Stirlitz history. Isaev Maxim Maksimovich Works where he participates

Dear friends, I am opening a new column in my blog "Literary Detective". Here I will publish my materials about the history of the creation of literary works and real prototypes of famous literary heroes. My first material is dedicated to the legendary and iconic character Stirlitz. I would be grateful for reasonable criticism and corrections, if any. I warn you that these materials are my personal version, which may differ from other, more accepted and popular versions.

So, get acquainted - Max Otto von Stirlitz

The most iconic character of the Soviet era, Soviet intelligence officer Max Otto von Stirlitz, created by the talented pen of Yulian Semenov, has always caused a lot of discussion. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev believed in the reality of Stirlitz so much after watching the serial film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" that he even awarded him the star of the Hero Soviet Union, with great difficulty I had to persuade him that such a scout in real life did not exist and the actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov, who played Stirlitz in the film, had to give the Hero of Socialist Labor.

But who was this mythical Stirlitz and did he have a real prototype. Immediately I want to dispel the main myth - Stirlitz did not have a single real prototype.

Let's start with the fact that Stirlitz's real name is not Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, as can be assumed from Seventeen Moments of Spring, but Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov. The surname Isaev was taken by Yulian Semyonov as an operative pseudonym for Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov already in the first novel about him, Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

In the novel "Expansion II" we learn that Vsevolod Vladimirov was born on October 8, 1900 in Transbaikalia, where his parents were in political exile. Father - Russian, Vladimir Alexandrovich Vladimirov, "professor of law at St. Petersburg University, dismissed for free thinking and proximity to social democracy circles." Attracted to the revolutionary movement by Georgy Plekhanov. Mother - Ukrainian, Olesya Prokopchuk, died of consumption when her son was five years old.

It is known that in 1911 Vladimirov Sr. and the Bolsheviks parted ways. Already after the revolution, in 1921, while his son was in Estonia, Vladimir Vladimirov was sent on a business trip to Eastern Siberia and tragically died there at the hands of the White Guards. Here is the backstory of the famous scout.

I will not analyze absolutely all the legends about who was the prototype of Isaev. I will dwell on the most plausible versions, which are directly or indirectly confirmed by Semenov himself.

Birth of Maxim Isaev

The image of Maxim Isaev (Vsevolod Vladimirov) was born from a secret dispatch by Dzerzhinsky, who sent a talented young man to the Far East who loved horses and painting and had a sharp mind and erudition. That's how Maxim Isaev was born. Semenov himself spoke about it this way: “There are different rumors about me: that Yulian Semenov has access to folders marked“ top secret ”, to the most untouchable archives ... I use quite accessible - up to high school students, if they wish - sources information. I have no authority to get into secret archives and never had. There is also no experience in "secret" work, as I said. I just buy in a bookstore accessible to everyone, for example, the correspondence of the heads of the three states that were allied against Hitler during the war. There I find a passage from a letter from one head of state to the head of another allied state about the people who informed our Supreme High Command. You can go to any city library and read what I wrote. Of course, there is no mention anywhere that there was such a Soviet intelligence officer Isaev. I “invented” it, because there were similar people, remember - Sorge, Abel ... Of course, I work in the archives, but this is not forbidden to anyone.

In the photo, Yakov Grigorievich Blyumkin

And yet, the young Stirlitz had a real prototype, part of whose biography was absorbed by a literary character. This is Yakov Grigoryevich Blumkin (real name is Simkha-Yankev Gershevich Blumkin). It is interesting that among his pseudonyms there are the names of Vladimirov and Isaev. They also have the same date of birth with Stirlitz - October 8, 1900. Blumkin's biography is extremely entertaining. He was highly valued by Dzerzhinsky and Trotsky, he participated in the assassination of the German ambassador Mirbach, was noted in the attempt on the life of Hetman Skoropadsky and the German Field Marshal Eichhorn, "expropriated" the values of the State Bank together with Mishka Yaponchik, overthrew the Persian head of Kuchek Khan and created the Iranian Communist Party. One episode from Blumkin's life almost completely became the basis of the plot of Semyonov's book Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In the mid-twenties, Yakov graduated from the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army and dealt with the Eastern question, traveled to China, Palestine, Mongolia, and lived in Shanghai. In the summer of 1929, Blumkin returned to the capital to report on his work, but was soon arrested for old connections with Leon Trotsky. At the end of the same year, Blumkin was shot. In October 1921, Blyumkin, under the pseudonym Isaev (taken by his grandfather's name), goes to Revel (Tallinn) under the guise of a jeweler and, acting as a provocateur, reveals the foreign connections of Gokhran employees. It was this episode in the activities of Blumkin that Yulian Semyonov laid the basis for the plot of the book “Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”.

Another prototype of the young Isaev was a relative of Julian Semenov by wife, Mikhail Mikhalkov. Yulian Semyonov was married to Ekaterina, the daughter of Natalia Petrovna Konchalovskaya from her first marriage. Here are the facts of the biography of Mikhail Mikhalkov: at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War served in a special department of the Southwestern Front. In September 1941, he was captured, escaped and continued to serve behind enemy lines as an illegal agent, supplying the intelligence agencies of the Red Army with important operational information. In 1945, during a battle in a German uniform, he crossed the front line and was detained by the military counterintelligence SMERSH. On charges of collaborating with German intelligence, he served five years in prison, first in the Lefortovo prison, later in one of the camps in the Far East.

Max Otto von Stirlitz

In the photo Willy Lehman, photo from the archives of the Gestapo

But Max Otto von Strilitz was born from the biography of another intelligence officer who worked for Soviet intelligence, but already a German. Semenov took this hero from the memoirs of Walter Schellenberg, whom he made the chief of Stirlitz himself.

The service of SS Standartenführer von Stirlitz proceeded in Berlin on the Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, in the Reichssicherheitsshauptamt. The RSHA had 6 departments, or general bureaus: legal, 2 investigative, "support for the life of the Germans", secret police (Gestapo), foreign intelligence. It was in the latter, the so-called Amt VI, that Stirlitz served. Judging by the previous novels in the series, the brave Standartenführer often moved from one department to another. In the "Spanish variant" (action time - 1936), Stirlitz is clearly an employee of department VI E, which dealt with Italy and Spain. In 1941 ("Alternative") he definitely serves in the VI D department ( Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia). And in 1945 ("Moments"), he most likely works either in VI A ( Common department), or in VI B (special operations). The Soviet special service, which contains the work book of Colonel Isaev, remained a mystery. Most likely, this is still the foreign intelligence of the NKVD under the leadership of General Pavel Fitin.

Chief Stirlitz Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg is one of the most extraordinary personalities in the Reich. In less than thirty, he became the head of German intelligence - thanks not only to his brilliant abilities, but also to the patronage of Lina Heydrich, the wife of the head of the RSHA, Reinhard Heydrich. Schellenberg, contrary to Semenov, was by no means an unprincipled (from the point of view of Nazism) opportunist: he refused to cooperate with the allies and, shortly before his death, at the age of only 44, wrote memoirs full of sincere grief for the lost greatness of National Socialism.

And here we come to the third prototype of Stirlitz - the main one for the German stage of life. His name was Willy Lehman. The name of Willy Lehman became known recently. Meanwhile, this amazing man, who oversaw the defense industry and the military construction of fascist Germany in the Gestapo, for 12 years transmitted to Moscow invaluable information about the scale of preparations for fascism to establish world domination.

The declassified documents are included in the forthcoming book "His Majesty the Agent", written by the famous historian and intelligence expert Teodor Gladkov. In the case of Lehman, only small part documents.

There is a version that Leman was simply recruited for money. The German, a passionate horse race player, was recruited in 1936 by Soviet intelligence, whose employee lent him money after losing, and then offered to supply secret information for a good fee. He bore the operational pseudonym "Breitenbach". In the RSHA he was engaged in countering Soviet industrial espionage.

However, this version is contradicted by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, which declassified some of the documents in the Breitenbach case. According to the representative of the SVR, unlike some agents of the Soviet intelligence, Leman was not recruited. He took the initiative to enter the Soviet residency and disinterestedly offered his services in the fight against Nazism.

