Pavel Sudoplatov
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1907 - 1996
Pavel Sudoplatov (July 7, 1907 - September 26, 1996) was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union who rose to the rank of lieutenant general. He was involved in several famous incidents of the early Cold War, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky, and the Soviet espionage program which obtained information about the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project. His autobiography, Special Tasks, made him well-known outside Russia, and provided a detailed look at Soviet intelligence and Soviet internal politics during his years at the top.
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[edit] Early life and career
He was born in Melitopol, in Ukraine, to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian father. After his father died, leaving the family in poverty, Sudoplatov joined the Red Army in 1919, at the age of twelve, fighting in the Russian Civil War. Through work in signals, he became associated with intelligence work, and was eventually promoted to the Secret Political Department of the Ukrainian OGPU in 1927.
In 1928 he married Emma Kaganova, a pretty, blond-haired, blue-eyed girl from Gomel, a Jewish settlement in Byelorussia. At that time Emma had been recruited by and worked for the OGPU.
He transferred to the Soviet OGPU in 1933, moving to Moscow, and soon after became an "illegal", operating under cover in a number of European countries. In May, 1938, on Stalin's direct order, he personally assassinated the Ukrainian nationalist leader Yevhen Konovalets.
In the fall of 1938, he was made acting director of the Foreign Department of the NKVD (as the OGPU had by then become) after the purging of the previous head, in a set of purges which later culminated in the fall of Nikolai Yezhov (who was eventually replaced by Lavrentii Beria). Shortly afterward, Sudoplatov narrowly escaped being purged himself.
In March, 1939, Stalin rehabilitated Sudoplatov, promoting him to deputy director of the Foreign Department, and placed him in charge of the assassination of Trotsky, which was carried out in August, 1940.
In June, 1941, Sudoplatov was placed in charge of the NKVD's Administration for Special Tasks, the principal task of which was to carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines in wartime (both it and the Foreign Department had also been used to carry out assassinations abroad). During World War II, his unit helped organize guerrilla bands, and other secret behind-the-lines units for sabotage and assassinations, to fight the Nazis.
In February, 1944, Beria named Sudoplatov to also head the newly-formed Department S, which united both GRU and NKVD intelligence work on the atomic bomb; he was also given a management role in the Soviet atomic effort, to help with coordination.
In the summer of 1946, he was removed from both posts, and in September he was placed in charge of another group at the newly-renamed MGB, one which was supposed to plan sabotage actions in Western countries. In November, 1949 he was given a temporary job helping suppress a guerilla movement in Ukraine that was a relic of WWII.
In the spring of 1953, around the time of Stalin's death, Sudoplatov was appointed to head the yet-again renamed MVD's Bureau of Special Tasks, which was responsible for sabotage operations abroad, and ran networks of "illegals" who were given the task of preparing attacks on military establishments in NATO countries, in the event that NATO attacked the Soviet Union.
[edit] Fall and later life
After the fall of Beria in June, 1953, Sudoplatov, who had held a high post under Beria, was also removed from power. After being held under arrest for 5 years, he was convicted in the autumn of 1958 of apparently false charges of collaborating with Beria in a plot to overthrow the government, and helping harm Beria's enemies, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
After serving the full term (during which time he was housed with a number of Stalin's top assistants, also imprisoned), he was duly released in August, 1968.
He thereafter worked for some time as a translator, working in German and Ukrainian, and wrote a novel as well as historical items about his work during WWII.
After an extensive campaign, including a publicity effort during the glasnost era, he was finally re-habilitated and cleared of wrong-doing in 1992.
In 1994, his autobiography, Special Tasks, based in large part on Sudoplatov's memory, and written with the help of his son Anatoli and two American writers, was published; it caused a considerable uproar. In addition to extensive details of many Soviet intelligence operations during Sudoplatov's career, and a similarly extensive discussion of the political machinations inside the intelligence services and the Soviet government, it claimed that a number of Western scientists who had worked on the atomic bomb project, while not agents for the Soviets, had provided useful atomic information; this has been heavily disputed.
[edit] Further reading
- Pavel Sudoplatov, Anatoli Sudoplatov, Jerrold L. Schecter, Leona P. Schecter, Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness -- A Soviet Spymaster (Little Brown, Boston, 1994)
