Well-known philanthropist and public figure, adviser to the Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council, reserve officer Hrachya Poghosyan together with the Chairman of the Council of Representatives of the National Association of Associations of Reserve Officers of the Armed Forces (MEGAPIR) in the North-Western Federal and Western Military Districts, Colonel of the Reserve Yuri Klenov (Grachya Misakovich is a member of the Council), visited a wonderful person, a front-line soldier, former head of intelligence of the Leningrad military District Major General, retired Mikhail Vasilievich Berezkin. This is a man of amazing purity, clear mind and faithful service to the Motherland. "In all circumstances, to preserve human dignity, not to change one's vocation" - the motto that he carried through his whole life. But Mikhail Vasilyevich, holder of nine military orders, is already 95 years old.

At a meeting in a relaxed home atmosphere, the veteran told Grachya Misakovich about meetings with wonderful people. Among them were Armenian commanders and commanders. Mikhail Vasilievich spoke especially warmly about the chief marshal of the armored forces Amazasp Khachaturovich Babadzhanyan, with whom he brought him together more than once military destiny and military service. It is noteworthy that Hrachya Poghosyan at one time graduated from the Yerevan Republican Specialized School with a military bias named after A.Kh. Babajanyan.

At the end of the meeting, Berezkin presented the publication of his memoirs, The Fate of a Scout. Having become acquainted with the book, Grachya Misakovich offered to finance a new, already supplemented and expanded edition, and which received the support of the intelligence leadership of the now Western Military District. Pogosyan will be assisted in the selection of material by Yuri Klenov, Honored Cultural Worker of Russia and former assistant commander of the Leningrad Military District. The book will be supplemented by memories of little-known episodes of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the confrontation between the USSR and Western countries in the period of " cold war". A large block of modern photo illustrations about the combat training of military intelligence officers of the Western Military District will also attract the attention of readers, especially young people. Mikhail Vasilyevich found very kind words to describe his colleagues, military leaders and people he met in life, including very famous ones - Lyubov Orlova, Mark Bernes, Edita Piekha.

General Berezkin still remains in the ranks, being the standard bearer of the veterans' movement. He believes in the younger generation and the prosperity of Russia. Thanks to Grachya Poghosyan's initiative to republish the book, the new edition of the intelligence officer's memoirs will find many new readers.

- The United States and England developed a plan of attack on the USSR, which, not without cynicism, was called Operation Unthinkable. Indeed, who would have thought that the allies of the USSR in the war against Hitler, in fact, even before the end of hostilities against Nazi Germany, were already drawing up a plan for sudden aggression against our country? Moreover, they were going to attack us in those years more than once ...

On June 23, 1945, the Soviet government announced the demobilization of its army. Germany was defeated, what was the point of keeping millions of soldiers under arms? It was necessary to urgently restore the cities destroyed by the Nazi invasion, to restore National economy, workers were urgently needed in the country. However, on July 1, again, as very recently in June, "early in the morning at dawn, when the children were sleeping peacefully ...", 47 British and American divisions, without any declaration of war, were to deal a crushing blow to our troops in Europe.

At the same time, four air armies of heavy bombers - huge "flying fortresses" were preparing to bring down their deadly cargo and reduce to dust Largest cities USSR, as they just did with Dresden. The blow of the Anglo-Americans was supposed to be supported by 10-12 German divisions, which the "allies" kept undisbanded in Schleswig-Holstein and in southern Denmark, where British instructors prepared them for the war against the USSR.

New plan "Barbarossa"

Subsequent plans, as historians have already established, were as follows: to occupy those regions of inner Russia, having lost which the country would lose the material possibilities of waging war and further resistance, and also "to inflict such a decisive defeat on the Russian armed forces that would deprive the USSR of the opportunity to continue the war."

Operation Unthinkable ( Operation Unthinkable)- the code name of the plan, or rather two plans at once (offensive and defensive) in the event of a military conflict, was developed on the instructions of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The work (which began when Nazi Germany was not yet defeated) was carried out by the Joint Planning Staff of the British War Cabinet, in the deepest secrecy. The ultimate goal was the complete defeat and surrender of the USSR. It was supposed to end the war in the same place where Hitler planned to end it according to the Barbarossa plan - at the turn of Arkhangelsk-Stalingrad. Documents related to these plans are stored in the National Archives of Great Britain and are still not subject to full declassification.

