Willy Lehmann is a real Stirlitz. Willy Lehman - a real Stirlitz Performer Willy Lehman biography

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Willie Lehman(German) Willy Lehmann; alias Breitenbach; March 15, 1884, near Leipzig, German Empire - December 1942, Berlin, Germany) - Gestapo officer, SS Hauptsturmführer and criminal inspector. A secret agent of Soviet intelligence, who became one of the most valuable during almost thirteen years of cooperation with her.

Biography

Born into the family of a school teacher. He studied to be a carpenter, and at the age of 17 he volunteered for the navy, where he served for 12 years. From aboard a German ship he observed the battle of the Russian cruiser Varyag and Japanese ships in the battle of Chemulpo on January 27, 1904.

In 1911, he was demobilized and came to Berlin, where he soon met his old friend Ernst Kuhr, who by that time worked in the Berlin police presidium. Under his patronage, Leman was hired to work in the department for combating org. crime (criminal police), later moved to the political police (which later became the Gestapo), and two years later (in 1913) he was hired by the anti-espionage police department, which he later headed. He was never a member of the Abwehr, since it was exclusively a military and not a police structure.

After the Plenipotentiary Representative Office of the RSFSR was opened in Berlin in May 1918, its employees began to be monitored by Lehmann's counterintelligence department. After the coup of November 4, 1918, Willy Lehmann became chairman of the general meeting of Berlin police officials.

In 1920, the authorities of the Weimar Republic recreated the secret political police, to which Lehmann and Kur returned. Lehman was due to recertify for promotion, but due to a bout of diabetes, the exam was postponed. In the meantime, he was appointed acting head of the office of the department that was engaged in surveillance of foreign diplomatic missions, that is, in fact, he headed the counterintelligence department of the Berlin Police Presidium. In 1927, an experienced intelligence officer was appointed to the position of chief, and Lehman's chances for further promotion dropped significantly. He chose a place to work in the department's file cabinet, which concentrated all the information on employees of foreign embassies.

Recruitment (1929)

During his years of service, Leman became disillusioned with the policies of the existing authorities in the country. He decided to offer his services to Soviet foreign intelligence. In March 1929, at his suggestion, the Soviet embassy was visited by Ernst Kuhr, who by that time was unemployed. After a conversation with him, OGPU officers in Soviet intelligence came to the conclusion that it would be advisable to recruit Kur on a material basis. Agent A-70 was planned to be used to collect information about persons of interest to Soviet intelligence, for which he was entitled to a monthly remuneration depending on the quality of the information provided.

However, to complete the task of the USSR, Kur had to turn to Lehman, who was not very happy with this state of affairs. In addition, Kur spent the money received from Soviet intelligence unwisely, spending it at noisy parties in Berlin restaurants. Fearing that this would attract the attention of the Berlin police, and then lead to him, Lehmann decided to establish direct contact with the Soviet station.

According to one version, Leman agreed to cooperate with the USSR because he was a staunch anti-fascist, according to another - for money. Without exception, all German-language sources (both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall) adhere to a less romantic version of Lehmann’s collaboration solely for selfish reasons. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that in the GDR the name Lehmann was not used at all, and was almost forgotten, while the names of other German resistance fighters and spies with immeasurably less merit were named on the streets and used in every possible way for propaganda purposes.

Lehman was assigned the operational index A-201 and the operational pseudonym Breitenbach. On September 7, 1929, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, M. A. Trilisser, sent a telegram to the Berlin station:

We are very interested in your new source A-201. Our only concern is that you have climbed into one of the most dangerous places, where the slightest carelessness on the part of A-201 or A-70 can lead to numerous troubles. We consider it necessary to work out the issue of special conditions for communication with A-201

Following the instructions, intelligence connections with Lehmann were transferred to an illegal station headed by illegal intelligence officer Erich Tacke.

Intelligence activities

Since 1930, Lehmann's duties in the Berlin secret police included developing the personnel of the USSR Plenipotentiary Mission and combating Soviet economic intelligence in the country. The information he transmitted to Soviet intelligence officers allowed the OGPU station to be aware of the plans of German counterintelligence and allowed them to avoid agent failures.

To increase secrecy in working with a particularly important agent, Soviet intelligence at the beginning of 1931 attracted an experienced illegal intelligence officer, Karl Silley; later it was planned that another experienced intelligence officer, Vasily Zarubin, who was specially supposed to move from France, would keep in touch with Leman. Considering the unreliability of Ernst Kur's communications, he was removed from the case, and later transferred to Sweden, where he ran a shop that served as a communications service for intelligence officers using Soviet intelligence funds.

After Hitler came to power, Lehmann, on the recommendation of Hermann Goering, was transferred to work in the Gestapo. By that time, Lehmann was well acquainted with many prominent figures of the NSDAP. In May 1934, Lehmann joined the SS, and on June 30, 1934, he took part in Operation Night of the Long Knives.

During the purge of the political police from old, and, in the opinion of the Nazis, unreliable personnel, Lehmann also came under suspicion, but he did not hold senior positions in the police, worked for many years against Soviet institutions in Germany (which characterized him positively in the eyes of the Nazis), had many positive characteristics and was highly respected by his colleagues for his experience and calm disposition - after all the reshuffles, he continued to work in the third department of the Gestapo.

In December 1933, Lehman was transferred to Vasily Zarubin, who arrived in Germany specifically for this purpose as a representative of one of the American film companies. After establishing permanent contact, Zarubin was given detailed information about the structure and personnel of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (main directorate of imperial security), its operations, the activities of the Gestapo and Abwehr ( military intelligence), military construction in Germany, Hitler's plans and intentions regarding neighboring countries.

Soon Lehmann was transferred to the Gestapo department, which dealt with issues of counterintelligence support for the defense industry and military construction. Around the same time, the first tests of ballistic missile prototypes took place, about which Moscow was also informed. And at the end of 1935, after Lehman was present at the testing of the first V-1 rocket, he compiled a detailed report on them and gave its description to Soviet intelligence officers. Based on these data, on December 17, 1935, Soviet intelligence presented a report to Stalin and Voroshilov, who was then the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, on the state of rocket science in Germany.

Among other information conveyed by Lehman were data on the construction of submarines, armored vehicles, information on the production of new gas masks and the production of synthetic gasoline. Information was also transmitted about the development and strengthening of the Nazi regime, about preparations for establishing world domination, about the build-up of military potential and the latest technical developments, about the structure of the German intelligence services, their personnel, and methods of work. Also, all this time, Lehman continued to inform the Soviet station about the counterintelligence activities of the Gestapo, which allowed Soviet intelligence officers to avoid failures.

Leman also conveyed important information to the Soviet side about the introduction of Gestapo agents into the communist underground and into Russian White émigré circles.

The exceptional importance of the information received from Leman forced the OGPU to constantly strengthen security measures for communication with him. Documents were prepared for him in someone else's name, and a detailed plan for leaving Germany in case of failure was developed. After Leman’s health deteriorated, Zarubin was instructed to transfer a large sum of money to him for treatment. Lehman's passion for racing made it possible to create a convincing legend of acquiring a substantial amount of money, sufficient for treatment, which made it possible to prevent the further development of the disease.

However, in 1936, Lehmann was summoned for questioning by the Gestapo, where they were interested in his connections in the Soviet trade mission. It turned out that they were talking about a namesake, another Wilhelm Lehmann, whom his mistress, out of jealousy, slandered as Soviet spy. After her arrest and interrogation, suspicions against the real Soviet agent were lifted. On New Year's Day 1937, among the four best Gestapo workers, Willy Lehmann received an autographed portrait of Adolf Hitler in a silver frame.

