. The Germans established contact with Berlin, but got caught in direction finding, and our group was given a specific goal: to find this radio station in the huge Tehran. We completed the task - we found it.

Alain Delon and the truth of life

If Sir Winston Churchill was taken under the firm protection of his intelligence services, then Franklin Roosevelt had a more difficult time. It turned out that the Americans were unable to provide security for the US President. It was necessary to break, perhaps for the only time in history, a firmly established protocol. After much persuasion, Roosevelt reluctantly agreed to live in the Soviet embassy. Ours, unlike our own, guaranteed his safety.

You probably watched the film “Tehran-43” with Alain Delon in the title role,” I address a couple of my interlocutors. - What about the truth of life?

Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Levonovna shake their heads almost simultaneously:

There is one truthful moment in the film: the saboteurs were planning to infiltrate the British embassy through the water canal and carry out a terrorist attack just on Churchill’s birthday - November 30th. The rest is great.

“I heard that a bomb was defused in the utility room of one of the embassies.

But we haven't heard anything like that. But it’s true that between the embassies of the USSR and Great Britain, they are very close, ours and the British broke through the wall. They pulled up a six-meter tarpaulin and created something similar to a corridor. Our and British submachine gunners and machine gunners lay there. All participants in the Tehran Conference were guaranteed safe passage there and back.

Gevork Andreevich, is it possible to say in modern language that before the Tehran Conference we carried out a decisive purge?

We had to clear it all out. What did you want? So that the Germans with one blow - and three leaders at once? But the “long jump” didn’t work out. If the slightest suspicion arose, the person was temporarily arrested. If doubts were confirmed, they were released after the conference. And during the conference they worked day and night. Once I had to hire an agent right at a wedding - there was information that it was he who might be involved in the assassination attempt on the Troika; it turned out that he had already participated in terrorist attacks. There’s a wedding, about 200 people are walking in the yard, and then a platoon of our machine gunners bursts in. A terrible chaos ensues. For what? I would slowly take this bandit away.

To be continued

This is just one episode from the biography of Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan, which we and Sir Winston’s granddaughter, whom the Hero of the Soviet Union, who is in good health, met on Friday at the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service, were allowed to know. It is not yet possible to find out about others. Well, let's wait.

But I'm interested in something else. How did the British Prime Minister celebrate his birthday on November 30, 1943? No information about this was found in any materials about the Tehran Conference. Apparently, there was no time for the holidays.

Nikolai Dolgopolov. 118 years in intelligence. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Week", February 12, 2009

Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Levonovna Vartanyan are a married couple of illegal immigrants, considered the most effective in the history of modern intelligence. Largely thanks to them, the assassination attempt on Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill was prevented in Tehran in 1943.

And then several decades of illegal work around the world, awarding the title of Hero in 1984 and only a few years later returning to his homeland. I am proud that in 2000 I was the first to slightly “declassify” the heroes, talking about the harsh years in Tehran.

Their apartment in a quiet side street always amazed us with its unprecedented cleanliness and even sophistication, but without any excesses. Gohar Levonovna is a couple of years younger than her husband celebrating his anniversary. Greets guests in elegant dresses and skillfully matched high-heeled shoes. Laughs: “Then you wrote about these heels, so you have to hold on.” The dishes on the table are not ours, not Moscow’s, but delicious. But the main storyteller is undoubtedly Gevork Vartanyan.

Russian newspaper: Gevork Andreevich, anniversaries are anniversaries, but still in the service?

Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan: I leave for work every morning at nine, and within 40 minutes I’m already there. Sometimes it takes an hour or an hour and a half to get back - stuck in traffic. And at work - everyone is their own, the atmosphere is both businesslike and friendly. As long as I bring benefit, I myself am pleased.

RG: If I may, in general terms, what are you doing now?

Vartanyan: In general: I meet with young people, we prepare them for the same job as mine. Plus I travel around Russia a lot, both alone and with Goar, we try not to refuse when they invite us.

RG: You work with young guys. So, are there any successors to your business? Does the part of the intelligence service to which you belong remain?

Vartanyan: Certainly. And it gives results. The people we trained years ago are returning from combat duty. Good guys - we have a great shift.

RG: I guess you are not studying languages ​​with them today...

Vartanyan: No. Just parting words and wishes. Sometimes they have questions - I answer. And so - we have, one might say, coaches who give them everything they need.

RG: Since approximately how long have you been in intelligence?

Vartanyan: Why approximately? I have my own holiday: on February 4 at work they celebrated my 69 calendar years in intelligence - from February 4, 1940 to the present day. 45 years, counting the Iranian period, in illegal intelligence abroad. With the benefits that are due, it turns out to be 118 years.

RG: Have you always worked under Armenian surnames?

Vartanyan: Under different. Depending on the situation.

RG: Have you even counted the countries you have visited?

Vartanyan: It probably reaches a hundred. But this does not mean that we worked in each of them. We were passing through or for a week, a couple, a month. But about a hundred in 45 years - for sure. The main work was in several dozen countries.