Churchill had already given the order to stockpile captured German weapons with an eye to their possible use against the USSR, placing, as already mentioned, soldiers and the Wehrmacht who had surrendered in Schleswig-Holstein and in southern Denmark.

Massive propaganda support for aggression was also being prepared under the beautiful humanitarian slogans of fighting the "totalitarian regime" and "liberating the peoples of the USSR from the yoke of dictatorship." That is, almost the same thing that the “democratic states” did later when they bombed Belgrade, smashed Iraq, invaded Libya and waged war in Afghanistan, and today they are preparing for operations against Syria and Iran.

Why did we storm Berlin

However, the day before the planned start of the war Soviet army unexpectedly changed its location. It was a weight that shifted the scales of history - the order for the invasion was not given. In addition, as historians note, the decisive role in changing the plans of the “allies” for a treacherous attack was the successful assault by Soviet troops of Berlin, which was considered an impregnable fortress. He showed the enormous power of the Red Army and military experts convinced politicians that the war with such an enemy would be very difficult.

This, by the way, deals a crushing blow to the fabrications of liberal “experts”, who claim that this assault was “not needed”, the capital of the Third Reich, surrounded on all sides, “would have capitulated itself”, etc.

The threat of a surprise attack was very real. The naval forces of Great Britain and the United States, for example, then had absolute superiority over the Soviet Navy: 19 times in destroyers, 9 times in battleships and large cruisers, and 2 times in submarines. They had over a hundred aircraft carriers, while our country did not have a single aircraft carrier. The Soviet ground forces were exhausted by a long and exhausting war, the equipment was worn out, and the Americans already had an atomic bomb ready, which they soon dropped on Japanese cities. There was another important reason why the insidious attack on the USSR was postponed, the United States needed the USSR to crush the Japanese Kwantung Army in the Far East, they could not defeat the Japanese on their own.

Occupy and divide

From 1945 to the early 1960s, the United States developed a total of about 10 plans to attack the USSR: Pincher (Pincers), Broiler (Hot Day), Shakedown (Shakedown), "Dropshot", "Instant Strike") and others. So, for example, according to the Doublestar plan, it was planned to drop 120 atomic bombs, after which, as the aggressor expected, the USSR would surrender, and the occupying forces would have to establish new power. According to the Dropshot plan, it was planned to drop 300 atomic bombs on 200 cities of the USSR within a month, and if the USSR does not surrender, continue bombing with conventional charges in the amount of 250 thousand tons, which should lead to the destruction of 85% of Soviet industry. Simultaneously with the bombing, at the second stage, ground forces in the amount of 164 NATO divisions, of which 69 US divisions, occupy the starting positions for the offensive.

After the occupation, the territory of our country was planned to be divided first into occupation zones, and then split into more than 20 states, including "Northern Russia", the Volga Tatar-Finno-Ugric formation "Idel-Ural", the Republic of "Cossackia", etc. d. Far East was supposed to fall under the protector of the United States.

The story of General Berezkin

Mikhail Vasilyevich Berezkin, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, who was better known by his last name as Major General Bystrov, told the author of this book in St. Petersburg about another attempt to attack the USSR and the real plan of the Americans in this regard, which is not so often remembered today. . For many years he trained foreign agents, fought, worked as an illegal intelligence officer. Berezkin believes that in 1956 it was he who prevented the Third World War.

Mikhail Vasilievich - he is already 90 years old and sometimes puts on a ceremonial general's tunic with a full set of orders. Among them are four Orders of the Red Star. Full holders of this award now in St. Petersburg can be counted on the fingers. But the general does not like to talk about his exploits - the ingrained habit of the intelligence officer for secrecy and his natural modesty are affecting.

And there is something to tell Mikhail Vasilyevich. He was taken into intelligence immediately after graduating from the artillery school, he went through the entire war, personally communicated with Marshal Rokossovsky, and then fought on the "invisible front" for many more years. But the main thing in his biography of the intelligence officer Berezkin considers two operations of the “political level”, which he told me about during our meeting. When the rebellion began in Hungary in 1956, Berezkin, under the name Bystrov, served in Germany as an assistant to the commandant of Leipzig. But this was a cover, in fact, he headed the intelligence unit No. 4 of the GRU and conducted reconnaissance against American troops in the western zone of Germany, and the commandant of Leipzig was subordinate to him.