In 1936, Lehmann was appointed head of the counterintelligence department at military-industrial enterprises in Germany. Soon, the Soviet station received information about the laying down of more than 70 submarines at shipyards, about the construction of a new plant for the production of chemical warfare agents, a copy of a secret instruction concerning 14 types of the latest German weapons, as well as a copy of the secret report “On the organization of the national defense of Germany” " They were given descriptions of the new types of artillery guns, armored vehicles, mortars, including long-range guns, as well as armor-piercing bullets, special grenades and solid fuel rockets for gas attacks that were being demonstrated.

Communication problems

Despite the importance of the information conveyed by Lehmann, which allowed the Soviet leadership to adequately assess the combat power of the Wehrmacht, Zarubin’s cooperation with the agent ceased in 1937.

In the USSR, repressions began against intelligence officers, during which many intelligence officers were destroyed. Zarubin was summoned to Moscow, and although he managed to avoid reprisals, he never returned to Berlin. The only Soviet intelligence officer remaining in Berlin, Alexander Agayants, continued to maintain contact with Lehman, who, despite the enormous workload, understood the importance of such an agent as Lehman.

Leman, left without an experienced curator, acted largely at his own peril and risk, obtaining information that, in his opinion, could be of interest to Soviet intelligence. In one of his messages to the center, he wrote:

I have no reason to worry. I am sure that friends know that everything here is done in good faith, everything that can be done. For now, there is no particular urgency in coming to me. If necessary, I'll let you know.

At that time, Hitler was preparing the Anschluss of Austria, which soon followed " Munich agreement“Leman had top secret information, which, in his opinion, was of primary interest to the Soviets, but did not receive any support or assistance from the USSR. In December 1938, the last meeting of Agayants with Leman took place, shortly after which the Soviet intelligence officer was hospitalized and died during the operation. Lehmann was left completely without communication, while Germany began intensive preparations for war with Poland, turned the Wehrmacht into the most powerful army in the world, and a lot of important information passed through the hands of the agent.

By that time, Lehman’s cooperation with the USSR was already largely ideological in nature, since he was financially secure: his wife inherited a hotel that brought in a good income, and access to secret information made it possible to see preparations for a world war, which did not suit Lehman at all. He did not know about the situation in the USSR, did not know about the repressions, and apparently decided that the USSR authorities believed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This led him to take an unprecedented and extremely dangerous step in June 1940: he dropped a letter addressed to the military attaché or his deputy in the mailbox of the Soviet embassy. In the letter, he proposed to immediately restore operational contact with him.

I am in the same position, which is well known in the Center, and I think that I am again able to work in such a way that my bosses will be happy with me... If I do not receive any response, I will consider that I now represent no value and I'm not being used at work. My further work in the Gestapo will also lose all meaning then...

However, there was no communication until September 1940, when the new deputy resident of the NKVD in Berlin, Alexander Korotkov, met with Lehman. A new stage in the agent’s activity has begun. In fact, all work with an extremely important agent had to be rebuilt. The new leader of Agent Breitenbach was a young employee, Boris Zhuravlev, who had recently graduated from the Special Purpose School. By this time, Lehmann's position and responsibilities in the Gestapo were so extensive that he did not even need other tasks to obtain information. On September 9, 1940, the Berlin station received instructions personally from People's Commissar Beria:

None special tasks Breitenbach should not be given. It is necessary to take for now everything that is within his immediate capabilities, and, in addition, everything that he will know about the work of various intelligence services against the USSR, in the form of documents and personal reports of the source

Having received the materials, Zhuravlev photographed them and returned them before Lehman went to work the next day. Lehmann handed over to Moscow the key to the Gestapo ciphers used in telegraph (“Fernshpruch”) and radio messages (“Funkshpruh”) for communication with his territorial and overseas employees. Among other materials was big number documents indicating that Germany had begun preparations for war against the USSR. So, in March 1941, he reported that the Abwehr had urgently expanded the unit involved in conducting intelligence work against the USSR. In the spring of 1941, Lehmann informed Soviet intelligence officers about the upcoming Wehrmacht invasion of Yugoslavia. At a meeting on May 28, 1941, the agent informed Zhuravlev that he was ordered to urgently draw up a schedule for round-the-clock duty of employees of his unit. And on June 19, calling the intelligence officer to an emergency meeting, Lehmann reported that the Gestapo had received the text of Hitler’s secret order to German troops stationed along the Soviet border. It ordered the start of military operations against the USSR after 3 a.m. on June 22.

After the start of the war, contact with Lehman was lost forever.

Failure

At the end of the war, the NKVD began to find out the fate of pre-war sources and agents. Documents were discovered in the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters stating that Willy Lehmann was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1942. The reasons for the arrest were not stated. In Moscow it was established that the executed Gestapo officer Willy Lehmann was NKVD agent Breitenbach.

Later, it was possible to reconstruct the cause of the agent’s death.

In May 1942, Soviet intelligence agent Beck (German communist Robert Barth, who voluntarily surrendered to Soviet captivity) was sent to Berlin. One of the agent's goals was to reestablish contact with Lehman to continue cooperation. He was sent to Germany along with a whole group of agents with identical missions. In case Lehman refused to cooperate, Beck was provided with extensive incriminating evidence. In Lehman's case, these were receipts with his signature indicating that he had received money from Soviet intelligence officers. However, the Gestapo manages to quickly arrest Beck’s group. Under torture, he revealed the conditions for appearing with Leman and the information he knew about him. The Gestapo identified Lehmann, but the operation to eliminate him was carried out secretly. Himmler and Müller did not report to Hitler that a Soviet agent had been working in the Gestapo for many years. Lehman was urgently called to duty on Christmas Eve 1942, from which he never returned. The exact date of Leman's death and the place of his burial are unknown.

In January 1943, a notice was published in the Gestapo official newsletter:

Crime inspector Willy Lehmann gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich in December 1942

The fact of betrayal of such a high-ranking SS officer was hidden - even Lehmann’s wife was not informed about the circumstances of her husband’s death.

Robert Bart

Robert Barth agreed to participate in a radio game with Moscow, fearing for his wife and son. After the war, he again voluntarily surrendered to representatives of the Red Army and insisted that he had conveyed a signal of disinformation in the information transmitted. However, either he did not do this, or one of the technicians on the Soviet side made a mistake, but the signal of disinformation was not understood. Bart was convicted and shot.

Memory

In 1969, in Moscow, Lehman’s widow Margaret was presented with a gold wristwatch with the inscription “In memory from Soviet friends.” However, official information about the Soviet agent Willy Lehmann, who for twelve years transmitted the most important information from the very center of German counterintelligence, remained classified for many years. In 1999, all 12 volumes of his case were declassified, G. Lyubarsky wrote about him. In 2002, a large study by E. Stavinsky was published. In 2009, new archival materials were declassified.

Notes

Magazine "Rodina": AT THE BEGINNING OF GLORIOUS DEEDS. Retrieved April 23, 2013. Archived from the original on April 28, 2013.
T.K. Gladkov in his book “The King of Illegal Immigrants” (M., 2000) defends the version of the ideological motives that prompted Lehman to collaborate with Soviet intelligence. K. A. Zalessky in his book “Seventeen Moments of Spring. Distorting Mirror of the Third Reich" (M., "Veche"), 2006, says that Lehmann was “an agent who served not out of any ideological principles, but for banal money.” (p. 25)
Hans Coppi: Willy Lehmann. In: Hans Schafranek und Johannes Tuchel (Hrsg.): Krieg im Äther. Widerstand und Spionage im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Picus Verlag, Wien 2004, ISBN 3-85452-470-6.
P. A. Sudoplatov. “Intelligence and the Kremlin” M.: “Gaia”, 1996, P. 166
T. K. Gladkov. “The King of Illegal Immigrants” M.: “Gaia Iterum”, 2000, P. 168
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) publishes new documents about Willy Lehman
Lyubarsky G. Who was “Stirlitz”?//Vestnik. 1999. March 30, No. 7 (214)
Stavinsky E. Our man in the Gestapo. Who are you, Mr. Stirlitz? M., OLMA-Press. 2002.
MOSCOW, June 19, 2009 - RIA Novosti: The Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Russia has declassified the archival materials of the "Breitenbach" case - under this pseudonym one of the most valuable agents of Soviet intelligence, Willy Lehmann, worked in Germany, the head of the bureau for relations with Russia told RIA Novosti on Friday public and media Sergei Ivanov.