On June 19, 1941, the intelligence officer informed the Soviet leadership about the German attack planned in three days. Wilhelm Lehmann, who, like Stirlitz, was a Gestapo officer, SS Hauptsturmführer. Lehman's desire to work for the USSR was dictated by his intransigence towards the basic ideals of fascism. The good-natured and affable person who was Leman was called by many at work (in the IVth department of the RSHA of the Gestapo) "Uncle Willy." No one, including his wife, could even imagine that this bald, kind man, suffering renal colic and diabetes, is a Soviet agent. Before the war, he transmitted information about the timing and volume of production of self-propelled guns and armored personnel carriers, the development of new nerve agents and synthetic gasoline, the start of liquid-fuel rocket testing, the structure and personnel of the German special services, Gestapo counterintelligence operations, and much more. Documents confirming the fact of the impending attack on the Soviet Union, Leman sewn into the lining of his hat, which he then quietly replaced with the same headdress when meeting with the Soviet representative in a cafe.

Until now, the fact that it was Leman who handed over to Moscow the key to the Gestapo ciphers used in the Funkshpruch telegraph and Fernshpruch radio messages to communicate with his territorial and foreign employees was not known until now. Thus, at the Lubyanka they got the opportunity to read the official correspondence of the Gestapo.

In 1942, the Germans managed to declassify a brave intelligence officer. Willy Lehman failed under circumstances close to those described by Yulian Semyonov: his radio operator Bart, an anti-fascist, during surgical operation, under anesthesia, began to talk about ciphers and communications with Moscow, and the doctors signaled to the Gestapo. In December 1942, Willy Lehman was arrested and shot a few months later. The fact of the betrayal of the SS officer was hidden - even the wife of Willy Lehman was informed that her husband had died after falling under a train. The story of Willy Lehmann is told in the memoirs of Walter Schellenberg, from which Yulian Semyonov apparently borrowed it.

Himmler was simply shocked by this fact. The employee, who worked in the Gestapo for thirteen years, constantly supplied information to the USSR and was never even suspected of espionage. The very fact of his activities was so shameful for the SS that the Lehman case was completely and completely destroyed before it had time to reach the Fuhrer, and the intelligence officer himself was hastily shot shortly after his arrest. Even the agent's wife for a long time didn't know about true reasons the death of a spouse. His name was included in the list of those who died for the Third Reich. Of all the Soviet intelligence officers, it was Leman who held the position of a high-ranking SS officer, similar to Stirlitz, surrounded by the arbiters of the fate of Germany and entering the very heart of the Reich.

This is how we got the first literary detective, fascinating and interesting. And how can it be boring to read about such a character as Maxim Isaev-Stirlitz?!

To be continued?

Max Otto von Stirlitz (German Max Otto von Stierlitz; aka Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, real name Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov) is a literary character, the hero of many works by the Russian Soviet writer Julian Semyonov, SS Standartenführer, Soviet intelligence agent who worked in the interests of the USSR in Nazi Germany and some other countries.

Source: literary works of Yulian Semyonov, TV movie "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

Role played by: Vyacheslav Tikhonov

All-Union fame for the image of Stirlitz was brought by Tatyana Lioznova's TV series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" based on the novel of the same name, where Vyacheslav Tikhonov played his role. This character has become the most famous image of a spy in Soviet and post-Soviet culture, comparable to James Bond in Western culture.

Biography

Contrary to popular belief, Stirlitz's real name is not Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, as can be assumed from Seventeen Moments of Spring, but Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov. The surname Isaev is presented by Yulian Semyonov as the operational pseudonym of Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov already in the first novel about him - “Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”.

Maxim Maksimovich Isaev - Stirlitz - Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov - was born on October 8, 1900 ("Expansion-2") in Transbaikalia, where his parents were in political exile.

Mother - Ukrainian, Olesya Prokopchuk, died of consumption when her son was five years old.

The parents met and got married in exile. At the end of the exile, father and son returned to St. Petersburg, and then spent some time in exile, in Switzerland, in the cities of Zurich and Bern. Here, Vsevolod Vladimirovich showed a love for literary work. In Bern, he worked for a newspaper. Father and son returned to their homeland in 1917. It is known that in 1911 Vladimirov Sr. and the Bolsheviks parted ways. Already after the revolution, in 1921 - while his son was in Estonia - Vladimir Vladimirov was sent on a business trip to Eastern Siberia and tragically died there at the hands of white bandits.

Maternal relatives:

Grandfather - Ostap Nikitich Prokopchuk, Ukrainian revolutionary democrat, also exiled to the Trans-Baikal exile with his children Olesya and Taras. After the exile, he returned to Ukraine, and from there to Krakow. He died in 1915.

Uncle - Taras Ostapovich Prokopchuk. In Krakow he married Wanda Krushanskaya. In 1918 he was shot.

Cousin - Ganna Tarasovna Prokopchuk. Two children. Professional activity: architect. In 1941, her entire family died in fascist concentration camps ("The Third Map"). She died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In 1920, Vsevolod Vladimirov worked under the name of Captain Maxim Maksimovich Isaev in the press service of the Kolchak government.

In May 1921, the gangs of Baron Ungern, having seized power in Mongolia, tried to strike at Soviet Russia. Vsevolod Vladimirov, under the guise of a White Guard captain, penetrated Ungern's headquarters and handed over to his command the enemy's military-strategic plans.

In 1921, he was already in Moscow, “working for Dzerzhinsky” as an assistant to the head of the foreign department of the Cheka, Gleb Bokiy. From here, Vsevolod Vladimirov is sent to Estonia (“Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”).

In 1922, the young Chekist underground Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov, on behalf of the leadership, was evacuated with white troops from Vladivostok to Japan, and from there he moved to Harbin (“No Password Needed”, “Tenderness”). Over the next 30 years, he is constantly in foreign work.

Meanwhile, in his homeland, he remains his only love for life and his son, who was born in 1923. The son's name was Alexander (operational pseudonym in the intelligence of the Red Army - Kolya Grishanchikov), his mother - Alexandra Nikolaevna Gavrilina ("Major Whirlwind"). Stirlitz first learns about his son in 1941 from an employee of the Soviet trade mission in Tokyo, where he leaves to meet with Richard Sorge. In the fall of 1944, SS Standartenführer von Stirlitz accidentally meets his son in Krakow - he is here as part of a reconnaissance and sabotage group ("Major Whirlwind").

From 1924 to 1927 Vsevolod Vladimirov lived in Shanghai.

In connection with the strengthening of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the aggravation of the danger of Adolf Hitler's coming to power in Germany in 1927, it was decided to send Maxim Maksimovich Isaev from the Far East to Europe. For this, a legend was created about Max Otto von Stirlitz, a German aristocrat robbed in Shanghai, seeking protection in the German consulate in Sydney. In Australia, Stirlitz worked for some time in a hotel with a German owner associated with the NSDAP, after which he was transferred to New York.

From the party characteristics of a member of the NSDAP since 1933 von Stirlitz, SS Standartenführer (VI department of the RSHA): “A true Aryan. Character - Nordic, seasoned. Supports with workmates a good relationship. Fulfills his duty without fail. Merciless to the enemies of the Reich. Excellent athlete: Berlin tennis champion. Single; he was not noticed in connections discrediting him. Marked with awards from the Fuhrer and thanks from the Reichsfuehrer SS ... "

During the Second World War, Stirlitz was an employee of the VI department of the RSHA, which was in charge of SS Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg. IN operational work in the RSHA he used the pseudonyms "Brunn" and "Bolsen". In 1938 he worked in Spain ("Spanish Variant"), in March-April 1941 - as part of the Edmund Weesenmeier group in Yugoslavia ("Alternative"), and in June - in Poland and in the occupied territory of Ukraine, where he communicated with Theodor Oberlender, Stepan Bandera and Andrey Melnik ("Third Map").

In 1943 he visited Stalingrad, where he demonstrated exceptional courage under Soviet shelling.

At the end of the war, Joseph Stalin entrusted Stirlitz with a responsible task: to disrupt separate negotiations between the Germans and the West. Beginning in the summer of 1943, SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, through his proxies, began to make contacts with representatives of Western intelligence agencies in order to conclude a separate peace. Thanks to the courage and intellect of Stirlitz, these negotiations were thwarted (“Seventeen Moments of Spring”).