Gohar Levonovna: In those where I remarried my husband. When, together with a group of women, we met with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin on March 8, he asked me a question: what countries have you been to? I answered honestly: in many. And he, instantly understanding everything, looked and laughed.

RG: I heard how fluently you and Churchill’s granddaughter spoke English.

Vartanyan: Well, not really. Still, two decades here. But Gohar and I have strong tongues.

Gohar Levonovna: Sometimes I suggest: let's talk in other languages ​​so as not to forget. Doesn't agree.

Vartanyan: I'm tired of them. I want it on my own.

RG: And how many languages ​​do you know?

Vartanyan: This simple question is difficult for us.

RG: Sorry.

Vartanyan: Russian, Armenian, English, Italian... Others too. Seven or eight languages ​​are being typed. Farsi is still good.

Gohar Levonovna: We recently met with Igor Kostolevsky - he played the main role in Tehran-43. He was a wonderful actor, a nice person, and didn’t know what kind of meeting was being prepared for him at the theater. When he saw us, he immediately stood up and hugged us. We had such a good conversation. But I asked why your Tehran hotel is so shabby? At that time it was a beautiful city. And Kostolevsky replied that they filmed in Baku. I told him: but in Baku they could have found something more decent.

Vartanyan: And I noticed not to Kostolevsky, but for the sake of truth, that it was in vain that he was shooting there all the time. A scout ceases to be a scout if he starts using weapons.

RG: Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Levonovna, you are optimists, but there were also difficult moments that were difficult to survive.

Gohar Levonovna: When we left for a long time after Tehran for the first time, I was haunted by the fact that we had separated from my parents. I loved my mother very much, I missed her. To offend her, to say something wrong - this has never happened in my life even close. But for three years my mother cried because of us. And Zhora’s father also suffered. I was worried and went to see my mother every day.

Vartanyan: But father knew our work. (Gevork Andreevich’s father also worked in Tehran for Soviet intelligence. - Author.) Although every two or three years they took time off.

Gohar Levonovna: And we wrote letters to them from afar. But what? The same thing: we feel good, don’t worry, everything is fine with us, we wish everything to be fine with you too. That's all. Then they started laughing at themselves. And we decided that we wouldn’t send these letters anymore: what are we writing?

RG: What did you get in response?

Vartanyan: The answer we received on the radio was this: everything is fine at home.

Gohar Levonovna: We have a niece living in Yerevan - my brother’s daughter. Her daughter is like a granddaughter to us. We love our younger ones - they are our children, that’s how we perceive them.

RG: Did they know and know everything about you?

Gohar Levonovna: Well, they know some things, but they don’t know much. Of course, living away from loved ones is very difficult.

RG: And yet, why did you decide to return: were you tired and needed rest?

Vartanyan: In 1984, I was the first from the Foreign Intelligence Service after the legendary Nikolai Kuznetsov to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in peacetime. They issued it, even here in Moscow, with other documents so that it wouldn’t leak anywhere. But in 1985-1986 there were already betrayals. And Gohar and I thought that we had worked for so many years. We have crossed 60 years. We weren’t just tired, but we decided that we’d stop wandering when we were at that age. What if you live in peace? And to receive the title of Hero is the highest happiness. This news somehow still could leak out. Unknown Illegal Hero - who is he, where is he from, what kind of big deal is this? Counterintelligence of any country could start searching and making inquiries. And during our next vacation, when we came here in 1984, we asked to slowly return. At that time, Chebrikov, Kryuchkov, and Drozdov were at the head of intelligence. They gave us permission and gave us a couple of years to finish things off calmly. And we are back. I could have worked for another ten years. Because we were lucky: there were no traitors around. And we arrived without destroying any bridges. Another decade and a half passed. No one was interested in us, no one looked for us. And only at the end of 2000 your article about our Tehran period appeared, and television programs began. According to the long-time head of illegal intelligence, Drozdov, “all these TsaE agents and counterintelligence officers who have been friends with you for decades will not go and say what fools we are. These Soviet intelligence officers worked under our noses.”

RG: Let me ask you an everyday question. Everything that was acquired there, in foreign countries, is it all left on the other side?

Vartanyan: We returned with two travel suitcases.

Gohar Levonovna: All the things acquired by honest labor are there - cars, televisions, and furnishings. We didn’t have a villa: we spent two or three years in one country, and then we had to go to another. And we brought something from Tehran in 1951, because we were returning officially. Look, these memories of youth are with us. These are the glass holders from which you and I drink tea - a wedding gift. Six pieces with a tray. It will soon be 63 years since our wedding.

Nikolai Dolgopolov. There are secrets that will not be revealed. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", February 17, 2009

Russian newspaper: Gevork Andreevich, after so many years of obscurity - 45 years away from home, you are now a famous person. People will probably recognize you on the street? Doesn't such popularity weigh on you?

