On July 20, 1907, Pavel Sudoplatov was born - the legendary Soviet intelligence officer and saboteur who participated in the liquidation of a number of enemies of the USSR, including the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) * Yevgeny Konovalets, who collaborated with the Nazis.

During the Great Patriotic War, Sudoplatov led reconnaissance and sabotage work behind the front line.

According to historians, his activities caused enormous damage to the enemies of the USSR.

Carier start

Pavel Sudoplatov was born in Melitopol in a poor family with many children.

He lost his parents early and left the city in 1919 along with the cavalry units of the Red Army.

During one of the battles, 12-year-old Pavel was captured by the Cossacks supporting the White movement.

But he managed to escape and get to Odessa, where he was homeless and worked part-time in the port.

According to some sources, when the Red Army approached Odessa, the boy took part in the Bolshevik uprising.

Soon, Pavel became an assistant telegraph operator in the communications company of the 123rd rifle brigade of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

In its composition, he participated in the Civil War, fought against Ukrainian nationalist formations.

In 1921, Sudoplatov was transferred to serve in a special department as a cipher-telephone operator, and a year later he was sent to serve in the border unit in Western Ukraine.

Pavel was 16 years old when he returned to his native Melitopol and took up Komsomol work.

But his civilian life did not last long.

Already in 1925, in the direction of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, Sudoplatov was transferred to the local division of the State Political Administration (GPU).

Soon, Pavel became an operative in charge of working with local Greek, Bulgarian and German diasporas.

In the future, he spent two years on operational work in Kharkov.

According to historians, Sudoplatov received an unusual and rather difficult appointment in 1930 - he worked for more than a year in a colony for juvenile delinquents: first as head of the cultural and educational department, and then as a commissioner.

Despite the lack of teaching experience, the former homeless child did an excellent job with this work - the colony became one of the best in Ukraine.

At the end of 1931, Sudoplatov was transferred to the organizational and instructor department of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR, and a few months later they were taken to the central office of the GPU in Moscow: first to the personnel department, and then to the Foreign Department, which was responsible for foreign intelligence.

Pavel knew the Ukrainian language well and had experience of serving in Western Ukraine, so he was assigned to deal with foreign organizations of Ukrainian nationalists.

As Dmitry Surzhik, an associate professor at GAUGN, said in an interview with RT, in the 1930s the OUN established close contacts with the Nazi secret services and launched subversive work directed against the USSR.

The militants and propagandists of the OUN tried to create their own underground in the Ukrainian SSR, and also engaged in discrediting the Soviet government in the eyes of the inhabitants of Western Ukraine, which at that time was part of Poland. 

  • Map of Odessa during the Civil War

  • © Wikimedia Commons

It was decided to introduce Pavel Sudoplatov into the European structures of the OUN.

Through a Soviet agent in the organization, he was recommended to the leadership of the nationalists as a promising activist.

Sudoplatov was transported to the West through Finland.

Arriving in Helsinki, the intelligence officer played the role of an ardent nationalist so convincingly that one of the Soviet agents in the OUN even wanted to eliminate him.

Pavel was rescued by scouts Boris and Zoya Rybkin, who led the Soviet residency in Finland.

They helped Sudoplatov and even secretly fed him, since according to legend, Pavel had practically no means of subsistence at that time, and the transfer of money for life could declassify him.

Watching Sudoplatov from the sidelines, members of the OUN believed in his reliability.

Pavel was brought personally to the head of the OUN, Yevgeny Konovalets.

According to historians, despite the fact that Konovalets was an experienced intriguer, Sudoplatov managed to gain confidence in him.

One day, Pavel filled a handkerchief with earth on the grave of Symon Petliura and promised to take her to Ukraine to plant a tree.

By this act, he delighted the leader of the nationalists.

In addition, Sudoplatov recounted to Konovalts the unpleasant conversations that other OUN members had about him.

Konovalets began to take Sudoplatov with him on inspection trips, telling him about the planned sabotage by the OUN and about connections with special services, including the German Abwehr.

When Pavel returned to the USSR, he was detained in Finland on suspicion of involvement in the activities of the Soviet special services.

However, Ukrainian nationalists confirmed his "identity", and Sudoplatov was released.

  • Liquidation of Konovalets

  • © Wikimedia Commons

After returning to the Soviet Union, Sudoplatov reported personally to Joseph Stalin on the results of his trip.