Of the Americans who negotiated behind the scenes with the leaders of the Third Reich, Yulian Semyonov points to Allen Dulles, who headed the American headquarters in Bern, the capital of Switzerland.

The head of the IV department of the RSHA was SS Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, who exposed Stirlitz in April 1945, but the combination of circumstances and the chaos that happened during the storming of Berlin thwarted Müller's plans to use Stirlitz in the game against the command of the Red Army ("Ordered to Survive").

Stirlitz's favorite drink is Armenian cognac, his favorite cigarettes are Karo. He drives a Horch car. Unlike James Bond, Stirlitz treats women in cold blood. To the calls of prostitutes, he usually answers: “No, better coffee". A speech characteristic that is repeated from work to work: phrases often end with the question “No?” or "Isn't it?".

Before the end of the war, Stirlitz was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the end of World War II, Stirlitz was unconscious, wounded Soviet soldier, is exported by the Germans to Spain, from where it enters South America. There, he uncovers a conspiratorial network of fascists who have fled Germany.

During and after the Second World War, he worked under several pseudonyms: Bolsen, Brunn and others. As a name, he usually used variations of the name "Maxim": Max, Massimo ("Expansion").

In Argentina and Brazil, Stirlitz works with the American Paul Roman. Here they identify the secret Nazi organization "ODESSA", which is led by Muller, and then carry out the identification of the agent network and the capture of Muller. Realizing that after Winston Churchill's speech in Fulton and the "witch hunt" hosted by Hoover, Muller can escape punishment for his crimes, they decide to extradite him to the Soviet government. Stirlitz goes to the Soviet embassy, where he tells who he is, as well as information about Muller's whereabouts. Employees of the MGB carry out the arrest of Stirlitz and transport him to the USSR on a ship. Isaev goes to prison ("Despair"). There he meets Raoul Wallenberg and plays his own game. Meanwhile, his son and wife are being shot on Stalin's orders. After the death of Beria, Stirlitz is released.

A month after being awarded the Golden Star, he begins working at the Institute of History on the topic “National Socialism, Neo-Fascism; modifications of totalitarianism. After reviewing the text of the dissertation, Mikhail Suslov, Secretary of the Central Committee, recommended that Comrade Vladimirov be awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Science without defense, and that the manuscript be withdrawn and transferred to a special depository ...

One more time he would meet his old RSHA acquaintances, former Nazis, in West Berlin in 1967 ("Bomb for the Chairman"). This time, Isaev, aged but not losing his grip, managed to prevent the theft of nuclear technology by a private corporation and faced a radical sect from Southeast Asia...

jokes

Stirlitz is a character in one of the largest cycles of Soviet jokes, usually they parody the voice of the narrator, constantly commenting on Stirlitz's thoughts or the events of the film. In the series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" it was the voice of BDT actor Efim Kopelyan.

Interesting Facts

In fact, the German surname Sti(e)rlitz does not exist; the closest similar one is Stieglitz (Stieglitz - "goldfinch" (Carduelis carduelis)), also known in Russia. Also during the Second World War in the Third Reich was Vice Admiral Ernst Schirlitz (Schirlitz) - the commander of the German fleet in the Atlantic.

Being an impostor, Stirlitz actually could not have served in the SS in such a high position, since the Nazi security services checked the identity of each candidate for several generations. To pass such a test, Stirlitz had to not only have genuine identification documents, but replace the real German Max Stirlitz, who really lived in Germany and looked like him in appearance. Although such substitutions are practiced by the special services when introducing illegal immigrants, in reality, all sources of Soviet intelligence in the upper echelons of the Reich, which are now known, were recruited by Germans or anti-fascist Germans.

Stirlitz graduated from the university, specialized in quantum mechanics. This was also easy to verify. Quantum mechanics was at that time a relatively young science. The scientists involved in it were well known.

Stirlitz is the tennis champion of Berlin. This fact is also easy to verify. This untruth would have been immediately revealed, but Stirlitz-Isaev certainly became the champion, without deception. He had time for this.

Stirlitz is addressed as "Stirlitz", not "von Stirlitz". In principle, such treatment is allowed, especially in cases where the bearer of the surname does not have a noble title (count, baron, and others). But in those years there was less such “democratism” in Germany, all the more strange to hear an appeal without a “background” from subordinate persons.

Stirlitz smokes, which is contrary to the anti-smoking policy in the Third Reich. In 1939, the NSDAP introduced a smoking ban in all its institutions, and Heinrich Himmler banned SS and police officers from smoking during working hours.

Favorite beer Shtirlitsa - "Rough Gottlieb". In it, he dined with Pastor Schlag, rested with a glass of beer, after breaking away from the "tail" of Mueller's agents. The well-known Berlin restaurant "Zur letzten Instanz" (Last instance) was filmed in the "role" of this pub.

Prototypes

It is traditionally believed that the Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge became one of the prototypes of Stirlitz, but there are no facts of biographical coincidences between Stirlitz and Sorge.

Another possible prototype of Stirlitz is Willy Lehman, an SS Hauptsturmführer, an employee of the IV department of the RSHA (Gestapo). The German, a passionate horse race player, was recruited in 1936 by Soviet intelligence, whose employee lent him money after losing, and then offered to supply secret information for a good fee (according to another version, Willy Lehman independently went to Soviet intelligence, guided by ideological considerations). He bore the operational pseudonym "Breitenbach". In the RSHA he was engaged in countering Soviet industrial espionage.

Willy Lehman failed in 1942, under circumstances close to those described by Yulian Semyonov: his radio operator Bart, an anti-fascist, during a surgical operation, under anesthesia, began to talk about ciphers and communications with Moscow, and the doctors signaled to the Gestapo. In December 1942, Willy Lehman was arrested and shot a few months later. The fact of the betrayal of such a high-ranking SS officer was hidden - even the wife of Willy Lehman was informed that her husband had died after falling under a train. The story of Willy Lehmann is told in the memoirs of Walter Schellenberg, from which Yulian Semyonov apparently borrowed it.

According to the Vesti newspaper, the prototype of Stirlitz was the Soviet intelligence officer Isai Isaevich Borovoy, who lived in Germany from the late 1920s, and later worked in Himmler's department. In 1944 he was arrested, after the death of Stalin he was the main witness for the prosecution at the trial in the Beria case.

A very likely prototype of Stirlitz could be Sergei Mikhalkov's brother, Mikhail Mikhalkov. Yulian Semyonov was married to Ekaterina, the daughter of Natalya Petrovna Konchalovskaya from her first marriage. Here are the facts of the biography of Mikhail Mikhalkov: at the beginning of World War II, he served in a special department of the South-Western Front. In September 1941, he was captured, escaped and continued to serve behind enemy lines as an illegal agent, supplying the intelligence agencies of the Red Army with important operational information. In 1945, during a battle in a German uniform, he crossed the front line and was detained by the military counterintelligence SMERSH. On charges of collaborating with German intelligence, he served five years in prison, first in the Lefortovo prison, later in one of the camps in the Far East. In 1956 he was rehabilitated. Perhaps (and most likely) Yulian Semyonov learned part of the history of Stirlitz from the family stories of Mikhail Mikhalkov.

Movie incarnations

In addition to Vyacheslav Tikhonov, who, of course, is the main "movie face" of Stirlitz, other actors also played this character. In total, five novels were filmed, where Stirlitz or Maxim Maksimovich Isaev acts. The role of Stirlitz in these films was performed by:

Rodion Nakhapetov ("No Password Needed", 1967)
Vladimir Ivashov (Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 1975)
Uldis Dumpis ("Spanish Version") (in the film, the hero's name is Walter Schulz)
Vsevolod Safonov (The Life and Death of Ferdinand Luce)
Daniil Strakhov (Isaev, 2009 - television adaptation of the novels Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, No Password Needed, and the story Tenderness).

Quotes from the movie "Seventeen Moments of Spring"

Don't trust someone who scares you bad weather in Switzerland. It is very sunny and warm here.