Gevork Vartanyan: They find out in Yerevan, we try to get there a couple of times a year, and at home, in Moscow.

RG: You are with an asterisk.

Gohar Levonovna: No, Zhora with an asterisk is rare.

Vartanyan: They come up: “Excuse me, that intelligence officer, Vartanyan? During the war, you prevented an assassination attempt on the Big Three in Tehran! Let me shake your hand, thank you for what you did, we are proud of you...” Of course, he doesn’t press at all. Pleasant popularity. You feel that Gohar and I left some kind of trace.

RG: I know that you have been in intelligence for 69 calendar years: from February 4, 1940 to the present day. I knew many intelligence officers and rejoiced at their longevity. Hero of Russia Alexey Nikolaevich Botyan, at the age of 92, starred in the film, plays volleyball on Saturdays, and at the premiere of his film, how tactfully, he shaved off a foreign journalist who asked incorrect questions. George Blake wrote a book on the eve of his 85th birthday. Intelligence luminaries Gudz, Mukasey, Starinov left when they were over 100! Guju, when he was already a hundred years old, I helped him choose ski poles. 100-year-old Mukasey had an amazing memory. He’ll tell me an episode or two, and the next morning he’ll call: let’s exclude this detail, it’s not time yet, but we’ll add this one. The Heroes of Russia and the brightest heads of Feklisov and Barkovsky lived a long life, and until the end of their days they remained an amazing interlocutor. In their most respectable years, the American Cohen, the German Wolf, our Sudoplatov, Sokolov, Zarubina amazed with their deepest culture... These are only those whom I knew. Is there a secret to such fruitful longevity?

Vartanyan: The answer is simple. Our profession. She's fascinating. You want to live to work, to work. You see: there are fruits, which means you can’t stop. I doubt that a long rest will do any good. The service gave Gohar and me a great gift: they built a dacha. We've never had it here. But in three years we went out for a long time - for a week - only once. And that's enough. Ten days of this winter break seems like a lot. We need to stay on our toes. And you can’t let yourself relax. In no case!

RG: Sometimes in the books of even your former bosses there were some hints about your work - the one you led after Tehran. But this stage has no statute of limitations?

Vartanyan: There are things, dear Nikolai, that will not be opened at all - never. Something, maybe a little bit. Even in the operations on Tehran, which we discussed in detail at one time, there is so much that is not said and that is not touched at all... Although films have been made and books have been written.

RG: And you live with it. But wouldn’t you like to tell someone, tell someone?

Vartanyan: We're used to it. We don't say too much.

RG: And the memories - not for the public - for future students, for history, excuse the pathos, for eternity? Take a tape recorder and talk. I imagine what you can tell.

Vartanyan: What if it somehow falls into the wrong hands? This cannot be ruled out. How many people will we substitute? Well, of course, we’re writing something for the good of the cause. Having returned a very, very long time ago from, let’s say, one country, Gohar, at the request of the Service, wrote a certain manual. How to behave in this unusual state, about traditions, manners, and ways of communication. So many years have passed, but this short guide is still used. And our affairs, and in more detail, are in the archives. It's more reliable. But something comes out, comes out. Here's to you about the last episode. After the filming of an English television film about the assassination attempt on the Big Three, which was hosted in Moscow by Churchill’s granddaughter, whom we met, many articles appeared in the press.

RG: Our newspaper reported this in detail both on its pages and in supplements to the Daily Telegraph and the Washington Post.

Vartanyan: And the family, whom we met in one of the distant Far Eastern countries and had not seen each other since 1960, found us after reading these articles. We left Iran under our last name - Vartanyan, and they knew us by it. Now they live in London, and saw a photo in the newspaper of us at that time and today. We contacted our Armenian friends, looked for our phone number, and Gohar and I decided: let them call. A week later, the whole family came to Moscow with tears in our eyes, and we spent a whole week with them. Warm people, they grieved, they thought we were dead.

RG: Did you know what you were really doing?

Vartanyan: We didn't even realize it. And now they didn’t ask.

Gohar Levonovna: But it still broke through: “Who would have thought.”

Vartanyan: They are our friends. Why can’t an illegal intelligence officer have close friends in a foreign country who have nothing to do with his work? We have many acquaintances and comrades all over the world.

RG: And did they help you in your work?

Vartanyan: Not in the operational room. You see, we always felt safe in the company of normal people. But even in their society one cannot lose a sense of caution. Because even among seemingly our own people there may be provocateurs. We need to recognize it, because the profession itself forces us to be psychologists. And when we had to leave, our friends probably wondered later: where did this couple go, disappeared? I don’t think that even today they know where we are now, who we were. If you have only seen the films, read the articles. There is no cynicism here, but this is the life of an intelligence officer, and it was important for us to have such an environment. Because if the police suddenly show interest, they always start with your loved ones. And your friends always speak well of you.

RG: I guess that many were from Armenian communities.