Where will they hit?

“We then knew,” Berezkin recalls, “that the Americans were going to intervene in the Hungarian events and were preparing a strike against our troops. This was to be done by the US 7th Field Army stationed in Germany, consisting of 5 and 7 corps, armored forces and aviation. In total - about 100 thousand soldiers and. But where do they hit? From the Eisenach district in the north, or from the south - from the Hof direction?

Here Grechko calls me (he was then the commander-in-chief of our troops in Germany) and says:

“The Americans are preparing a strike, and if you figure out where they are going to strike, you will do a great job. If you don't, you'll become a lieutenant colonel! I give you a few days...

And I was recently promoted to colonel. But I didn’t worry about the title, I understood that if the Americans struck, it would begin big war. But recently the Great Patriotic War ended, so many people died, and new war nobody wanted.

And so the hot days began for me. There was little hope for our illegal immigrants in the American zone. They didn’t have transmitters (it’s shown in the movies that we have radio operators everywhere), the resident in Munich sat until he informed - it would be too late! That is why the main hope was placed on the agents - "routers". So we called those who were sent on a mission to the rear of the enemy for a short time. Done and back! Then I sent 25 people. They worked day and night. And it was established that the Americans were preparing a strike from the Eisenach region. I personally reported about this on HF Grechko. But then Ivan Yakubovsky, the commander of our tank army, calls me and asks:

- Where to go? Where will the Americans strike from?

I answer: "From Eisenach!"

And Yakubovsky was a hot, resolute commander. If the Americans moved their troops, he would hit them! And this is certainly a big war! The pressure was terrible...

Shotgun as a gift

But soon our Foreign Ministry made a statement, exposed the American plans, and they refused to strike, they realized that we would adequately meet them. I think that then my actions prevented a possible conflict, and probably the Third World War.

Then Yakubovsky calls me. He says: “I want to see what kind of person you are! After all, he did such a great job!” And when he saw me, he was very disappointed: “So you are a very simple guy!”

And indeed, I was young then, and I didn’t come out tall. And Yakubovsky was huge, under two meters tall!

Then Grechko congratulated me personally: “Comrade Berezkin, he says, you have done a great job and deserve a high award!” And ... he gave me a Sauer hunting rifle.

We had a lot of different things then, Mikhail Vasilyevich continues to recall. They stole the latest machine gun from the Americans, a gas mask of a new model. But this is all so - the little things of intelligence. But one day Commander-in-Chief Grechko gathered a meeting of scouts and said:

- Well, how do you work out? You must get documents! Get me the documents on the US troops!

Patriotism is key

Began to think how to do it? In the Stuttgart area in the town of Weinchingen, the headquarters of the 7th US Field Army was quartered. They began to look for a way to approach him. And found! Through our agent, a German named Clem. He said that the Americans periodically send large batches of documents for destruction. We decided to change them! On the way, when the documents were taken for destruction, they were replaced with waste paper. This waste paper was then taken to be burned, and the real documents were sent to our headquarters. So we stole tons of valuable American documents. Tons! There were not only data on the troops, but also drawings of a new secret weapon and much more.

It took a lot of money for the operation - to bribe someone, to buy a car, etc., but they gave it to me. Personally Grechko gave. I think that this was the largest operation to steal secret documents in the history of intelligence. In order not to fail, we overloaded the bags with documents ourselves, then I had to work as a loader!

– In my long life I was lucky to meet with famous people- says Mikhail Vasilyevich. - I met Mark Bernes, Dudinskaya, Kirill Lavrov - he was an amazing person. But most of all I remember the meetings with Lyubov Orlova. I met her in Vienna. There I worked as the head of an intelligence post in Austria, and lived in the Imperial Hotel in the very center of the city. Orlova came with the director Alexandrov, her husband. I took them to the film studio. We became friends, I even drank brotherhood with her. Such a wonderful woman - so smart and modest, I have never met in my life. Although in Vienna he was even familiar with Hitler's favorite actress, the beautiful Marina Rokk. But where is she before our Orlova! In a word, I have seen a lot in my life, General Berezkin ends his story.