Literature

Theodor Gladkov. His Majesty Agent. - Printing traditions, 2010. - 280 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91591-047-6.
David E. Murphy. What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa. - Yale University Press, 2005. - P. 208. - 347 p. - ISBN 0-300-10780-3.

Video

SS-Hauptsturmführer Willy Lehmann
Stirlitz prototype declassified

Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Recruitment (1929)

We are very interested in your new source A-201. Our only concern is that you have climbed into one of the most dangerous places, where the slightest carelessness on the part of A-201 or A-70 can lead to numerous troubles. We consider it necessary to work out the issue of special conditions for communication with A-201

Obeying the instructions, intelligence connections with Lehmann were transferred to an illegal residency, headed by illegal intelligence officer Erich Tacke.

Intelligence activities

After Hitler came to power, Lehmann, on the recommendation of Hermann Goering, was transferred to work in the Gestapo. By that time, Lehmann was well acquainted with many prominent figures of the NSDAP. In May 1934, Lehmann joined the ranks of the SS, and on June 30, 1934, he took part in Operation Night of the Long Knives.

In December 1933, Lehman was transferred to Vasily Zarubin, who arrived in Germany specifically for this purpose as a representative of one of the American film companies. After establishing permanent contact, Zarubin was given detailed information about the structure and personnel of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (main directorate of imperial security), its operations, the activities of the Gestapo and Abwehr (military intelligence), military construction in Germany, Hitler's plans and intentions in relation to neighboring countries.

Soon Lehmann was transferred to the Gestapo department, which dealt with issues of counterintelligence support for the defense industry and military construction. Around the same time, the first tests of ballistic missile prototypes took place, about which Moscow was also informed. And at the end of 1935, after Lehman was present at the testing of the first V-1 rocket, he compiled a detailed report on them and handed over its description to Soviet intelligence officers. Based on these data, on December 17, 1935, Soviet intelligence presented a report to Stalin and Voroshilov, who was then the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, on the state of rocket science in Germany.

Leman also conveyed important information to the Soviet side about the introduction of Gestapo agents into the communist underground and into Russian White émigré circles.

However, in 1936, Lehmann was summoned for questioning by the Gestapo, where they were interested in his connections in the Soviet trade mission. It turned out that they were talking about a namesake, another Wilhelm Lehmann, whom his mistress slandered as a Soviet spy out of jealousy. After her arrest and interrogation, suspicions against the real Soviet agent were lifted. On New Year's Day 1937, among the four best Gestapo workers, Willy Lehmann received an autographed portrait of Adolf Hitler in a silver frame.

Communication problems

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Notes

Literature

Theodor Gladkov. His Majesty Agent. - Printing traditions, 2010. - 280 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-91591-047-6.
David E. Murphy. What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa. - Yale University Press, 2005. - P. 208. - 347 p. - ISBN 0-300-10780-3.

Video

Excerpt characterizing Lehman, Willy

Nikolai spent his vacation with his relatives. A fourth letter was received from Prince Andrei's fiancé, from Rome, in which he wrote that he would have long been on his way to Russia if his wound had not unexpectedly opened in a warm climate, which forces him to postpone his departure until the beginning of next year . Natasha was just as in love with her fiancé, just as calmed by this love and just as receptive to all the joys of life; but at the end of the fourth month of separation from him, moments of sadness began to come over her, against which she could not fight. She felt sorry for herself, it was a pity that she had wasted all this time for nothing, for no one, during which she felt so capable of loving and being loved.
It was sad in the Rostovs' house.

Christmastide came, and besides the ceremonial mass, except for the solemn and boring congratulations of neighbors and courtyards, except for everyone wearing new dresses, there was nothing special to commemorate Christmastide, and in the windless 20-degree frost, in the bright blinding sun during the day and in the starry winter light at night, I felt the need for some kind of commemoration of this time.
On the third day of the holiday, after lunch, all the household went to their rooms. It was the most boring time of the day. Nikolai, who went to see his neighbors in the morning, fell asleep in the sofa. The old count was resting in his office. Sonya was sitting at the round table in the living room, sketching a pattern. The Countess was laying out the cards. Nastasya Ivanovna the jester with a sad face was sitting at the window with two old women. Natasha entered the room, walked up to Sonya, looked at what she was doing, then walked up to her mother and stopped silently.
- Why are you walking around like a homeless person? - her mother told her. - What do you want?
“I need it... now, this very minute, I need it,” said Natasha, her eyes sparkling and not smiling. – The Countess raised her head and looked intently at her daughter.
- Don't look at me. Mom, don't look, I'm going to cry now.
“Sit down, sit with me,” said the countess.
- Mom, I need it. Why am I disappearing like this, mom?...” Her voice broke off, tears flowed from her eyes, and in order to hide them, she quickly turned and left the room. She went into the sofa room, stood there, thought, and went to the girls' room. There, the old maid was grumbling at a young girl who had come running out of breath from the cold from the yard.
“He will play something,” said the old woman. - For all the time.
“Let her in, Kondratievna,” said Natasha. - Go, Mavrusha, go.
And letting go of Mavrusha, Natasha went through the hall to the hallway. An old man and two young footmen were playing cards. They interrupted the game and stood up as the young lady entered. “What should I do with them?” thought Natasha. - Yes, Nikita, please go... where should I send him? - Yes, go to the yard and please bring the rooster; yes, and you, Misha, bring some oats.
- Would you like some oats? – Misha said cheerfully and willingly.
“Go, go quickly,” the old man confirmed.
- Fyodor, get me some chalk.
Passing by the buffet, she ordered the samovar to be served, although it was not the right time.
The barman Fok was the most angry person in the whole house. Natasha loved to try her power over him. He didn't believe her and went to ask if it was true?
- This young lady! - said Foka, feigning a frown at Natasha.
No one in the house sent away as many people and gave them as much work as Natasha. She could not see people indifferently, so as not to send them somewhere. She seemed to be trying to see if one of them would get angry or pout with her, but people didn’t like to carry out anyone’s orders as much as Natasha’s. “What should I do? Where should I go? Natasha thought, walking slowly down the corridor.
- Nastasya Ivanovna, what will be born from me? - she asked the jester, who was walking towards her in his short coat.
“You give rise to fleas, dragonflies, and blacksmiths,” answered the jester.
- My God, my God, it’s all the same. Oh, where should I go? What should I do with myself? “And she quickly, stamping her feet, ran up the stairs to Vogel, who lived with his wife on the top floor. Vogel had two governesses sitting at his place, and there were plates of raisins, walnuts and almonds on the table. The governesses were talking about where it was cheaper to live, in Moscow or Odessa. Natasha sat down, listened to their conversation with a serious, thoughtful face, and stood up. “The island of Madagascar,” she said. “Ma da gas kar,” she repeated each syllable clearly and, without answering m me Schoss’s questions about what she was saying, left the room. Petya, her brother, was also upstairs: he and his uncle were arranging fireworks, which they intended to set off at night. - Peter! Petka! - she shouted to him, - take me down. s - Petya ran up to her and offered her his back. She jumped on him, clasping his neck with her arms, and he jumped and ran with her. “No, no, it’s the island of Madagascar,” she said and, jumping off, went down.
As if having walked around her kingdom, tested her power and made sure that everyone was submissive, but that it was still boring, Natasha went into the hall, took the guitar, sat down in a dark corner behind the cabinet and began plucking the strings in the bass, making a phrase that she remembered from one opera heard in St. Petersburg together with Prince Andrei. For outside listeners, something came out of her guitar that had no meaning, but in her imagination, because of these sounds, a whole series of memories were resurrected. She sat behind the cupboard, her eyes fixed on the strip of light falling from the pantry door, listened to herself and remembered. She was in a state of memory.
Sonya walked across the hall to the buffet with a glass. Natasha looked at her, at the crack in the pantry door, and it seemed to her that she remembered that light was falling through the crack from the pantry door and that Sonya walked through with a glass. “Yes, and it was exactly the same,” thought Natasha. - Sonya, what is this? – Natasha shouted, fingering the thick string.
- Oh, you’re here! - Sonya said, shuddering, and came up and listened. - Don't know. Storm? – she said timidly, afraid of making a mistake.
“Well, in exactly the same way she shuddered, in the same way she came up and smiled timidly then, when it was already happening,” Natasha thought, “and in the same way... I thought that something was missing in her.”
- No, this is the choir from the Water-bearer, do you hear! – And Natasha finished singing the choir’s tune to make it clear to Sonya.
-Where did you go? – Natasha asked.
- Change the water in the glass. I'll finish the pattern now.
“You’re always busy, but I can’t do it,” said Natasha. -Where is Nikolai?
- He seems to be sleeping.
“Sonya, go wake him up,” said Natasha. - Tell him that I call him to sing. “She sat and thought about what it meant, that it all happened, and, without resolving this question and not at all regretting it, again in her imagination she was transported to the time when she was with him, and he looked with loving eyes looked at her.
“Oh, I wish he would come soon. I'm so afraid that this won't happen! And most importantly: I'm getting old, that's what! What is now in me will no longer exist. Or maybe he’ll come today, he’ll come now. Maybe he came and is sitting there in the living room. Maybe he arrived yesterday and I forgot.” She stood up, put down the guitar and went into the living room. All the household, teachers, governesses and guests were already sitting at the tea table. People stood around the table, but Prince Andrei was not there, and life was still the same.
“Oh, here she is,” said Ilya Andreich, seeing Natasha enter. - Well, sit down with me. “But Natasha stopped next to her mother, looking around, as if she was looking for something.
- Mother! - she said. “Give it to me, give it to me, mom, quickly, quickly,” and again she could hardly hold back her sobs.
She sat down at the table and listened to the conversations of the elders and Nikolai, who also came to the table. “My God, my God, the same faces, the same conversations, dad holding the cup in the same way and blowing in the same way!” thought Natasha, feeling with horror the disgust rising in her against everyone at home because they were still the same.
After tea, Nikolai, Sonya and Natasha went to the sofa, to their favorite corner, where their most intimate conversations always began.