Vartanyan: You are right. But partially. You can’t stay in the Armenian community alone for long. Rather, at first our compatriots in some country gave us access to other people, to other areas. We made acquaintances and slowly, gradually left this diaspora.

RG: But why?

Vartanyan: It’s dangerous: we Armenians are very curious, we have connections all over the globe. And if you get used to it too much, fit into any Armenian diaspora with roots, they may become interested and check it out. It will work better than counterintelligence.

Gohar Levonovna: You say that I’m sitting with you and listening, but I need to bring tea.

RG: Gevork Andreevich, that’s interesting for Gohar Levonovna. Maybe something else that hasn't been told?

Vartanyan: We talked about chance encounters, which are fatal for illegal immigrants. But here's one more thing. In 1970, we went on vacation from our illegal foreign countries and rested in Yerevan. Suddenly our acquaintances come straight towards us. Hugs, sincere kisses, good people. Clearly, they had no idea who we were. They helped us get legalized in that state. Their home is like our own. Through them we created our environment and entered society. When we left that country, we left without saying goodbye to them. Such is the life of an illegal immigrant. And so in Yerevan questions began: where are you, how are you? Why did you leave such and such a country? We looked for you in the banks, but in such a way as not to arouse suspicion.

RG: For banks, is it because they have detailed data?

Vartanyan: And we, like them, are put into a hotel. We are with suitcases and all the necessary attributes. Our comrades in the Service quickly provided and protected us as best they could.

Gohar Levonovna: And we are with them for a week. It was difficult in Yerevan then. Acquaintances everywhere, because we studied there after Tehran, we could approach them and ask questions.

RG: But were there other kinds of friends?

Vartanyan: Those who helped or were recruited. Or they weren’t recruited, but still, as we say, they were “pumped for information.” Some shared news that was valuable to us simply on a confidential basis. This is a purely human factor. When you have something to tell and you find a good, attentive interlocutor, you want to pour out your soul. And if you also ask a leading question at the right time, then there is no need for any recruitment. Sometimes meeting a competent person is enough. And in general, recruitment is a delicate matter. If I recruit someone, it means I am exposing myself. How do I have complete confidence that tomorrow he won’t give me away? When we worked in Iran, dozens came to us on an ideological basis. But you started talking about cases, about episodes, and I remembered that once in one country...

RG: Oh this one country...

Vartanyan: So it was in it, far or close, that again one leader was kidnapped. And all efforts were thrown into searching for the criminals. They stopped me too: open the trunk. We looked and I moved on. Next post: Get out of the car! We got out, opened the trunk again: and there was a machine gun. They ask me: whose is this? I calmly say that it was you who threw it there, not mine. But the situation, as you understand, is tense. A government official has been kidnapped, they are looking for him... And then the first policeman catches up with us on a motorcycle, who during the inspection forgot his, you know, his machine gun in my trunk. Blatant police negligence: forgetting a weapon while making noise during a search. The case is anecdotal. But at first I thought they were playing a provocation. This is where you could fall asleep. True, then we would prove our innocence. But how much nerves, time, and what kind of attention would be paid to us then.

RG: Has it ever happened that, roughly speaking, you had to wash away?

Vartanyan: No, if you wash away, that’s it. But this is what happened in another country, where at that time there were serious military institutions. We worked in that city, and to no avail. I had important people in touch. And suddenly our people call me to a meeting. They say: outdoor surveillance is following you. We urgently need to go to Moscow. Your capture will take place at such and such an airport on such and such a date. And when he named the date, my heart skipped a beat. Because it was for this day that I had a ticket booked. I think if I tell him about this, he will be completely scared - the khan. Wow, what kind of coincidences there are in life. And calmly, believe me, extremely calmly, I explain to our friend that I am checked twice a day, there is no “external surveillance”, an error has occurred. Please convey to Moscow that this is some kind of confusion, a misunderstanding. You can’t give up an established business because of her and, as you say, Nikolai, run away. However, it is difficult to convince me of this. I check, everything is clean, I’m not being followed, I arrive at my modest hotel, and then the administrator gives me a summons: tomorrow at 10 o’clock in the morning I am summoned to the police. This is where my heart lightened.

RG: How did you feel better? Call the police!

Vartanyan: If they really decided to take it, they certainly wouldn’t call the police. I went to the police, and there was a minor formality, which I quickly settled.

RG: But why then such concern for your life? And why did they decide that you were under surveillance?

Vartanyan: In short, we managed to find out that an oriental man of my age, height and appearance is really being followed by “outdoors”. Who he is and what he has done will remain unknown. And they thought it was me, and they wanted to protect me, to urgently save me. If our nerves had given way that time, we wouldn’t have done a lot of things. And they worked very well for a long, long time. But we endured all this calmly. Then we got used to it. Over the years, experience came and training appeared.

RG: Have you ever encountered or communicated with intelligence officers from other states?