Have I given anyone a thrashing? I am an old, kind man who gives up.

You don't have cognac.
- I have cognac.
- So you don't have salami.
- I have salami.
- So, we eat from the same feeder.

And you, Stirlitz, I will ask you to stay.

In love, I'm Einstein!

Truly: if you smoke American cigarettes, they will say that you have sold your Motherland.

Which products do you prefer - our production, or ...
- Or. It may not be patriotic, but I prefer products made in America or France.

You've got the wrong number, mate. You have the wrong number.

You know too much. You will be buried with honors after a car accident.

If you get shot down (in war, as in war), you will have to destroy the letter before you unfasten the straps of your parachute.
- I won't be able to do this, as I will be dragged along the ground. But the first thing I do when I unfasten my parachute is destroy the letter.

Little lies breed big mistrust.

Are you complaining about your memory?
- I drink iodine.
- And I - vodka.
- Where can I get money for vodka?
- Take bribes.

He'll wake up in exactly twenty minutes.

Now you can't trust anyone. Even to yourself. I can.

A strange property of my physiognomy: it seems to everyone that they saw me somewhere.

Do you have canned fish? I'm going crazy without fish. Phosphorus, you know, is required by nerve cells.
- Which production do you prefer, ours or...
- Or. It may be unpatriotic, but I prefer products made in America or in France.

Do your kidneys hurt?
- No.
- It's a pity.

Heil, Hitler!
- Come on. Ringing in the ears.

A good adjutant is like a hunting dog. It is indispensable for hunting, and if the exterior is good, other hunters envy.

What two people know, the pig knows.

I will play the defense of the Karakan, only you, please do not interfere with me.

I know your testimony! I read them, listened to them on tape. And they suited me - until this morning. And since this morning they have ceased to suit me.

I love silent people. If this is a friend, then a friend. If it's an enemy, then it's an enemy.

I asked for new Swiss blades to be delivered to me. Where? Where... Who did the checking?

I'll come right now, go write me a couple of formulas.
- Swear!
- For me to die.

Clarity is a form of complete fog.

A post about the Great Intelligence Officer, whose name is .... Yes, in other matters, you yourself know. Ladies and Gentlemen.
Maxim Maksimovich Isaev - Stirlitz - Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov. There is a story that once, Ernst Neizvestny asked Julian Semenov, for which Stirlitz received the title of Standartenführer. Semyonov did not find an answer, and the two Great Authors did not speak to each other for several years.

Max Otto von Stirlitz (German: Max Otto von Stierlitz; aka Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, real name Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirovich Vladimirov) is a literary character, the hero of many works of the Russian Soviet writer Yulian Semyonov, SS Standartenführer, an illegal Soviet intelligence officer who worked in the interests of the USSR in Nazi Germany and some other countries. All-Union fame for the image of Stirlitz was brought by Tatyana Lioznova's TV series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" based on the novel of the same name, where Vyacheslav Tikhonov played his role. This character has become the most famous image of a scout in Soviet and post-Soviet culture.

Maxim Maksimovich Isaev - Stirlitz - Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov - was born on October 8, 1900 ("Expansion - II") in Transbaikalia, where his parents were in political exile. According to Stirlitz himself, he spent some time in his childhood in the vicinity of the ancient Russian town of Gorokhovets. It should be noted that Yulian Semyonov does not say that his hero was born here: “Stirlitz realized that he was drawn to this particular lake, because he grew up on the Volga, near Gorokhovets, where there were exactly the same yellow-blue pines” . Gorokhovets itself stands on the Klyazma River and is far from the Volga. But Isaev could spend his childhood "on the Volga near Gorokhovets", since the Gorokhovets district that existed at that time was 4 times larger than the current Gorokhovets district and reached the Volga in the northern part.

Parents:
Father - Russian, Vladimir Alexandrovich Vladimirov, "professor of law at St. Petersburg University, fired for free thinking and proximity to social democracy circles." Attracted to the revolutionary movement by Georgy Plekhanov.
Mother - Ukrainian, Olesya Prokopchuk, died of consumption when her son was five years old.
The parents met and got married in exile. At the end of the exile, father and son returned to St. Petersburg, and then spent some time in exile, in Switzerland, in the cities of Zurich and Bern. Here, Vsevolod Vladimirovich showed a love for literary work. In Bern, he worked for a newspaper. Father and son returned to their homeland in 1917.

It is known that in 1911 Vladimirov Sr. and the Bolsheviks parted ways. Already after the revolution, in 1921 - while his son was in Estonia - Vladimir Vladimirov was sent on a business trip to Eastern Siberia and tragically died there at the hands of the White Guards.

Maternal relatives:
Grandfather - Ostap Nikitich Prokopchuk, Ukrainian revolutionary democrat, also exiled to the Trans-Baikal exile with his children Olesya and Taras. After the exile, he returned to Ukraine, and from there to Krakow. He died in 1915.
Uncle - Taras Ostapovich Prokopchuk. In Krakow he married Wanda Krushanskaya. In 1918 he was shot.
Cousin - Ganna Tarasovna Prokopchuk. Two children. Professional activity: architect. In 1941, her entire family died in Nazi concentration camps ("The Third Map"). She died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In 1920, Vsevolod Vladimirov worked under the name of Captain Maxim Maksimovich Isaev in the press service of the Kolchak government.

In 1921, he was already in Moscow, “working for Dzerzhinsky” as an assistant to the head of the foreign department of the Cheka, Gleb Boky. From here, Vsevolod Vladimirov is sent to Estonia (“Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”).

Meanwhile, in his homeland, he remains his only love for life and his son, who was born in 1923. The son's name was Alexander (the operational pseudonym in the intelligence of the Red Army is Kolya Grishanchikov), his mother was Alexandra Nikolaevna ("Major Whirlwind"), or Alexandra Romanovna ("Password is not needed") Gavrilina. Stirlitz first learns about his son in 1941 from an employee of the Soviet trade mission in Tokyo, where he leaves to meet with Richard Sorge. In the fall of 1944, SS Standartenführer von Stirlitz accidentally meets his son in Krakow - he is here as part of a reconnaissance and sabotage group ("Major Whirlwind").

From 1924 to 1927 Vsevolod Vladimirov lived in Shanghai.

From the party characteristics of a member of the NSDAP since 1933 von Stirlitz, SS Standartenführer

(VI Department of the RSHA): “A true Aryan. Character - Nordic, seasoned. Maintains good relations with co-workers. Fulfills his duty without fail. Merciless to the enemies of the Reich. Excellent athlete: Berlin tennis champion. Single; he was not noticed in connections discrediting him. Marked with awards from the Fuhrer and thanks from the Reichsfuehrer SS ... "

During the Second World War, Stirlitz was an employee of the VI Department of the RSHA, which was in charge of SS Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg. In operational work in the RSHA, he used the pseudonyms "Brunn" and "Bolsen". In 1938 he worked in Spain ("Spanish Variant"), in March-April 1941 - as part of the Edmund Weesenmeier group in Yugoslavia ("Alternative"), and in June - in Poland and in the occupied territory of Ukraine, where he communicated with Theodor Oberlender, Stepan Bandera and Andrey Melnik ("Third Map").

In 1943 he visited Smolensk, where he demonstrated exceptional courage under Soviet shelling.

Stirlitz's favorite drink is Armenian cognac, his favorite cigarettes are Karo. He drives a Horch car. Unlike James Bond, Stirlitz treats women in cold blood (which does not exclude short-term bed episodes, as in the novel Ordered to Survive). To the calls of prostitutes, he usually answers: "No, coffee is better." A speech characteristic that is repeated from work to work: phrases often end with the question “No?” or "Isn't it?".

Before the end of the war, Stirlitz was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the end of World War II, an unconscious Stirlitz, wounded by a Soviet soldier, was taken by the Germans to Spain, from where he ended up in South America. There, he uncovers a conspiratorial network of Nazis who escaped from Germany.

During and after the Second World War, he worked under several pseudonyms: Bolsen, Brunn and others. As a name, he usually used variations of the name "Maxim": Max, Massimo ("Expansion").