“It happens to you,” Natasha said to her brother when they sat down in the sofa, “it happens to you that it seems to you that nothing will happen - nothing; what was all that was good? And not just boring, but sad?
- And how! - he said. “It happened to me that everything was fine, everyone was cheerful, but it would come to my mind that I was already tired of all this and that everyone needed to die.” Once I didn’t go to the regiment for a walk, but there was music playing there... and so I suddenly became bored...
- Oh, I know that. I know, I know,” Natasha picked up. – I was still little, this happened to me. Do you remember, once I was punished for plums and you all danced, and I sat in the classroom and sobbed, I will never forget: I was sad and I felt sorry for everyone, and myself, and I felt sorry for everyone. And, most importantly, it wasn’t my fault,” Natasha said, “do you remember?
“I remember,” said Nikolai. “I remember that I came to you later and I wanted to console you and, you know, I was ashamed. We were terribly funny. I had a bobblehead toy then and I wanted to give it to you. Do you remember?
“Do you remember,” Natasha said with a thoughtful smile, how long ago, long ago, we were still very little, an uncle called us into the office, back in the old house, and it was dark - we came and suddenly there was standing there...
“Arap,” Nikolai finished with a joyful smile, “how can I not remember?” Even now I don’t know that it was a blackamoor, or we saw it in a dream, or we were told.
- He was gray, remember, and had white teeth - he stood and looked at us...
– Do you remember, Sonya? - Nikolai asked...
“Yes, yes, I remember something too,” Sonya answered timidly...
“I asked my father and mother about this blackamoor,” said Natasha. - They say that there was no blackamoor. But you remember!
- Oh, how I remember his teeth now.
- How strange it is, it was like a dream. I like it.
- Do you remember how we were rolling eggs in the hall and suddenly two old women began to spin around on the carpet? Was it or not? Do you remember how good it was?
- Yes. Do you remember how dad in a blue fur coat fired a gun on the porch? “They turned over, smiling with pleasure, memories, not sad old ones, but poetic youthful memories, those impressions from the most distant past, where dreams merge with reality, and laughed quietly, rejoicing at something.
Sonya, as always, lagged behind them, although their memories were common.
Sonya did not remember much of what they remembered, and what she did remember did not arouse in her the poetic feeling that they experienced. She only enjoyed their joy, trying to imitate it.
She took part only when they remembered Sonya's first visit. Sonya told how she was afraid of Nikolai, because he had strings on his jacket, and the nanny told her that they would sew her into strings too.
“And I remember: they told me that you were born under cabbage,” said Natasha, “and I remember that I didn’t dare not believe it then, but I knew that it wasn’t true, and I was so embarrassed.”
During this conversation, the maid's head poked out of the back door of the sofa room. “Miss, they brought the rooster,” the girl said in a whisper.
“No need, Polya, tell me to carry it,” said Natasha.
In the middle of the conversations going on in the sofa, Dimmler entered the room and approached the harp that stood in the corner. He took off the cloth and the harp made a false sound.
“Eduard Karlych, please play my beloved Nocturiene by Monsieur Field,” said the voice of the old countess from the living room.
Dimmler struck a chord and, turning to Natasha, Nikolai and Sonya, said: “Young people, how quietly they sit!”
“Yes, we are philosophizing,” Natasha said, looking around for a minute and continuing the conversation. The conversation was now about dreams.
Dimmer started to play. Natasha silently, on tiptoe, walked up to the table, took the candle, took it out and, returning, quietly sat down in her place. It was dark in the room, especially on the sofa on which they were sitting, but through the large windows the silver light of the full moon fell onto the floor.
“You know, I think,” Natasha said in a whisper, moving closer to Nikolai and Sonya, when Dimmler had already finished and was still sitting, weakly plucking the strings, apparently indecisive to leave or start something new, “that when you remember like that, you remember, you remember everything.” , you remember so much that you remember what happened before I was in the world...
“This is Metampsic,” said Sonya, who always studied well and remembered everything. – The Egyptians believed that our souls were in animals and would go back to animals.
“No, you know, I don’t believe it, that we were animals,” Natasha said in the same whisper, although the music had ended, “but I know for sure that we were angels here and there somewhere, and that’s why we remember everything.” ...
-Can I join you? - said Dimmler, who approached quietly and sat down next to them.
- If we were angels, then why did we fall lower? - said Nikolai. - No, this cannot be!
“Not lower, who told you that lower?... Why do I know what I was before,” Natasha objected with conviction. - After all, the soul is immortal... therefore, if I live forever, that’s how I lived before, lived for all eternity.
“Yes, but it’s hard for us to imagine eternity,” said Dimmler, who approached the young people with a meek, contemptuous smile, but now spoke as quietly and seriously as they did.
– Why is it difficult to imagine eternity? - Natasha said. - Today it will be, tomorrow it will be, it will always be and yesterday it was and yesterday it was...
- Natasha! now it's your turn. “Sing me something,” the countess’s voice was heard. - That you sat down like conspirators.
- Mother! “I don’t want to do that,” Natasha said, but at the same time she stood up.
All of them, even the middle-aged Dimmler, did not want to interrupt the conversation and leave the corner of the sofa, but Natasha stood up, and Nikolai sat down at the clavichord. As always, standing in the middle of the hall and choosing the most advantageous place for resonance, Natasha began to sing her mother’s favorite piece.
She said that she did not want to sing, but she had not sung for a long time before, and for a long time since, the way she sang that evening. Count Ilya Andreich, from the office where he was talking with Mitinka, heard her singing, and like a student, in a hurry to go play, finishing the lesson, he got confused in his words, giving orders to the manager and finally fell silent, and Mitinka, also listening, silently with a smile, stood in front of count. Nikolai did not take his eyes off his sister, and took a breath with her. Sonya, listening, thought about what a huge difference there was between her and her friend and how impossible it was for her to be even remotely as charming as her cousin. The old countess sat with a happily sad smile and tears in her eyes, occasionally shaking her head. She thought about Natasha, and about her youth, and about how there was something unnatural and terrible in this upcoming marriage of Natasha with Prince Andrei.
Dimmler sat down next to the countess and closed his eyes, listening.
“No, Countess,” he said finally, “this is a European talent, she has nothing to learn, this softness, tenderness, strength...”
- Ah! “how I’m afraid for her, how afraid I am,” said the countess, not remembering who she was talking to. Her maternal instinct told her that there was too much of something in Natasha, and that this would not make her happy. Natasha had not yet finished singing when an enthusiastic fourteen-year-old Petya ran into the room with the news that the mummers had arrived.
Natasha suddenly stopped.
- Fool! - she screamed at her brother, ran up to the chair, fell on it and sobbed so much that she could not stop for a long time.
“Nothing, Mama, really nothing, just like this: Petya scared me,” she said, trying to smile, but the tears kept flowing and sobs were choking her throat.
Dressed up servants, bears, Turks, innkeepers, ladies, scary and funny, bringing with them coldness and fun, at first timidly huddled in the hallway; then, hiding one behind the other, they were forced into the hall; and at first shyly, and then more and more cheerfully and amicably, songs, dances, choral and Christmas games began. The Countess, recognizing the faces and laughing at those dressed up, went into the living room. Count Ilya Andreich sat in the hall with a radiant smile, approving of the players. The youth disappeared somewhere.
Half an hour later, an old lady in hoops appeared in the hall between the other mummers - it was Nikolai. Petya was Turkish. Payas was Dimmler, hussar was Natasha and Circassian was Sonya, with a painted cork mustache and eyebrows.
After condescending surprise, lack of recognition and praise from those not dressed up, the young people found that the costumes were so good that they had to show them to someone else.
Nikolai, who wanted to take everyone along an excellent road in his troika, proposed, taking ten dressed up servants with him, to go to his uncle.
- No, why are you upsetting him, the old man! - said the countess, - and he has nowhere to turn. Let's go to the Melyukovs.
Melyukova was a widow with children of various ages, also with governesses and tutors, who lived four miles from Rostov.
“That’s clever, ma chère,” the old count picked up, getting excited. - Let me get dressed now and go with you. I'll stir up Pashetta.
But the countess did not agree to let the count go: his leg hurt all these days. They decided that Ilya Andreevich could not go, but that if Luisa Ivanovna (m me Schoss) went, then the young ladies could go to Melyukova. Sonya, always timid and shy, began to beg Luisa Ivanovna more urgently than anyone not to refuse them.
Sonya's outfit was the best. Her mustache and eyebrows suited her unusually. Everyone told her that she was very good, and she was in an unusually energetic mood. Some inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided, and she, in her man’s dress, seemed like a completely different person. Luiza Ivanovna agreed, and half an hour later four troikas with bells and bells, squealing and whistling through the frosty snow, drove up to the porch.
Natasha was the first to give the tone of Christmas joy, and this joy, reflected from one to another, intensified more and more and reached highest degree at a time when everyone went out into the cold, and, talking, calling to each other, laughing and shouting, sat down in the sleigh.
Two of the troikas were accelerating, the third was the old count’s troika with an Oryol trotter at the root; the fourth is Nikolai's own with his short, black, shaggy root. Nikolai, in his old woman's outfit, on which he put on a hussar's belted cloak, stood in the middle of his sleigh, picking up the reins.
It was so light that he saw the plaques and eyes of the horses glinting in the monthly light, looking back in fear at the riders rustling under the dark awning of the entrance.
Natasha, Sonya, m me Schoss and two girls got into Nikolai’s sleigh. Dimmler and his wife and Petya sat in the old count’s sleigh; Dressed up servants sat in the rest.
- Go ahead, Zakhar! - Nikolai shouted to his father’s coachman in order to have a chance to overtake him on the road.
The old count's troika, in which Dimmler and the other mummers sat, squealed with their runners, as if frozen to the snow, and rattled a thick bell, moved forward. The ones attached to them pressed against the shafts and got stuck, turning out the strong and shiny snow like sugar.
Nikolai set off after the first three; The others made noise and screamed from behind. At first we rode at a small trot along a narrow road. While driving past the garden, shadows from bare trees often lay across the road and hid the bright light of the moon, but as soon as we left the fence, a diamond-shiny snowy plain with a bluish sheen, all bathed in a monthly glow and motionless, opened up on all sides. Once, once, a bump hit the front sleigh; in the same way, the next sleigh and the next were pushed and, boldly breaking the chained silence, one after another the sleighs began to stretch out.