Vartanyan: Anything has happened. There are also legal intelligence officers under the cover of embassy employees. And official representatives of the FBI and CIA. We were in company with them, and when they started arguing, sometimes colliding with each other in conversation, we didn’t have to ask any questions. All you had to do was listen - listen carefully. Sometimes approaches were made to me, a fully legalized businessman in this country, say. Well, to hell with them, I could give them something in economics, in business. Most often I was asked questions about investing money. You give advice, but they also give you forecasts, because these guys have influence in the country, and as a result you receive extremely valuable information.

RG: You and Gohar Levonovna told you that you came home on vacation. Isn't this risky? Crossing borders, showing documents. The moment is delicate.

Vartanyan: Technically this is not very dangerous. But then it was more difficult: there was no such flow of people. And there was enough attention for everyone. And we always looked at which window to go to. You see how the man works. You quickly realize: this one is nagging. Slowly you move to another line. An experienced employee will let you through quickly. And the young ones are scrupulous. So the visitor has freedom of choice. And grades too.

RG: Even little things like that?

Vartanyan: These are also what the life of an illegal immigrant consists of.

RG: Everything is so computerized now.

Vartanyan: Yes, some things have become more difficult. But there is an antidote to every innovation...

RG: However, today biometrics is being introduced. You won't deceive her, will you?

Gohar Levonovna: So what then?

Vartanyan: There is an exit. Science and technology are working and developing. But let's talk about something else: if you become a citizen of this country, it means that you have passed all the checks - and the special services too. You have nothing to fear. We have official citizenship and documents - completely official, no linden.

Gohar Levonovna: One day the mayor of the city gave.

Vartanyan: We received citizenship when necessary.

RG: But I repeat: what if you press a computer button?

Vartanyan: Let them press at least twenty buttons. You've got everything right. There have been cases where for some time I had to work using fake passports. But we know how to do everything very beautifully and with high quality. Everything is taken into account here.

Gohar Levonovna: It happened that it was necessary to quickly change passports.

Vartanyan: But this is already a technique.

Anecdote from Vartanyan

People of advanced age are asked: “What is better - insanity or sclerosis?” Answer: “Of course, sclerosis.” - "But why?" - “Yes, because you don’t remember that insanity has already set in.”

Nikolai Dolgopolov. Vartanyans against Skorzeny. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Week", May 6, 2010

A presentation of the film took place at RG, in the center of which was a pair of illegal intelligence officers. Gevorg and Gohar Vartanyan made it possible to hold the Conference in Tehran in November 1943.

Continuation of the series of documentary and feature films "Fights", prepared by the Artel studio for Channel One and telling about employees of the Foreign Intelligence Service - participants in key events of World War II. The director of the film, Vladimir Nakhabtsev, producer Maya Toidze and the direct participants in the events, the Vartanyans, told RG the details of the project.

If a shootout is the end of reconnaissance

Russian newspaper: Vladimir, before your first film in the Duels series, dedicated to Rudolf Abel, you shot detective series for television. Are you more interested in docudrama?

Vladimir Nakhabtsev: Much. The non-fictional nature of the plot returns the movie from the state of an attraction to a normal human plane. We talk about real - and at the same time fantastic! - to people, we show documents, eyewitnesses, and history takes on flesh, blood and smell before our eyes.

RG: And he gives stories that no screenwriter could come up with.

Nakhabtsev: When documents were submitted to the Central Committee to award Gevork Vartanyan the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, they said: “Of course, Gevork Andreevich is a worthy person, but in your submission, please write the truth. One person cannot do everything that is stated here!” Indeed, it is difficult to believe that the operation, the purpose of which was to kill the leaders of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA, was started by the best minds of Germany - Canaris, Schellenberg, Kaltenbrunner, Skorzeny, and was destroyed by boys. After all, those who were part of Vartanyan’s group were 16-19 years old at that time!

RG: What did cooperation with the Foreign Intelligence Service give you when working on the film?

Nakhabtsev: First of all, it allowed us to avoid funny mistakes. After all, what our viewer knows about intelligence and intelligence officers most often has nothing to do with the truth. What, say, did Skorzeny’s saboteurs look like? These were not “jocks” at all, but pot-bellied, bald subjects, but at the same time capable of shooting down a fly on the fly. And before the operation, they learned to be waiters, carried trays with pistols under them. They were supposed to enter the hall - the terrorist attack was scheduled for Churchill's birthday - throw away the trays and shoot. But the most amazing fact that the SVR consultants helped us with was not even this, but the small details of the life of the intelligence officers: what they ate, drank, smoked, how recruitment took place and how they evaded surveillance.

Maya Toidze: We didn’t need sensationalism; we sought to show the life of intelligence officers as it was: without shooting, fights and chases. After all, an intelligence officer is a person who, first of all, thinks. One of our heroes, the legendary resident Agayants, telling young Vartanyan what he should do, says: “Remember: where the firefight begins, reconnaissance ends.”

RG: In your film, real historical characters act at every step.