One more time he would meet his old acquaintances from the RSHA, former Nazis, in West Berlin in 1967 ("Bomb for the Chairman", 1970). This time, Isaev, aged but not losing his grip, managed to prevent the theft of nuclear technology by a private corporation and faced a radical sect from Southeast Asia...

In addition to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, awarded in 1945, as of 1940 he was awarded two more Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner ("Major Whirlwind"). He also had awards from France, Poland, Yugoslavia and Norway ("Bomb for the Chairman").

In 1984, a multi-part radio show “Ordered to Survive” based on the novel of the same name was created on Mayak Radio. Director - Emil Wernick; staged by Sergei Karlov. The production was conceived as a radio continuation of the famous television movie "17 Moments of Spring": it sounded the same as in the film, the music of Mikael Tariverdiev, and the main roles were played by the same actors: Vyacheslav Tikhonov (Stirlitz), Leonid Bronevoy (Muller), Oleg Tabakov (Shellenberg). The text from the author was read by Mikhail Gluzsky.

Stirlitz is a character in one of the largest cycles of Soviet jokes, they usually parody the voice of the narrator, constantly commenting on Stirlitz's thoughts or the events of the film. In the series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" it was the voice of BDT actor Efim Kopelyan. On this basis, Yefim Zakharovich was called Yefim Zakadrovich behind his back.

A tradition has developed that the humor of many jokes about Stirlitz is based on the use of puns - some words (or their word forms or phrases) in the meaning of other words that sound the same (or their word forms, phrases). For example: “Stirlitz fired point-blank. The pressure has dropped." Or “Stirlitz opened the window - the barrel was blowing out of the window. Stirlitz closed the window - the barrel disappeared.

Prototypes
Semyonov, in an interview with Don magazine, admitted that creating Stirlitz, he pushed off from one of the very first Soviet intelligence agents, whom Dzerzhinsky, Postyshev and Blucher sent to Vladivostok occupied by the Japanese. But he absorbed and melted in himself the best features of later famous Soviet intelligence officers, such as Kuznetsov, Sorge, Abel and others. As Semyonov himself described it:

“If the writer knew them all well and through them deeply and fully felt his hero, he believed in him with all his being! - then, he, the hero, although fictional, collective, having absorbed the living soul and blood of the author, also becomes alive, concrete, individual.
Yulian Semyonov »
Below are other possible prototypes that, to one degree or another, influenced the creation of Stirlitz:

A possible prototype of the early Isaev is Yakov Grigorievich Blumkin (real name is Simkha-Yankev Gershevich Blumkin; pseudonyms: Isaev, Max, Vladimirov; date of birth unknown (circa 1900), exact date of death unknown (1929, Moscow)) - Russian revolutionary, Chekist, Soviet spy, terrorist and statesman. One of the founders of the Soviet intelligence services. In October 1921, Blyumkin, under the pseudonym Isaev (taken by his grandfather's name), goes to Revel (Tallinn) under the guise of a jeweler and, acting as a provocateur, reveals the foreign connections of Gokhran employees. It was this episode in the activities of Blumkin that Yulian Semyonov laid the basis for the plot of the book “Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”.
Another possible prototype of Stirlitz is Willy Lehman, an SS Hauptsturmführer, an employee of the IV department of the RSHA (Gestapo). The German, a passionate horse race player, was recruited in 1936 by Soviet intelligence, whose employee lent him money after losing, and then offered to supply secret information for a good fee (according to another version, Willy Lehman independently went to Soviet intelligence, guided by ideological considerations). He bore the operational pseudonym "Breitenbach". In the RSHA he was engaged in countering Soviet industrial espionage.
Willy Lehman failed in 1942, under circumstances close to those described by Yulian Semyonov: his radio operator Bart, an anti-fascist, during a surgical operation, under anesthesia, began to talk about ciphers and communications with Moscow, and the doctors signaled to the Gestapo. In December 1942, Willy Lehman was arrested and shot a few months later. The fact of the betrayal of the SD officer was hidden - even the wife of Willy Lehman was informed that her husband had died after falling under a train. The story of Willy Lehmann is told in the memoirs of Walter Schellenberg, from which Yulian Semyonov apparently borrowed it.
A likely prototype of Stirlitz could be Sergei Mikhalkov's brother, Mikhail Mikhalkov. Yulian Semyonov was married to Ekaterina, the daughter of Natalya Petrovna Konchalovskaya from her first marriage. Here are the facts of the biography of Mikhail Mikhalkov: at the beginning of World War II, he served in a special department of the South-Western Front. In September 1941, he was captured, escaped and continued to serve behind enemy lines as an illegal agent, supplying the intelligence agencies of the Red Army with important operational information. In 1945, during a battle in a German uniform, he crossed the front line and was detained by the military counterintelligence SMERSH. On charges of collaborating with German intelligence, he served five years in prison, first in the Lefortovo prison, later in one of the camps in the Far East. In 1956 he was rehabilitated. Perhaps (and most likely) Yulian Semyonov learned part of Stirlitz's story from the family stories of Mikhail Mikhalkov

Max Otto von Stirlitz, created by the imagination of Julian Semenov, could have many prototypes. There are several real personalities who could well inspire the writer. One of them is a Soviet intelligence officer, Chekist. Among his many pseudonyms are "Max" and "Isaev" (Isai was the name of the intelligence officer's grandfather). From here, the surname of a literary character, a Soviet agent behind the lines of the fascist enemy, Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, could have appeared.

Confirmation that Blumkin could be the prototype of Stirlitz is another fact from his biography. In 1921 he was sent to the Baltic city of Revel (now Tallinn). There, a scout under the guise of a jeweler tracked possible connections between Soviet Gokhran employees and foreign agents. Semyonov used this episode when writing the novel Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Sports background

The character and biography of Stirlitz were assembled, like a puzzle, from disparate episodes of life different people. In one of the episodes of the epic film, he is mentioned as a Berlin tennis champion. Only one Soviet intelligence officer was a tennis player - A. M. Korotkov. But he was not a champion in this sport, otherwise he would not have become a good agent. A scout cannot be such a prominent figure.

The Germans could also inspire Semenov

Another prototype of the "Soviet Bond" is the German, SS Hauptsturmführer and "true Aryan" Willy Lehman. It is known about this man that he collaborated with the USSR for a long time and was one of the most valuable agents. The exact motives behind his actions are not known. Obviously, ideological considerations also played a significant role. Not everyone in the camp of the Third Reich sympathized with the dominant ideology.

There were also versions that Leman became a spy because of one loss at the races in 1936. An acquaintance, who later turned out to be a Soviet intelligence agent, lent him money. After this episode, the recruitment of Leman took place. For very important information, he received a good fee from the Soviet government. In 1942, the Nazis uncovered a traitor in their ranks, and Leman was shot.

Mikhalkov

Stirlitz's fourth prototype different sources they call another scout - Mikhail Mikhalkov, brother of the poet Sergei Mikhalkov. During the war, Mikhail Vladimirovich was in German captivity. He managed to escape and hide from persecution. This experience served as an impetus for his future activities as an illegal agent. Mikhalkov supplied the Soviet army with valuable military information.

In 1945, he was arrested by SMERSH counterintelligence and accused of spying for the Germans. Mikhail Vladimirovich spent 5 years in prison and only in 1956 was fully rehabilitated. Yulian Semenov was married to his relative, Ekaterina Konchalovskaya. Surely the personality of Mikhalkov could inspire him while writing the novel.

The "muse" of Semenov could well be the intelligence officer Norman Borodin, the son of Lenin's comrade-in-arms Mikhail Borodin. The writer spoke personally with Norman, knew a lot about his complex and exciting life. There are many people who could become the prototypes of Stirlitz. A similar fate was experienced by many Soviet agents who worked for victory behind enemy lines. The indestructible scout Isaev is a brilliant collective image of all these heroes.

Characters who are so popular are not called cult otherwise. And the one we are talking about today is still “number one” in the post-Soviet space. The chief intelligence officer of the Soviet television screens, Max Otto von Stirlitz, with the face of Vyacheslav Tikhonov, is still in the ranks and is winning the hearts of new generations of viewers. Today we are looking for traces of its prototypes in history.