The Russian secret services kept the name Willy Lehman secret for many years and only recently lifted the veil of secrecy. In the Gestapo, where Lehmann worked, he was called “Uncle Willy.” In Soviet intelligence he is known as a particularly valuable agent Breitenbach.

It was Lehmann who named the exact date of Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union. This man was even considered the prototype of Stirlitz. But there is a question, the answer to which has not been found in any archive. In 1942, Leman stopped communicating. Where did "Uncle Willie" go? And what were the last minutes of his life like? The most secret story in the channel's documentary investigation.

Strange murder

On the December night of the 42nd, a phone call rings in Willy Lehmann’s Berlin apartment - an urgent call to work, of which there have been many over the past couple of years. His desk at the Gestapo is bursting with fresh cases and denunciations. Willie reluctantly puts on a silver ring with magical runes and a skull. This is Himmler's personal award for distinguished SS members.

“The workload on political police officers during the war was colossal. The flow of documents took a lot of time, and Leman was very often put on paperwork. That is, there was nothing special about the night call. This is a completely normal situation that could not cause any specific doubts,” says historian Konstantin Zalessky.

However, Willie would not return home that day, and he would not appear in the following weeks. Finally, a modest obituary appears in a Nazi newspaper: criminal inspector Willy Lehmann, who worked in the Gestapo from the day it was founded, gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich. What really happened?

Special services historian Oleg Khlobustov became interested in the story of Leman. A dossier declassified by intelligence quite recently, and primarily the testimony of Lehman’s wife contained in it, helped him shed light on this complicated case.

“As Lehman’s wife, who naturally did not know what he was doing, reported after the war, that in December 1942, around mid-December, he was urgently called to work, left, and she knew nothing more about him. Naturally , she began making inquiries, and a few weeks later she was told that her husband had gone on a business trip, and was later informed that he had died,” says special services historian Oleg Khlobustov.