Nakhabtsev: And here there is an attempt to break stereotypes. What do we know about Stalin? He had a mustache, smoked a pipe and said: “What does Comrade Zhukov think?” The viewer has the same idea about Hitler, Churchill and others. Our Stalin is different - both strong and insanely tired, confused, tortured. Churchill was a great sybarite, in our film he receives the Minister of Foreign Affairs while lying in the bathroom, he also held cabinet meetings there. Docudrama shows these things like no other genre.

Always on duty

RG: Gevork Andreevich, Victory Day is probably a bright holiday for your family.

Vartanyan: The brightest and most long-awaited.

RG: I heard that you and Gohar Levonovna yourself selected a couple of actors to play you.

Vartanyan: We've seen a couple of contenders. We agree with the directors' choice. Happened. This is especially true for an actor who looks like me. But with Gohar it’s more complicated: in 1943 she was blonde and bright. But, as always, she honestly warned me: “Gevorg, I’ll probably turn darker, because my parents’ hair color is dark.” And she kept her word (smiles).

RG: A lot has already been written about you, and now the film will be shown on First. How do you feel about fame in general? After all, for an intelligence officer, especially an illegal immigrant, she is unusual.

Vartanyan: Almost 10 years have passed since you first wrote about us. And we gradually got used to being recognized. Now they come up to us on the street and congratulate us. Both in Moscow and Yerevan. I am glad that among these people there are many young people.

RG: If I'm not mistaken, you turned 86.

Vartanyan: Yes, Nikolai. I celebrated my birthday in February.

RG: And still go to work every day for the Foreign Intelligence Service?

Vartanyan: Every day. The car arrives, I drive, and work until the evening. We have an excellent team, energetic and active people. The atmosphere is such that all you can do is work.

RG: How are you feeling and your health?

Vartanyan: Everything is fine.

RG: How about Gohar Levonovna?

Vartanyan: Also in worries. And not only at home. We travel and meet young people. We visit educational institutions. We pass on experience. Sometimes people turn to Gohar for personal consultations. She doesn't refuse.

Nikolai Dolgopolov. They don't go into storage. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta - Week", January 27, 2011

From the history of the issue

Gohar Vartanyan has been in intelligence since the age of 16. Together with her fiancé, the future Hero of the Soviet Union Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan, she joined the so-called “light cavalry” group that operated during the war in Iran. It was these very young guys who thwarted the Nazi assassination attempt on Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, who came to Tehran in 1943 to decide the fate of the world.

In 1951, with the permission of the Center, the Vartanyans returned to the USSR. They graduated from the Yerevan Institute of Foreign Languages, underwent special training, and then for more than three decades (!), illegal intelligence officers worked “under special conditions” abroad, in a variety of countries under different names and various covers, which the time has not come to mention. And, apparently, it won’t come soon. Gohar Levonovna, naturally, is fluent in Russian, Armenian, Farsi, and also, believe me, many other languages. In the second half of the 1980s, a couple of illegal immigrants, having completed their task, returned to their homeland. By that time, Vartanyan G.A. had already been awarded the title of Hero, which was reported to him by the radio operator, holder of military orders G.L., who deciphered the message. Vartanyan. And at almost 87, Gevork Vartanyan works in the Foreign Intelligence Service. His wife also did not retire for many years, helping to educate those who had to work hard “in special conditions.”

Personal life

A difficult question for many illegal immigrants. A well-known (in narrow circles) married couple who lived for many years in North America. The Russian was married and had children, as his official - at that time - life partner knew about. She came to his aid from another country, of which she was a citizen. Having completed the task and retained good feelings, the scouts dispersed, never to meet again. Another case known to me personally. The spouses who lived “there” for many years happily returned home, but their children, who discovered that they were not, say, Germans or Latin Americans at all, but real Russians, were discouraged. They had to learn their native language quickly, but they could not avoid the ridicule of the children from the neighboring yard. Now both of them, who did not follow in their parents’ footsteps, have found work, the brother and sister are happy, but they have had to go through many difficult moments. Both tact and patience were required from the parents, and the daughter, who rather adheres to socialist views, once reproached: “Why didn’t you tell us who you were? We would have helped you.”

Goar Levonovna and Gevork Andreevich, as it happens, have no children. They took a lot of risks on their distant frontier. Moving, changing environments and legends required full dedication. Suffice it to say that in different places the beautiful Gohar married three times and invariably to her Gevork. True, always under a new name. But putting the lives of those closest to them at obvious risk was, in their fair opinion, unwise.

But the couple has a niece. And, you know, Margarita, even though she doesn’t live in Moscow, is very lucky. You rarely meet such attentive relatives. The Vartanyans are proud of their Margosha and visit her often. However, in that state that is now friendly to us, they are also deservedly honored as Heroes.

What today

But let's return to Gohar Levonovna. We met when the scouts were well over 70. And my first impression has not changed. They are real Europeans. Always in excellent shape, dressed with taste and in their own style, developed over the years. And at 85, Gohar Levonovna invariably wears heels. Dresses in non-dark colors are subtly chosen. The hairstyle looks like, or maybe not like, straight from a hairdresser's.