- And what, Mikhail Vasilyevich, is the main thing in life? What is the most important thing in intelligence?

- The main thing? This is patriotism! - without a moment's hesitation, the old scout answers. “That’s how my parents raised me. When I was awarded one of the orders in the Kremlin, I said there: “We are patriots of our country!”. I spent my whole life in intelligence - 70 years! I didn't have anything else. Patriotism and intelligence - that's what matters to me ...

V. Malyshev

A new rehabilitation department will appear in the St. Petersburg hospital for war veterans. Patients who survived heart attacks, strokes and major operations will recover there. For veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the issue of such rehabilitation is now particularly acute.

Mikhail Vasilievich - even at 90 years old, he is still a gallant scout in his soul. Lieutenant General of the Army special purpose He went through the entire war and spent several years behind enemy lines. He was seriously shell-shocked twice, so he knows firsthand what military hospitals are. True, the bright room of Mikhail Berezkin in the hospital for war veterans is not at all like the chambers of the forties. Unless a reverent attitude towards the fighters, albeit former ones, has been preserved.

Mikhail Berezkin, WWII veteran, lieutenant general of the ground forces of the special forces, intelligence officer:

"Completely different. But the attitude is the same, good. But in itself, of course, everything is different. We lived somehow, somehow. Only to survive. It's a terrible thing to survive such a war."

The resolution on the organization of medical facilities for war invalids was issued immediately after the victory - in August 1945. The Leningrad hospital was one of the first. Now veterans of not only the Great Patriotic War, but also other military conflicts are being treated here. More than 27,000 patients are treated here every year and about 4,000 surgeries are performed. It is here that the best operating room in St. Petersburg with the most modern equipment is located. True, the hospital can boast of such achievements only in last years. When 26 years ago Yevgeny Markovich Ageenko came to manage the hospital, things were quite different.

“An ordinary Soviet institution with green paint, no panels there, no floors, low ceilings, all open ventilation pipes and so on, torn linoleum. But the shots were good, dedicated. no attention was paid."

The War Veterans Hospital is loved not only for its attentive staff and bright rooms, but also for its honest attitude towards those who defended our country. There are no beds in the corridors and torn sheets, the list of medicines is not limited to a set of vital medicines, and there is not a single paid medical service in the list of medical services. And this is not just a principle, it is a duty.

Evgeny Ageenko, head of the hospital, St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of Healthcare "Hospital for War Veterans":

"You can't treat these people in a non-human way, especially a doctor. You can't. And therefore, I repeat, extortions and so on ... We have no extortions."

Average age Patients here are over 70 years old. Many of them regularly visit the hospital, and doctors and nurses become almost like a second family for them.

Galina Shcherbakova, head of the fifth therapeutic department of the hospital of St. Petersburg GBUZ "hospital for war veterans":

"They come with their pains, with their memories, they tell their past life, their military merits, write books, give their memoirs, we live together with them all together."

Over the 65 years of the existence of the hospital, the number of beds has grown from 450 to 1000. And in some periods, even up to 1200 patients are admitted to the hospital. And the hospital intends to expand further, because in St. Petersburg there are only participants in the Great Patriotic War - almost 32 thousand people. And almost all of them constantly need not only medical care, but also attentive attention.

Awards: Order of the Red Banner (Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of 03.11.1944). Other military awards: Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, Red Star, front-line medals. He had the Chinese Order of the Red Banner. 3a length of service was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner.

Victor's father, Semyon Frolovich, returning from active service, stopped to live in Moscow, where he received a letter and education. He taught his son reading and arithmetic at the age of five. And at the age of six, Victor was accepted into the Moscow primary two-year school. teachers and class teachers in this school were the brother of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Ivan Pavlovich and his wife Sofya Vladimirovna. He studied successfully. But, with the transfer to the second grade, he no longer had to study in Moscow, since his father decided to move to his homeland in the village of Bakagurt. Soon his father became a teacher at a local school.