The information delivered by the scout aroused considerable interest, and in Moscow they decided to liquidate Konovalets.

Sudoplatov was instructed to complete the task.

Before returning to the West, Pavel told his colleagues that Konovalets was not indifferent to chocolates, so he was provided with a box of sweets, inside of which there was an explosive device.

On May 23, 1938, in Rotterdam, he handed over the "hotel" to Konovalets, having previously started the clockwork.

The leader of the nationalists was destroyed.

His death, according to historians, provoked a split in the ranks of the OUN.

Chief saboteur

Returning to the USSR, Sudoplatov was appointed head of a department in the central apparatus of foreign intelligence of the NKVD, and then for some time acted as head of all foreign intelligence.

At the end of 1938, a group of Sudoplatov's colleagues from foreign intelligence accused him at the party committee of "connections with enemies of the people."

The situation was quite serious, but everything was limited to a reprimand along the party line.

According to historians, this was due to Stalin's personal interference in what was happening, who highly valued the abilities of a talented saboteur.

In 1939, Sudoplatov was approved as deputy head of foreign intelligence and actually held it until 1946.

On June 18, 1941, Sudoplatov received an order from Lavrenty Beria to form a special unit, which, in the event of a war, would be engaged in reconnaissance and sabotage activities.

And on June 26, 1941, Beria signed an order to create the troops of the Special Group under the NKVD of the USSR, led by Pavel Sudoplatov.

In the autumn of 1941, a separate motorized rifle brigade of special purpose of the NKVD of the USSR was created from the troops of the Special Group.

According to historians, she showed herself well already during the Battle of Moscow.

The soldiers of the brigade acted both on the front line and as part of battle groups that made daring raids behind enemy lines.

At the beginning of 1942, Sudoplatov headed the 4th Directorate, created as part of the NKVD of the USSR, which was responsible for conducting reconnaissance and sabotage activities.

During the war years, 2,200 Soviet operational detachments and groups operated behind enemy lines.

They destroyed about 230,000 enemy troops and derailed 2,800 Nazi trains.

In addition, Soviet saboteurs obtained intelligence information of strategic importance.

To participate in some operations, Sudoplatov personally went to the front line.

  • Squad "Winners"

  • © Wikimedia Commons

As Dmitry Surzhik noted, one of the most famous units supervised by Sudoplatov was the Pobediteli unit.

The legendary intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov worked at its base, who transmitted to Moscow information about the preparation of the Nazi offensive in the Kursk region and about the plans of the Nazi special services to arrange an assassination attempt on the leaders of the Anti-Hitler coalition in Tehran.

As Andrey Sementkovsky, a researcher at the Victory Museum, told RT, the strategic radio games with the Abwehr, conducted under the leadership of Sudoplatov, played a serious role in the victory over Nazism, which made it possible, in particular, to introduce a number of Soviet intelligence officers into the Nazi intelligence network.

“The disinformation transmitted to Berlin influenced the adoption by the Nazi command of fatal decisions for the Third Reich at the strategic level,” Sementkovsky emphasized.

In 1946, the 4th Directorate was disbanded.

Sudoplatov was instructed to create a service for organizing sabotage against the enemies of the Soviet Union within the structure of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR.

In parallel, he was responsible for the fight against the gang underground in the Baltic states and Western Ukraine.

Sudoplatov personally led the operation to eliminate the famous Nazi collaborator - the head of the UPA * Roman Shukhevych.

  • Opening of a memorial plaque in honor of Sudoplatov in Melitopol

  • RIA News

  • © Alexey Maishev

After Stalin's death, Sudoplatov was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison, allegedly for assisting Beria.

He was released only in 1968, having suffered three heart attacks and was blind in one eye.

After his release, Pavel Sudoplatov took up literary and historical activities.

Experts call his books an important source of information about the activities of Soviet intelligence during the Stalin period.

Pavel Sudoplatov died on September 24, 1996. 

“Pavel Sudoplatov eliminated the most ardent enemies of the USSR on the world stage and made a colossal contribution to the victory over Nazism.

He deserves to be educated on the example of new generations of defenders of our Motherland, ”summed up Andrey Sementkovsky.

* Organization of Ukrainian nationalists - "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (OUN-UPA) - a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).