It turns out that Willie died back in December 1942. But whose fault and under what circumstances? The secret dossier does not even hint at where Lehmann went that December night, as if the Nazis did everything to ensure that as little as possible was known about him.

“His fate is not entirely clear and understandable, because the documents were destroyed, because it was a compromise of many RSHA leaders, starting from the intelligence chief Schellenberg and ending with the head of the Gestapo Muller,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

But what did Willy do to scare Gestapo chief Müller? Renowned intelligence historian Alexander Kolpakidi examines Lehman's collaboration with Soviet intelligence. Thanks to the dossier, the circumstances of the recruitment were restored in every detail.

“He needed money, obviously, this plan of working for Soviet intelligence arose in his head. And he wanted to ventilate, send a friend, see how he would be, whether they would cheat him, whether they would pay, whether they would pay normally, how safe it was ", whether someone at the Soviet embassy would turn him in, whether they would arrest him right away. And so he decided to check everything on this matter," says historian Alexander Kolpakidi.

Spy in the rear

1929 An elderly German man appears at the USSR Embassy in Berlin and smells of schnapps. He says that he works for the police and offers his services as an agent. Ernst Kur – that’s the man’s name – immediately comes to the attention of Soviet intelligence. They quickly find out that he is not working alone.

Behind him is a friend, Willie Lehman. Moscow is behaving cautiously. Willie is also a policeman, works in the political department. This is essentially counterintelligence. Nothing to say, tasty morsel. And he goes into his own hands. It's all too good to be true.

“This police was engaged, among other things, in counterintelligence, that is, in catching foreign spies. And the place, let’s say, is very dangerous in a sense, that there is a very likely possibility that this is a counter-operation, that this is an operation of the police against our intelligence,” - says Konstantin Zalessky.

Finally, in Moscow they decide to make contact. The rendezvous is scheduled for the evening in one of the Berlin cafes. Leaving doubts behind, Lehman also comes to the meeting with Kur.

“A man of small stature, I would say, very elastic all over, he began his activity precisely by serving in the navy and served there for 10 years, was a typical German burgher, not even a policeman, but a burgher,” - special services historian Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Willy, like all Germans, understands well that money loves counting, especially since there is always not enough of it. Leman has diabetes, and treatment is expensive. At the end of the 20s, many in Germany considered Russia almost an ally, which means the risk was small. Why not help your friends and earn a little money at the same time?

“When he began to cooperate, he did not consider that Russia and Germany were enemies. And indeed, he knew very well that there was secret cooperation contrary to the Versailles Peace Treaty, he knew that for spying in favor of Russia there were very small punishments, ridiculously small. He knew that they mostly turned a blind eye to this,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

So Leman becomes one of Moscow’s most valuable agents. He is given the operational pseudonym Breitenbach. Willie works for Soviet intelligence for 12 long years, but then the connection with him is suddenly cut off. His wife contacts the Gestapo. There she is informed that Willie became ill during a special operation and fell out of the train at full speed.

“The most interesting thing in this whole story is that Himmler and Müller hid this whole story from Hitler, they even deliberately initiated his heroic death, that he died on the battlefield, and the employees were told that he was traveling on a train from Warsaw, he had an attack of diabetes , he lost consciousness, fell out of the train and crashed,” says Kolpakidi.

The mystery of the death of "Uncle Willie"

So how did Willie Lehman die? In some kind of shootout or did he really die from a seizure? But in that case, why did his widow never find out where he was buried? What secret did the Gestapo hide from her? Leman is a professional with a capital P. This means that what happened to him is hardly his fault.

The famous writer and intelligence service historian Nikolai Dolgopolov believes that Lehman deserves respect, if only because many Soviet intelligence officers owe their lives to Breitenbach.

“The Soviet embassy was also under the tutelage of Willy Lehman. Lehman not only knew that such and such a person would be taken, say, under surveillance, or that such and such a person would be in danger because they wanted to develop him and, perhaps, even recruit him. He always managed to do this and always very carefully warned his Soviet friends,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Moscow understands: Agent Breitenbach is a real gift from fate. There is only one thing left - to get rid of Kur, he is too strongly attached to schnapps and at the same time does not always keep his mouth shut.

“The decision was made to send him to Switzerland, where he would also carry out some assignments and tasks, but would not and could not compromise Leman with his spree,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

But how to transmit information to Moscow? A walkie-talkie in the center of Berlin is nonsense. You have to rely on personal meetings with illegal agents. One time, an American woman, Lucy Booker, comes to Willie. She takes photographs of the documents Leman brought in order to transfer them to the center.

Willie immediately takes the originals with him. And it also happens: he sews papers into the lining of his hat and comes to a cafe to meet with an agent. They place their hats on the table, and before leaving, they quietly exchange hats.

"He met with one of the illegal immigrants, and completely different people: there were also Germans, Erich Take, for example, Karl Gursky, there was an American Lucy Booker, there was a Latvian Herman Klesmet, there was a Russian Zarubin and so on, that is, there were very different people. This illegal immigrant took information from him and gave it to an operative from the embassy, a legal intelligence officer, and thus it was sent to Moscow,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

In 1933, fate presented Lehman’s curators with another gift. The department of the Berlin Police Presidium, in which Willy works, is transferred in its entirety to the secret political police, which is created on the initiative of Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Goering.

“He fired about a quarter to a third of the police, that is, the purge was very thorough. Accordingly, there were few police left, only police officials. And almost the entire Prussian political police entered the Gestapo in full force without any re-certifications, certifications, even everyone there received additional and promotion,” says Konstantin Zalessky.

Reichmarshal Goering talks with Secretary of State Herbert Backe. Photo: TASS

Soon the new police would have the name Gestapo and a fearsome reputation. The secret police can arrest anyone on the slightest suspicion, use torture, and execute without trial.

“Unlike other police structures, the Gestapo had the right of pre-trial arrest, that is, to arrest without court approval. Liquidation - formally this was done, of course, but in reality any death sentence formally had to go through the court, but, on the other hand, this is not always was observed," says Andrei Martynov.

Nevertheless, having someone in the Gestapo is a great success for Moscow. Some still believe that Willy’s biography formed the basis for Yulian Semenov’s book, and that Lehman is nothing more than a prototype of Stirlitz.

One among strangers

“I knew Yulian Semenovich well, we were friends, so I know for sure that at that time he simply did not even suspect the presence of such an agent. They talked about him much later, after the death of Yulian Semenov, he died early. And in any case, these are different people. Stirlitz is a Russian man who pretends to be a German, and Willy Lehman was a German,” says Leonid Mlechin.

Of course, a Russian intelligence officer would never have infiltrated the Gestapo. It’s hard to believe, but the pedigree of candidates for the political police was carefully checked, the biographies of ancestors born before 1800 were studied. But that's not all.

“If some German applied for an officer position in the Gestapo, he was checked until 1750. Imagine that some very lucky, very, I would say, talented, even brilliant Soviet intelligence officer arrives. Of course, it’s possible in some way to learn a language in this way, you can, of course, have some relatives in Germany, you can be from Germany, but it’s not so deep,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

And this does not mean that Gestapo employees are checked once and for all. Control continues; surveillance cannot be avoided. In a word, Willie walks on the edge, but cannot give up espionage, because he is still alive only thanks to subsidies from Moscow.

“He was very seriously ill, they were afraid that he would die, by the way, in the mid-30s, there was a lot of correspondence about this, that it was as if he had not died, and therefore they were very concerned about his health. And a lot of money was spent on this treatment ", says Alexander Kolpakidi.

Therefore, many experts consider money to be Lehman's main motive. Leonid Mlechin shares the same opinion.