The fate of the resident

First of all, we will have to pay quite a lot of attention to the biography of the literary character himself. After all, despite popular love, for the vast majority of admirers, Stirlitz is a character in Tatyana Lioznova's 1973 TV movie, where Vyacheslav Tikhonov played his role. Some will also remember the 2009 Isaev television series by Sergei Ursulyak, which was met with audiences, starring Daniil Strakhov. Meanwhile, Yulian Semenov wrote thirteen novels and short stories and one story about a brave intelligence officer. Moreover, there are six adaptations of these books - however, in one of them the hero does not appear. But another book was filmed twice! But first things first.

Max Otto von Stirlitz, aka Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, and in fact Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov was born on October 8, 1900 in Transbaikalia. His parents met there while in exile for political reasons. The character's father is Vladimir Alexandrovich Vladimirov, professor of law at St. Petersburg University, a Russian, who lost his chair for his political convictions.

Mother, Ukrainian Olesya Ostapovna Prokopchuk, died of consumption when Seva was five years old. Professor Vladimirov and his son returned to St. Petersburg, and then went with him into exile - to Zurich, later to Bern. Here, the future scout perfectly mastered German. In 1917 the Vladimirovs returned to Russia.

By this time, there was a discord for political reasons between the son and father. Vladimirov Jr. was enthusiastic about the October Revolution and went to work in the Cheka. And the former professor, a convinced social democrat, in the past a good friend and colleague of Plekhanov himself, treated the Bolsheviks negatively.

In 1920, Vsevolod was introduced into the ranks of the White Guards by Admiral Kolchak. For the first time, he used the operational pseudonym Isaev and worked in the press service of the "Supreme Ruler of Russia", obtaining information important for the Center about all the plans of the admiral. A year later, with the same legend, he infiltrated the headquarters of Baron Ungern, who seized power in Mongolia, and transferred the plans of the enemy to red Moscow.

Upon returning to the capital, our hero worked for some time as an assistant to the head of the foreign department of the Cheka, Gleb Bokiy. At that time, he was given the task of investigating the theft of diamonds from the Gokhran, which were taken by a criminal group to the territory of Estonia. At the same time, his father Vladimir Vladimirov was seconded to Eastern Siberia, where he died at the hands of white bandits, defending a Bolshevik.

In 1922, the young security officer performs a task in Vladivostok, again returning to his legend of "captain Isaev" from the headquarters of Admiral Kolchak. At the end of the mission, he receives an order to evacuate with white troops to Japan, and later to Harbin (China). He will spend the next 30 years away from his homeland.

In Soviet Russia, the love of his life remained - Alexandra Nikolaevna Gavrilina. The fact that she was pregnant, he never found out during the evacuation. In 1923 their son Alexander was born. Isaev heard about the child only in 1941 in Tokyo, where he came to meet with Richard Sorge. From 1924 to 1927, Vladimirov lives in Shanghai among white emigrants and desperately longs to return to Russia, but the Center has completely different plans for him.

Moscow began to closely monitor the political situation in Germany, assuming the potential rise to power of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler. In 1927, they decided to infiltrate Isaev into the ranks of the German fascists. The legend of the German aristocrat Max Otto von Stirlitz, who was robbed in Shanghai, was developed. With this legend and documents, Vsevolod appeared at the German consulate in Sydney, where he received support and recognition. After staying for some time in Australia and then in New York, he finally moved to Berlin. In 1933, Stirlitz joined the Nazi party.

With the outbreak of World War II, Stirlitz finds himself in a dual status. Remaining a Soviet intelligence officer, continuously obtaining the necessary information and fulfilling the tasks of the Center, he simultaneously "officially" serves in German intelligence. He is an employee of the VI department of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security (RSHA) - the so-called "SD-foreign". Isaev serves under Walter Schellenberg and fulfills his orders - in 1938 in Spain, in March-April 1941 - in Yugoslavia, and in June of the same year - in Poland and in the occupied territory of Ukraine, where he personally communicates with Stepan Bandera and Andrey Melnik. At the same time, he also fulfills the instructions of Moscow, more than once falling into dangerous situations. So, in 1943, he visited Stalingrad, where he showed personal courage under shelling.

It was almost impossible to hold high posts in the Reich and not be a member of the black order - in the SS. Stirlitz also joins this organization and by the end of the war receives the rank of Standartenführer (roughly corresponds to a Soviet colonel).

In the fall of 1944, in Krakow, Vladimirov ran into his son by chance. Alexander followed in his father's footsteps - he served in the intelligence of the Red Army under the operational pseudonym Kolya Grishanchikov. As part of the reconnaissance and sabotage group of Major Whirlwind, he prevented the destruction of Krakow by the Germans.

At the end of the war, Stirlitz received the most famous task of the Center - to find out who from the top of the Reich, behind Hitler's back, is negotiating a separate peace with the West, and to disrupt them. Isaev managed to establish that Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler was doing this and stop him. For this he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the head of the IV department of the RSHA (Secret State Police of the Reich, "Gestapo") Heinrich Muller exposed Stirlitz as a Soviet resident in April 1945. Isaev managed to take his group out of the Reich, but he was ordered to return to Berlin at the most difficult time for the intelligence officer, last days war. Fortunately, Muller was in no hurry to expose Stirlitz, and in the chaos of the storming of Berlin, Stirlitz managed to elude him.

Again, the double status makes itself felt. Stirlitz was wounded during the storming of Berlin by a Soviet soldier, and the Germans took him to Spain and then to South America. He remains without contact with the Center. Here Isaev exposes the criminal network of Nazis hiding from retribution, led by Muller. Stirlitz passes this information to the Soviet embassy, and at the same time tells who he is. Ministry state security arrests him and sends him to Moscow. At the same time, his wife and son were arrested in the USSR and then shot.

Vladimirov is released after the death of Stalin and Beria. Already an elderly scout goes on a scientific path. The topic of his dissertation at the Institute of History: “National Socialism, Neo-Fascism; modifications of totalitarianism. Mikhail Suslov, having familiarized himself with the text of the dissertation, recommends that Comrade Vladimirov be awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Science without defense, and that the manuscript be withdrawn and transferred to the special depository.

In 1967, Isaev met the former Nazis for the last time in West Berlin. He prevented the theft of nuclear technology.

Prototypes

It's a shame, in reality, intelligence officers with such a difficult fate did not exist. There were a sufficient number of excellent saboteurs who pulled off several successful operations, and residents, long years supplying information from the enemy camp. But combining these functions, maneuvering between so many possible failures, infiltrating the top in such difficult situations- this did not fall to the lot of one person.

Quite often we hear that the famous Richard Sorge became the prototype of our hero. However, a close examination of their biographies reveals no similarities. It can only be seen in the fact that Sorge in our tradition is the real "scout number 1", and Stirlitz is literary and cinematic. Sorge and Stirlitz lived for several years in Shanghai. It is believed that Sorge warned about the day of the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union, and Stirlitz was desperately looking for the same date. That's all that unites them.

In the late 90s, another version appeared in the Israeli and Baltic Russian-language press. According to her, the only and specific prototype of Stirlitz was Isai Isaevich Borovoy. Journalists referred to the memoirs of a certain Veniamin Dodin, who was serving a Siberian exile with him. Allegedly, out of hatred for the rival intelligence service, Beria decided to rot a military intelligence officer in the camps. Borovoy, according to this version, was a resident in Germany, rose to the rank of colonel, surrendered to the Americans by order of Moscow, they transported him to the USSR, where he ended up in prison.

This version is still remembered from time to time. Unfortunately, very little evidence has been found. Isaac Isaakovich Borovoy really served for quite a long time in Soviet intelligence, and later was in camps and exile. However, he was arrested back in 1938 and was not a resident in Germany during the war. And this is not to mention the fact that Borovoy was ... a purebred Jew.

Yet Yulian Semyonov did not write his novels from scratch. He studied a huge number of historical documents - that is why his books look authentic and convincing. And Stirlitz certainly had prototypes. They were just different scouts. And some episodes from the biography of Isaev-Stirlitz are borrowed from the lives of real people. They will be discussed further.