By the way, one of the memories of illegal immigrant Gohar Vartanyan is also connected with this establishment. Once, in a distant country, while drying her hair, she saw her husband passing by. And she called him quite loudly, as she had been calling him for more than six decades of marriage: “Zhora, I’m here!” Fortunately, the neighbors in the hairdressing salon were sitting under their helmets in this by no means Russian-speaking city and did not hear anything.

It happened a couple of times that in some kingdom-state they could come across an Iranian leader who knew them from Tehran under a different name. And Gohar, sensing a threat, immediately acted out a headache and quickly let her husband know about the danger. They got into a luxury car, and Gohar Levonovna instantly hit the gas.

What if it were different? The answer to this non-rhetorical question is given by the story of dozens of our intelligence officers, betrayed by a traitor and exchanged in July. Strangers do not stand on ceremony with illegal immigrants. And the Vartanyans consider themselves lucky: in all their years they have never encountered traitors. And letters from the Motherland from loved ones, so as not to catch anyone’s attention, were read two or three times, memorized as usual, and then professionally burned, rolled up into a tube, so that there was less ash.

However, it is interesting that in this married couple of illegal immigrants No. 1, Gevork Andreevich tells more about the past, about wonderful cities and true friends, not necessarily agents. Here it is, female discipline absorbed over decades.

She is in everything. The apartment is absolutely clean. It is furnished elegantly, but without pretension, but with love: there are also things taken from there. It’s nice to admire the landscapes against which so many years and events have flown by. For a gourmet, although I don’t consider myself in this category, meeting the Vartanyans could be remarkable. Rarely does a chef compare with Gohar Levonovna. Where did she learn to cook so tasty and varied? Although, it’s clear where, because oriental dishes are especially successful. As for drinks, preference is cognac - Armenian, aged, multi-starred and, naturally, from Yerevan. The couple raises a glass or two, and for years - years not years - without any consequences.

Call to the hospital

These days, Gohar Levonovna turned 85. We agreed to come and see him, but, alas, it didn’t work out. The scout fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. I called Gevork Andreevich on his mobile and was reassured by him: “Gohar is already better, getting better,” and suddenly: “I’m with her now.” Nikolay, would you like to congratulate? I pass the phone.

Russian newspaper: Gohar Levonovna, how are you? They scared us so much.

Gohar Vartanyan: But now I feel better. That's the main thing. I've been coughing for more than two weeks, and that's enough. Getting better.

Gohar Vartanyan: Here. But they promised to go home at the end of this week. We'll see you a little later. Let's invite friends from work and relatives.

RG: I can imagine what the table will be like. Gohar Levonovna, dear, I want to congratulate you. And then another anniversary. Gevork Andreevich, it seems, said that June 30 marks 65 years of marriage.

Gohar Vartanyan: Yes. And therefore I believe that the year will be successful. We will overcome the cough and all illnesses, everything will be fine.

RG: Always remain optimistic.

Gohar Vartanyan: Also true. In our profession and without optimism? And I recommend it to everyone else. Optimism is the best medicine.

RG: Don't you miss it? You are an active person.

Gohar Vartanyan: No need for boredom, no need. The hospital is excellent - new and the doctors are attentive. Tomorrow (Monday) and the day after tomorrow I will watch a film about me and Gevork on television. I think not, I’m sure I’ll be glad. And then I'll go out and see you. Be sure to come visit us. And say hi to your wife.

---
This is such a true movie

This is the name of a two-part documentary-fiction film filmed for Channel One by the Artel company, headed by Honored Artist of Russia Alexander Ivankin. Director - Vladimir Nakhabtsev.

It’s not very convenient for me to talk about this film, as the screenwriter of No. 3. And yet I will express my purely personal opinion: the film is truthful and documentary. It’s touching, because Gohar and Gevork Vartanyan acted in it and spoke sincerely in it; they didn’t even need a script, and, in my opinion, no makeup. And the young Vartanyans of the 1943 period were played by a young couple of capable actors - Karina Gondagsazyan and Valery Sekhposov. And Gohar Levonovna chose them in many ways. I must admit, they showed me two other candidates - also similar, quite nice. But, as they say, it was the delicately expressed opinion of Goar Levonovna and Gevork Andreevich that became decisive.

What can I say? There is only one thing: the illegal intelligence officers were not mistaken again (or even here).