“As a rule, agents work for money. Or there is a very common case when people in this business want to be masters of destinies. Not only does he work in one intelligence service, he wants to lead two services, he wants to play on many boards.” , says Leonid Mlechin.

Leonid Mlechin. Photo: TASS/Valery Sharifulin

And then there’s the gray hair in the beard. The no longer young Willie falls in love with a young seamstress. The girl barely makes ends meet or is just pretending, and Leman rents an apartment for her and pampers her with delicacies.

“Let’s say that renting an apartment in Berlin at that time was about 180 marks, he was paid 580 marks a month. This is decent money. And he spent it carefully, even his wife had no idea,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

However, the famous historian Konstantin Zalessky believes that Leman was motivated by other reasons. He came to the conclusion that Willie was simply tired of being in the last roles all his life. And the respect that Soviet agents show him flatters his pride.

“Soviet intelligence is the most powerful intelligence of those years that he is valued in such a serious service. That is, while he remains, let’s say, a junior officer, a person somewhat higher than technical personnel, but an ordinary investigator, an employee of political intelligence - the Gestapo, he at the same time he became highly valued in intelligence,” says Konstantin Zalessky.

"Night of the Long Knives"

Indeed, Willie only rose to the rank of criminal police inspector. In Russia he would have been a senior lieutenant. However, it is possible that Lehman is not driven by hurt pride, but by completely different considerations.

“Hitler not only captured the entire country, he made it a country unacceptable for living in for such, say, honest people as Lehmann, because Lehmann was, let’s call it all in his own words, an anti-communist. He hunted down communists, he put them in prison, about "This is not written, but it was exactly like that. But at the same time, Leman did not understand why these people - the fascists - came and they destroy their own?", says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

And what is completely incomprehensible to Willy is the witchcraft and obscurantism of SS chief Himmler. On his orders, a special Sonderkommando collects information about medieval witch trials. Himmler restores Wewelsburg Castle, which, according to legend, lies under an ancient curse. And surrounding himself with magical runes, he serves occult masses there.

Congress of the National Socialist Party. Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels (center) talks with Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler (left) and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. Photo: TASS

Unfortunately, soon the “Black Order”, as the SS is now called, will gain absolute power. Only one "Night of the Long Knives" separates Himmler from complete triumph. Historian Andrei Martynov is trying to understand the background of the events of June 30, 1934, which will go down in history as the “Night of the Long Knives.”

“There were attempts on the part of the SA to arrest and, thereby, blackmail Hitler’s supporters. And in the end, Hitler made a decision to liquidate the leadership of the SA, simply to physically destroy them,” says Andrei Martynov.

In a word, Hitler fears betrayal by the SA - the assault troops of the National Socialists. Therefore, SS officers who report to Himmler and Hitler personally are sent to deal with political rivals. This massacre will not happen without the Gestapo, and therefore Lehmann is summoned to the villa of his boss Goering.

“It’s not that Goering invited him and said: “Willy, you know, now we’re going to kill these stormtroopers...” No, Goering talked to a lot of people, including a group of policemen, where he was, but he was not the main one among them, he stood somewhere at the door and wondered how he got here,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

During the “Night of the Long Knives,” the Nazis exterminate more than a thousand of their compatriots. Among them there are many who fell under the hot hand by accident. For help in organizing this operation, Gestapo chief Goering places his police under the authority of Himmler.

“Goering did not go into much detail into the affairs of his police, he only headed it. And as a result of the “Night of the Long Knives,” he gave it up altogether. That is, this was one of the prices that he paid to Himmler for his cooperation in preparing the “Night of the Long Knives.” , explains Konstantin Zalessky.

Not only is the insane Himmler now heading the Gestapo punitive machine, Hitler will not remain in debt for the bloody work done by the SS. He elevates the SS to the rank independent organization. From now on, Himmler's Black Order receives unlimited possibilities. And part of the blame for this lies with him, Willie Lehman.

“It was when he stained himself with blood that he was accepted into the party, he became a real SS man, a real Gestapo man from the point of view of those who tested him for their bestial loyalty. And maybe this somehow helped Lehmann avoid suspicion, avoid some unpleasant checks,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Meeting of the NSDAP Presidium in Munich in 1928. On the podium: Alfred Rosenberg (second from left), Adolf Hitler (center), Heinrich Himmler (far right). Photo: TASS

Massacre Reward

For his participation in the massacre, Himmler personally rewards Lehmann with a silver ring with ancient magical runes. It is given to the most dedicated members of the SS. After their death, all the rings return to Himmler, and he performs his rituals over them, as if he dreams of taking possession of the souls of his subordinates. And it is possible that after these events, the pragmatic Willie took a completely different look at his work with Soviet intelligence.

“Even members of the same National Socialist Party and other pro-Nazi structures, in general, doubted and were nonconformists at heart, and took part in the same anti-Hitler resistance. For Lehmann, cooperation with Soviet intelligence was a form of his resistance,” he claims Oleg Khlobustov.

In 1935, Lehman was engaged in counterintelligence at German military factories. Breitenbach without hesitation sends information to Moscow about new submarines and the construction of a plant for the production of chemical warfare agents. He conveys descriptions of new types of artillery pieces, armored vehicles, and mortars.

“The amount he handed over is calculated in suitcases, let’s put it this way. And the most interesting thing is that Leman handed over data on 14 types of new weapons. It’s hard for me to say which was the most useful, but I can still make an assumption: Leman realized what he had in there.” somewhere behind his back, the country is manufacturing the most valuable and completely new, unprecedented models of missile weapons,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Fate gives Willie, and therefore Soviet intelligence, another gift. Based on a denunciation, the Gestapo arrests military engineer Wernher von Braun. Leman decides to help him, and at the same time use his knowledge to his advantage.

“A German engineer who was directly involved in missile issues was arrested by the Gestapo. Lehmann decided to save him, that is, to save his life, to release him, to allow him to return to his professional activity, using him as an informant or pretending that he was using him as an informant,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

We are talking about the development of the world's first rockets, in fact future ballistic missiles. Thanks to Willy Lehman, their drawings would end up on the desk of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR in the mid-30s.

“It turns out that their development began only in the middle of 1935. And even then, in 1935, Voroshilov knew about it. Did the People’s Commissar of Defense do anything to do something similar at home? Maybe and yes, because, as is believed, work has begun on our Katyushas,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

How does Lehman manage to do this? Did no one ever suspect him? Willie knows his job well: he deftly avoids surveillance and never takes unnecessary risks.

“He was a professional. And since he worked in the secret police, he knew the methodology of counterintelligence work and how to get away from it. But I will say this: in the pre-war years, our agents generally held up very well, there were no failures,” says Leonid Mlechin .

Good guy and joker from the Gestapo

Despite his work in the Gestapo, Lehman is known as a good-natured person and a jokester. After all, he doesn't conduct interrogations in basements. His abode is a dusty filing cabinet. Uncle Willie is in good standing with everyone - an elderly man who honestly earns his bread.

Well, who would dare to sit like that? But if Willie is so cunning, then where did he disappear so mysteriously back in 1939? According to his dossier, it turns out that on the eve of the war, Leman remained mysteriously silent for a whole year. It turns out that he simply has no connection with Soviet intelligence.

“Part of the external Soviet intelligence, as well as the military intelligence, was exterminated. First, People's Commissar Yagoda took up the matter, then the iron People's Commissar and executioner Yezhov, who replaced him, completed the work of Beria to a lesser extent, because he had no one to take on and no one to clean up. But ", however, it turned out that, unfortunately, Leman was left without contact. There was no one at the embassy who would contact him," says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

But then amazing things happen. In June 1941, a mysterious letter was found in the mailbox of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Berlin. The author of the message calls himself a valuable agent of Moscow and asks to renew contact. Moscow is perplexed as to who it could be and finally comes to the conclusion: Agent Breitenbach.