Real Isaev

In October 1921, an employee of the Cheka, Yakov Grigoryevich Blyumkin, was given the task of uncovering the criminal connections of Gokhran employees abroad and stopping their embezzlement activities. precious stones. For these purposes, under the pseudonym Isaev (this was the name of his grandfather), he goes to Revel - present-day Tallinn - where, under the guise of a jeweler, he provokes seconded workers to offer an illegal deal.

It was this episode that Yulian Semyonov took as the basis for the plot of the book “Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”, which allows us to say: Blumkin is the prototype of the young Isaev.

In this case, Semenov has a lot of documentary. Indeed, a group of robbers was exposed and severely punished in Gokhran. 64 people were involved in the case, 19 were sentenced to death, 35 to various terms of imprisonment, and 10 were acquitted. The main defendants were jewelers-appraisers Yakov Shelekhes, Nikolay Pozhamchi and Mikhail Aleksandrov. Semyonov changed only the middle names of the criminals.

It is noteworthy that Vladimirov is also found among the pseudonyms of Blumkin. But otherwise, the biography of this scout only in some places resembles the life of the book Stirlitz. Although very entertaining.

Simkha-Yankev Gershevich Blumkin, aka Yakov Grigorievich Blumkin, was born on October 8, 1900 - according to his application form when entering the Cheka. This coincides with the date of birth of Vsevolod Vladimirov according to Semenov's books. In the same questionnaire, the intelligence officer claimed that he was born in Odessa, in Moldavanka; however, after his arrest in 1929, he named the place of birth Sosnitsa near Chernigov. According to the third version, Jacob's childhood passed in Lvov.

In any case, his youth coincided with the turbulent times of the Russian revolutions and the First World War.

In 1914, Yakov worked in Odessa as an electrician in a tram depot, in a theater, at a canning factory of the Avrich and Israelson brothers. His brother Leo was an anarchist, and his sister Rosa was a social democrat. Politics also fascinated Jacob, he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party and participated in the Jewish self-defense units against the pogroms in Odessa. In January 1918, he also took part in the “expropriation” of the State Bank’s valuables by Moses Vinnitsky (“Mishka Yaponchik”), and, according to rumors, he did not offend himself either.

In May 1918 Blumkin moved to Moscow. The Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party delegated him to the Cheka as head of the department for combating international espionage. Since June 1918, Blumkin was in charge of the department of the counterintelligence department for monitoring the protection of embassies and their possible criminal activities. Blumkin deals with German spies.

Soon, on behalf of the party, he carried out the assassination of the German ambassador to Soviet Russia, Count Mirbach. On July 6, 1918, he appeared at the German embassy, together with his employee Andreev, allegedly to discuss the fate of a distant relative of the ambassador, who was arrested by the Cheka. During the meeting, Yakov fired several shots at Mirbach, and Andreev, running away, threw two bombs into the living room. The ambassador died on the spot.

A military tribunal sentenced Blumkin to death, but Leon Trotsky, who valued a capable young man, ensured that the death penalty was replaced with "expiation in the battles to defend the revolution."

Blumkin was sent to German-occupied Ukraine, where he was involved in the formation of an anti-German underground. Yakov was noted both in the preparation of a terrorist attack against Hetman Skoropadsky, and in the attempt on the life of Field Marshal of the German occupation forces in Ukraine Eichhorn. When the revolution took place in Germany German troops left Ukraine, Blumkin returned to Moscow and served throughout the Civil War in the headquarters of Trotsky's People's Commissariat of Defense as head of personal security. Then he was sent to study, and then again transferred to the bodies of the Cheka.

In 1920, Blumkin ends up in Persia. He participates in the overthrow of Kuchek Khan and contributes to the coming to power of Khan Ehsanullah, who was supported by local "leftists" and communists, and then - in the creation of the Iranian Communist Party. At the First Congress of the Oppressed Peoples of the East, convened by the Bolsheviks in Baku, he represents Persia.

In the autumn of 1920, during the battles with the troops of Baron Ungern, who seized power in Mongolia, Blumkin, like Semenov's character, infiltrates the headquarters under the guise of a White Guard officer and transfers the dictator's plans to the Center.

Felix Dzerzhinsky highly appreciates Blumkin and gives him a recommendation to join the Bolshevik Party. He was again sent to study - this time to the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army at the Faculty of the East. After completing the course, Blumkin becomes Trotsky's official adjutant. In the autumn of 1923, at the suggestion of Dzerzhinsky, Blumkin became an employee of the Foreign Department of the OGPU. He is sent as an intelligence resident to Palestine, but not for long.

Yakov visits Germany to instruct and supply German revolutionaries with weapons, and then again deals with the East. He works in Transcaucasia as a political representative of the OGPU and a member of the board of the Transcaucasian Cheka, assistant commander of the OGPU troops in Transcaucasia and authorized by the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade to combat smuggling.

Blumkin participated in the suppression peasant uprising in Georgia, commanded the assault on the city of Bagram-Tepe, captured by Persian troops in 1922, was a member of the border commission for settling disputes between the USSR, Turkey and Persia.

By the way, Blumkin also lived in Shanghai in the 1920s, but on short visits. On various assignments, he visited many countries of the Middle and Far East, including Mongolia, China, and Palestine.

In the summer of 1929, Blumkin came to Moscow to report on his work in the Middle East. His report was approved by members of the Central Committee and the head of the OGPU V. Menzhinsky. At the same time, Yakov established ties with Trotsky, who was expelled from the USSR. Some researchers believe that he did this on behalf of the leadership as a provocateur, trying to gain the trust of the fugitive. However, in the late autumn of 1929, denounced by his mistress Lisa Rosenzweig about his connections with Trotsky, he was arrested while trying to flee abroad after a shooting chase on the streets of Moscow.

The exact date of Blumkin's execution is unknown. They give November 3 and December 12, 1929. According to one version, in the basement before being shot, he exclaimed “Long live Comrade Trotsky!”, And according to another, he sang: “Get up, branded with a curse, the whole world of hungry and slaves!”

RSHA employee

Undoubtedly, the most interesting period of Stirlitz's activity for post-Soviet readers and viewers is the "German". Here, Willy Lehmann, SS Hauptsturmführer, is most often mentioned as a prototype.

Stirlitz serves in a very serious department in Germany - in foreign intelligence, he is a high-ranking member of the SS. It would be extremely difficult to introduce a scout into such a place. Racial purity and genealogy have been tested since 1750! But still, there were Soviet agents in similar positions. They were just purebred Germans.

In 1884, in the suburbs of Leipzig, at a simple school teacher Gustav Lehmann had a son, who was named Wilhelm in honor of the heir to the throne of Germany. Willy graduated from high school, trained as a carpenter, and at the age of 17 volunteered for the Navy. It is noted that in May 1905 he observed a Russian-Japanese naval battle and admired the courage of Russian sailors.

In 1913 Willy came to Berlin. He met an old friend, Ernst Kuhr, who served in the Berlin secret political police. Kur got Leman a job as a patrolman in the police. A year later, he transferred to the counterintelligence department of the police presidium of the city of Berlin. As a counterintelligence officer, he was not drafted into the army during the First World War.

In 1918, a Soviet representative office opened in Berlin, and the Lehman branch looked after its employees.

In the first publications about him, they wrote that he loved horse racing and was recruited in 1936 by Soviet intelligence thanks to this pernicious passion. The Russian agent lent him a considerable sum after losing, and then offered him a good price for secret information.

According to another, later version, Leman himself sought contacts with Soviet intelligence, being an ideological opponent of fascism. According to her, Ernst Kuhr brought his former colleague to the Soviet residency in Berlin. It is believed that he was recruited in 1929, received the agent number A-201 and the pseudonym "Breitenbach".

One way or another, but Leman regularly transmitted to the Center the information that he obtained using his official position. On the advice of the Resident, he joined the Nazi Party, and later the SS. This allowed him, after the Nazis came to power, to be in the service of the Gestapo and gain access to more important information.