In 1918, Viktor graduated from a two-year school in the village of Mozhga and in the autumn of the same year entered the Yelabuga Pedagogical College. Walked Civil War. Studying at the technical school was interrupted. Berezkin arrived in the village of Mozhga and entered the second stage school in the sixth grade. Here in 1923 he joined the Komsomol. In 1925, after graduating from school, Viktor Berezkin was sent to military school- Nizhny Novgorod infantry school. This was the beginning of Berezkin's military career. After graduating from college, he served in Rybinsk, Tula, Kaluga, and Minsk. In 1934 he entered military academy chemical protection. In 1939 he became a chemical engineer and was promoted to major. Viktor Semenovich continues his studies, now at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. In May 1941 he graduated from the academy, and a month later the Nazis attacked our Motherland. V. S. Berezkin from the first days of the war - on the front lines - fought near Moscow, on the Leningrad front. In heavy bloody battles on the Leningrad front, he received a concussion and a head wound. Hospital, then the front again. Fierce fighting near Moscow and a new wound in the leg. Then there was work in the department of the People's Commissariat of Defense, Viktor Semenovich headed a special unit of the reserve of the Supreme High Command. Berezkin took part in the fiercest battles on different fronts of the Great Patriotic War.

At the end of the war, he headed a special unit of the RVG. Victor Semenovich finished the war with the rank of colonel and was appointed chief educational department Military academy. Then - responsible positions in General Staff Ministry of Defense of the USSR, in the Central Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Soviet Union, in the southern group of troops in Hungary. Returning from Hungary, Viktor Semenovich Berezkin becomes deputy head of the Military Academy named after S. K. Timoshenko.

After being transferred to the reserve, he worked as a senior lecturer at the academy.

Age and war wounds made themselves felt. In 1968, he fell seriously ill and was forced to retire. But sitting idle was not in the nature of Viktor Semenovich, and until 1986 he taught military disciplines at the academy as a senior teacher.

V. S. Berezkin actively maintained contact with his native lands, and the Mozhginsky Museum of Local Lore and the Folk Museum "Nabat of Memory" store relics of the famous fellow countryman, the fearless general.

The whole life of Viktor Semenovich Berezkin, lieutenant general of the army, is an example of selfless service to the Fatherland.

A well-known philanthropist and public figure, adviser to the Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council, reserve officer Grachya Poghosyan, together with the chairman of the Council of Representatives of the National Association of Associations of Reserve Officers of the Armed Forces (MEGAPIR) in the North-Western Federal and Western Military Districts, Colonel of the Reserve Yuri Klenov (Grachya Misakovich is a member of to the Council) visited a remarkable man, a front-line soldier, the former intelligence chief of the Leningrad Military District, retired Major General Mikhail Vasilievich Berezkin.

This is a man of amazing purity, clear mind and faithful service to the Motherland. "In all circumstances, to preserve human dignity, not to change one's vocation" - the motto that he carried through his whole life. But Mikhail Vasilyevich, holder of nine military orders, is already 95 years old.
At a meeting in a relaxed home atmosphere, the veteran told Grachya Misakovich about meetings with wonderful people. Among them were Armenian commanders and commanders. Mikhail Vasilyevich spoke especially warmly about the chief marshal of the armored forces Amazasp Khachaturovich Babadzhanyan, with whom military fate and army service brought him together more than once. It is noteworthy that Hrachya Poghosyan at one time graduated from the Yerevan Republican Specialized School with a military bias named after A.Kh. Babajanyan.
At the end of the meeting, Berezkin presented the publication of his memoirs, The Fate of a Scout. Having become acquainted with the book, Grachya Misakovich offered to finance a new, already supplemented and expanded edition, and which received the support of the intelligence leadership of the now Western Military District. Pogosyan will be assisted in the selection of material by Yuri Klenov, Honored Cultural Worker of Russia and former assistant commander of the Leningrad Military District. The book will be supplemented by memories of little-known episodes of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the confrontation between the USSR and Western countries during the Cold War. A large block of modern photo illustrations about the combat training of military intelligence officers of the Western Military District will also attract the attention of readers, especially young people. Mikhail Vasilyevich found very kind words to describe his colleagues, military leaders and people he met in life, including very famous ones - Lyubov Orlova, Mark Bernes, Edita Piekha.
General Berezkin still remains in the ranks, being the standard bearer of the veterans' movement. He believes in the younger generation and the prosperity of Russia. Thanks to Grachya Poghosyan's initiative to republish the book, the new edition of the intelligence officer's memoirs will find many new readers.