Recently a significant event took place in our city. A monument to Berest was erected on Selmash. Rostov local historians wrote about the need to erect a worthy monument to this illustrious man, a participant in the storming of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the Victory Banner on it on the pages of “Evening Rostov”. The author of these lines also wrote about this. Therefore, after the monument to Berest was erected, the famous Rostov local historian and veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Antranik Gevorkovich Malkhasyan, called me and congratulated me on this joyful event. Then he told me: “Georgy, now we need to remember the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Vartanyan Gevork Andreevich. He was from Rostov. This man saved Stalin during the Tehran Conference in 1943. If it were not for him and his group of scouts, the whole course of history could have been different. “I believe that a worthy monument to Varatanyan needs to be erected in Rostov.” Vartanyan Gevork Andreevich(1924 - 2012) - outstanding intelligence officer, Hero of the Soviet Union, Honorary Citizen of Rostov-on-Don. Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan was born in 1924 in Rostov-on-Don. His father Andrei Vasilyevich Vartanyan was an Iranian citizen, director of an oil mill. When Gevork Vartanyan was six years old, his family left for Iran. Gevork Vartanyan’s father was associated with Soviet intelligence and left the USSR on its instructions. The Vartanyan family was respected in Iranian society. Gevork Vartanyan's father owned a confectionery factory. It is interesting that Andrei Vartanyan almost never used money from the Center; he spent the money he earned himself on intelligence activities. Andrei Vartanyan was a patriot of his country, and he raised his son Gevork in the same spirit. Andrei Vartanyan returned from Tehran to Yerevan in 1953, having worked for Soviet intelligence for 23 years. Gevork Vartanyan followed in the footsteps of his father. He also became a Soviet intelligence officer. Since 1940, Gevork has been working for Soviet intelligence. Its curator was the Soviet intelligence officer Ivan Agayants. Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan had the operational pseudonym “Amir”. Vartanyan gathered a group of like-minded people around him. This was a group of young guys - Armenians, Lezgins, Assyrians. All of them were immigrants from the USSR. Their parents were either expelled from the Soviet Union after 1937, or they themselves left to escape repression. But they were all united by love for their homeland. It was then that Gevork Vartanyan met his future wife, Gohar. She was the sister of one of his comrades, Oganes. Vartanyan's group identified about 400 agents among Iranians working for Germany! In 1942, the British opened their intelligence school in Iran, where they trained agents to be deployed into the territory of the Soviet Union. Vartanyan managed to establish the identities of the agents trained there. This later helped to detain them after being transported to the USSR. After protest from the Soviet side, the intelligence school was closed. Vartanyan's group played a huge role during the Tehran Conference of 1943. This was the first meeting of the Big Three, at which the fate of millions of people and the future structure of the whole world were decided. Hitler wanted to destroy the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain. This operation was to be carried out by the famous Nazi saboteur Otto Skorzeny. Otto Skorzeny had to either kill Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, or steal them in Tehran, entering the British Embassy from the Armenian cemetery. However, Hitler's plans were not destined to come true. Vartanyan’s group, together with the British from MI6, took direction and deciphered all the messages of the saboteurs. This was a unique case in the history of intelligence. The group of 19-year-old Vartanyan foiled an assassination attempt on the leaders of the Big Three. In fact, one of the most secret operations of the Third Reich was thwarted by a group of young men led by Gevork Vartanyan. A few days before the start of the conference, German agents were arrested in Tehran. Many people remember the action-packed Soviet-French film “Tehran-43”. The Soviet intelligence officer was played by the wonderful actor Igor Kostolevsky. But few people know that Vartanyan was the prototype of the main character. In 1946, Gevork Andreevich married Gohar, a girl who was part of his reconnaissance group. In 1951, the Vartanyan couple returned to the USSR. In Yerevan they enter the university and graduate from the Faculty of Foreign Languages. After graduating from Yerevan University, they continue to work in foreign intelligence. Gevork and Gohar Vartanyan worked together for thirty years. The Vartayan spouses declassified dozens of NATO bases in Europe. Gevork Andreevich was either an Iranian businessman or a Spanish journalist. During their work abroad, the Vartanyan spouses visited approximately one hundred countries. Their work is still classified. Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star medal, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, and many other orders. In 1986, the Vartanyan couple returned to their homeland and trained future illegal agents to work abroad. I was lucky enough to personally communicate with Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan. He was a very kind, modest, versatile and erudite person, a true patriot of his country. Vartanyan said that the hardest thing in the intelligence profession is losing friends forever. After all, when you leave the country in which you worked, the people with whom you became friends remain forever. Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan died on January 10, 2012. He was buried at the Troekurovskoye cemetery in Moscow. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was present at the funeral; there were also the heads of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Ambassador of Armenia to Russia. Gevork Andreevich Vartanyan is an Honorary Citizen of the city of Rostov-on-Don. In 2012, in Rostov, on the Avenue of Stars, a personalized “Star” was laid for Gevork Vartanyan. I, like the famous local historian Antranik Gevorkovich Malkhasyan, believe that a monument to the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Vartanyan needs to be erected in Rostov. I would like it to stand in Nakhichevan. A monument to the scout could be erected in the park named after. Revolution or in the park named after. Viti Cherevichkina. In any case, Vartanyan’s name should be worthily immortalized in Rostov-on-Don.

Georgy BAGDIKOV.