Since 1936, Leman headed the counterintelligence department at the German military industry enterprises - his task was to resist Soviet industrial espionage. However, in fact, he contributed to it - he transmitted information on the volume and timing of the production of armored personnel carriers and self-propelled guns, on the production of all-metal fighters on the conveyor, on the laying of ocean-going submarines, on the development of nerve agents, on the production of synthetic gasoline, on testing rockets on liquid fuel. In addition, Lehman transmitted information about the development of the Nazi regime, about the structure of the German special services, their personnel and methods of work, information about agents introduced into the communist underground and about counterintelligence operations of the Gestapo.

Considering the value of the agent, the Center prepared a passport for him in a false name and developed an emergency operation to leave Germany. Leman suffered from diabetes and renal colic, he needed funds. The already mentioned winning at the hippodrome in later publications is explained by the need to transfer a large amount of money for treatment.

In 1936, Leman came under suspicion for connections in the Soviet trade mission. First he noticed surveillance. Then the boss called him and asked a strange question: “Leman, do you have a mistress?” Breitenbach admitted that there is. However, a Gestapo check showed that his mistress had nothing to do with the lady who wrote the denunciation: “The Gestapo officer Wilhelm Lehman who abandoned me is a Russian spy.” It was about his full namesake.

In 1937, repressions against the Chekists began in the USSR. Agent Breitenbach's liaisons were withdrawn, he was left to his own devices. He saw the preparations for war and, in desperation, wished to continue his work as soon as possible in order to prevent it. However, this did not work out. The war began, and Leman continued to extract information "on the table." At the same time, he continued to serve the Reich and, after the inclusion of the Gestapo in the RSHA, headed the report of the general counterintelligence. He was one of four officers who were then presented with portraits of the Fuhrer with his autograph and certificates of honor.

In desperation, in 1940, he himself got in touch by dropping a letter into the box of the Soviet embassy. He asked to be contacted immediately and left a password. “If this does not happen,” he wrote, “then my work in the Gestapo will lose all meaning.”

Leman handed over to Soviet intelligence the most valuable materials collected over two years, including the keys to the Gestapo ciphers. In the spring of 1941, he informed Soviet intelligence officers about the upcoming Wehrmacht invasion of Yugoslavia, about a significant expansion of staff in the unit military intelligence against the USSR. On June 19, 1941, Leman informed the resident about the date of the alleged start of the war - June 22.

On the morning of June 22, the building of the Soviet embassy on Unter den Linden in the center of Berlin was blocked by the Gestapo. Communication with Willy Lehman was lost forever.

For a long time, the further fate of Leman was a mystery. At the end of the war, the missing agents were again interested. In the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, among other documents, they found a burnt registration card for Wilhelm Lehmann, from which it followed that he was captured by the Gestapo in December 1942. The reasons for the arrest were not specified.

Further investigation revealed details. In May 1942, Soviet intelligence agent Beck (German communist Robert Barth, who voluntarily surrendered to Soviet captivity) was abandoned in Berlin to restore contact with Breitenbach. The Gestapo tracked him down and arrested him. During interrogations under torture, he surrendered Leman. On Christmas Eve 1942, Willy was urgently called to duty, from where he never returned.

Due to the fact that he occupied a rather responsible position, they decided to hide the information about the presence of a secret agent in the bowels of the Gestapo. In January 1943, a notice was published in the official bulletin of the Gestapo: the criminal inspector Willy Lehman in December 1942 gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich. Wife was informed that Willie had died from an attack of diabetes.

His identity was also classified in the Soviet Union. Many documents related to the activities of agent Breitenbach lost the stamp "Top Secret" only in 2009. So was he the prototype of Stirlitz? In general - no.

A fat, sickly German, torn between his wife and mistress, was completely different from our hero - Russian, athlete, monogamous Vladimirov. Yes, and in the years when Semenov wrote "Seventeen Moments of Spring", information about Leman was classified. And yet there are two important nuances. First, crumbs of information about the failure of agent Breitenbach, possibly false, were mentioned in the memoirs of Walter Schellenberg. He wrote that a Soviet spy had been exposed in the bowels of the Gestapo, who had been passing important information to the enemies of the Reich for many years. It was declassified by accident. His contact needed medical care. Under anesthesia, he spoke about ciphers and connections with Moscow, and the doctors informed the Gestapo. Semyonov was familiar with Schellenberg's memoirs. It was under his leadership that the book Stirlitz served. And on the verge of failure, our hero was in a rather similar way, when his radio operator was accidentally exposed in the hospital.

In addition, of all the real Soviet agents, it was Leman who held a position similar to Isaev - a high-ranking SS officer, a member of the holy of holies of the Reich, surrounded by those who decided the fate of Germany.

Arrested upon return

Another prototype of Stirlitz is called Anatoly Gurevich.

He studied in Leningrad at the railway institute, then at the institute "Intourist" with a degree in "Work with foreigners." Volunteered to civil war in Spain. Served as adjutant to the commander of the submarine. The crew was supposed to be only Spaniards, and he was called Antonio Gonzalez, Lieutenant of the Republican Navy.

After returning in 1938, he was offered to become a professional intelligence officer. In the GRU, he was trained to work with ciphers and a radio station. With a Uruguayan passport in the name of Vincente Sierra in 1939, Anatoly went to Brussels. According to legend, he was the offspring of a wealthy family from Montevideo, who came to Europe to establish business ties. In the Office, he received the pseudonym Kent. This man was in the "Red Chapel" - the anti-Hitler movement, which united intelligence groups in Germany, Belgium, France and Switzerland.

In March 1940, he reported to the GRU that Germany had begun preparations for an attack on the USSR.

In Belgium, Gurevich married the daughter of Czech refugees. The father-in-law, leaving the country, handed over to his son-in-law his Simeksko enterprise, which became a cover for the intelligence officer and a source of funding. In the winter of 1941, his transmitter was located. Kent fled with his wife to France, then to Spain. In the autumn of 1942 they were arrested in Marseille. Only then did Margaret Sierra find out that her husband was a Soviet spy. It became known that his codes were broken and the Germans Last year actively spread disinformation on his behalf.

At the end of the war, after parting with his wife, Gurevich returned to the USSR, where he was arrested. Sentence - 20 years in prison. After Stalin's death, he was released, but soon arrested again. In total, he spent about 25 years behind bars in the USSR. Gurevich received a document on rehabilitation only in 1991, the charges of betrayal were dropped. Then his son Michel, a Spanish journalist, found him.

Perhaps it was these vicissitudes of his life that "got" the hero of Yulian Semenov. Anatoly Gurevich died on January 2, 2009. He died at the age of ninety-six after a severe and prolonged illness.

These people were like that - and even if none of them was Stirlitz in itself, but they were all of them taken together.

There is a story that at the end of his life, the decrepit Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, once again reviewing the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring", after the next series, suddenly asked those present: "Have we awarded Stirlitz?" There was only embarrassed silence in response. Brezhnev got angry and ordered to immediately give Stirlitz the title of Hero. They found a way out - Vyacheslav Tikhonov and his colleagues were awarded.

Whether this actually happened is unknown. Those who retell this story with an indication of the source mention the book of the KGB Foreign Intelligence Colonel E. Sharapov “Two Lives”, where he refers to the story of the Assistant Secretary General A. Alexandrov-Agentov.

Some curiosities

In Semyonov's book, Stirlitz smokes. Vyacheslav Tikhonov in the film - too. However, it is known that in the Third Reich this vice was eradicated. Heinrich Himmler forbade SS officers and police officers to smoke during working hours.

Stirlitz is single and childless, while the charter of the SS obliged each member of this organization to start a family and children by the age of thirty.

In the film, Gestapo and SD officers wear the famous black SS uniform of 1934. In reality, it went out of everyday use by 1939. In the structures of the RSHA, which included both the secret police and the security service of the Reichsführer (SD), they wore a gray-green or ash-colored uniform modeled on the SS and Wehrmacht troops.

In order to get legal access to the case of the Russian radio operator Kat, Stirlitz explains to his boss, Walter Schellenberg, that he has been hunting for the transmitter for eight months. But his department - the SD - does not deal with counterintelligence on the territory of the Reich. This is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Gestapo.

In the characteristics of the Nazis, sounded in the famous picture, the same words are repeated: "I had no connections discrediting him." And only Mask Otto von Stirlitz: "he was not noticed in connections discrediting him."