“He went to the Soviet embassy, by the way, it is not clear how his letter ended up in the mail of the Soviet embassy, it ended up in the NKVD, after which contact with him was resumed. I think, on the one hand, this indicates that he was very careful that the Germans did not detect this in any way, German counterintelligence,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

What happened during the time that Willie remained without contact? Willy decides to leave the Gestapo. His wife inherited the hotel, and they no longer need money. But something stops Willie. He's almost 60, what has he done? Threw people into prison? Followed the orders of the mad Himmler? And Leman writes a letter that will mysteriously end up in the box of the Soviet embassy.

“And since he had a position of active rejection of fascism, he was already looking for the possibility of renewing this connection, purely professionally understanding that he could be useful, that this would work for the benefit of Germany, as he believed,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

Needless to say, this is a very risky step. And then one day, returning from work, Leman notices that he is being followed. Willy decides to come up and give the password necessary to communicate with the Soviet agent. This man turns out to be Russian intelligence officer Alexander Korotkov.

“Korotkov spoke German, was charming, young, energetic. And this man named Stepanov was sent to an exhibition in Berlin, and in 1940 he managed to completely unexpectedly even for himself reestablish contact with Lehman,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

But Korotkov is forced to leave Berlin. Then the Center decides to take an adventure. From now on, Breitenbach will keep in touch with embassy staff.

“People from legal intelligence worked directly with him. The last one was Zhuravlev, who met directly with him, and there was no illegal between them. That is, it must be said that over the years his value increased, and the caution that Moscow showed in working with him , for unknown reasons, decreased. As a result, this killed him,” says Alexander Kolpakidi.

Combat readiness

On June 19, 1941, Leman informs Zhuravlev about the war that will begin on the morning of the 22nd. Gestapo departments are already on full alert.

“War with any country is a whole complex of events. Naturally, the Gestapo, which, by the way, had a branch in the form of the so-called secret field police, naturally also prepared to act in future Soviet occupied territories. And naturally, sooner or later the highest the command staff of these services should have been focused on what is already tomorrow,” says historian Mikhail Meltyukhov.

But will they believe Lehman in distant Moscow? The events of June 41 are of main scientific interest to Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail Meltyukhov. According to him, the day before Lehmann’s meeting with Zhuravlev, Hitler’s order to start a war with the USSR was communicated to all Wehrmacht troops.

“The German command brings the order to the attention of the command staff of its units. As I understand it, it is similar to what was later done by the Gestapo. That is, it is clear why he found out at that time,” says Mikhail Meltyukhov.

1941 Photo: TASS/Valeria Khristoforova and Boris Kavashkin

Soon Leman will again be left without contact. The Soviet diplomatic mission will leave Berlin simultaneously with the explosion of the first shell of the Great Patriotic War.

“And again, returning to the last meeting with Breitenbach, he felt that he was a very dejected man, in conclusion he shook hands with our intelligence officer and said: “Take courage, comrade, hold on.” The word “comrade” was heard from him for the first time, then there is, he actually chose for himself the side on which he will stand,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

From now on, it will be possible to contact Leman only through illegal agents. In 1942, on instructions from the Intelligence Directorate, two Soviet agents secretly arrived in Berlin. These are German anti-fascists Albert Hesler and Robert Barth.

They must get in touch with the underground resistance movement, and at the same time renew contact with Lehman. Suddenly, Robert Barth learns that his wife is in one of the Berlin clinics. Anxiety for a loved one makes him forget about caution. Meanwhile, dozens of eyes are watching his wife.

“Whether all the wives of prisoners, killed soldiers, or missing ones, it doesn’t matter, and the wives of just soldiers who were at the front, they were in a very large, intricate system of social care, that is, an endless number of organizations took care of them,” - explains Konstantin Zalessky.

Bart, who at one time deserted from the front and went over to the side of the Red Army, cannot but know this. He will be arrested as soon as he crosses the threshold of the hospital room. Unfortunately, Robert knows about Lehman. Breitenbach's life hangs in the balance. But what if Willie sensed something was wrong and still managed to escape?

Nikolai Dolgopolov made an incredible discovery. It turns out that Leman had a fake passport, which he could use in case of danger. Moreover, Dolgopolov personally knew the person who prepared these documents.

“Here I want to turn to the blessed memory of my kind, good friend Pavel Gromushkin. This man may not be so well known to a wide circle of readers and viewers, but he is very well known to people in a narrow circle. Pavel Anatolyevich was the best manufacturer of passports and documents. Any, any and every intelligence officer who went somewhere far away was prepared by Pavel Gromushkin. And this Pavel Gromushkin made passports for the unknown Willy Lehman, of course, with different names," says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

The end of a fighter

But did Breitenbach really run away, leaving his wife to fend for herself? At the end of the war, documents are discovered in the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters, which speak of Lehmann's arrest. The reasons for it are not specified. But how did the Gestapo manage to expose the Soviet agent? Here, Willie's fate turns out to be closely intertwined with the fates of anti-fascists Hesler and Bart, who were tasked with renewing contact with a valuable agent.

“If Hesler withstood, I don’t understand how, all the torture, all the bullying, all the torment and never said a word, then the second paratrooper, the second person sent to communicate with the Red Chapel, could not stand it,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

The Gestapo threatens Robert Barth's wife and child, and he agrees to start a radio game with Moscow. However, Lehman may still be saved. With his first radio transmission, Bart transmits a secret signal that he is working under pressure. But for some reason Moscow does not accept him. And in the response radiogram, the Gestapo receives a password for communication with Lehmann.

“According to him, he reported by radio to Moscow that he was working under the control of the enemy, that is, he cannot be fully trusted, you can only play an operational game with him that is beneficial to Soviet intelligence. But Moscow, unfortunately, did not understand this signal and did not attach any importance to this. After this, the terms of communication with Breitenbach were transferred to him,” says Oleg Khlobustov.

Literary prize winner of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation Nikolai Dolgopolov at the presentation of his book "Abel - Fischer" from the "ZhZL" series. Photo: TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov

So what happened to Willie? On the night of Christmas Eve '42, under pressure from the Gestapo, Bart gets in touch with Lehmann and invites him to a meeting. He tells his wife that he was called to duty and meets with Robert. They exchange passwords, and at that very moment Breitenbach is arrested.

"It's called a provocation, but in this case The Gestapo was not a judicial body. It was not going to take Leman’s case to court, and therefore there was no need for evidence,” explains Konstantin Zalessky.

What were they like? last days and moments in the life of Willie Lehman? We will never know. Fearing that he will lose his position, the new Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller destroys all documents related to Willy. But it is not difficult to guess how the valuable Soviet agent died. He would spend his last days in Plötzensee prison, a notorious death row dungeon.

“He knew very well that there was no way out of Plötzensee prison. It was a death row prison, and the only thing that could save him, say, was maybe a heart attack, an attempt to force the people who were interrogating him to use weapons, because he would die it was still better from a bullet,” says Nikolai Dolgopolov.

Whether Breitenbach succeeded in causing the bullet to come upon himself, one can only hope. Most of the prison inmates ended their lives on the rack. Their ashes were buried in the prison yard.

After 18 years, a man will call Margaret Lehman's apartment. He will give Lehman's widow a gold watch with the inscription "From Soviet friends." Willie himself received another award - the memory of him as a man who challenged the Gestapo.

Willie Lehman(German: Willy Lehmann; operational pseudonym Breitenbach; March 15, 1884, near Leipzig, German Empire - December 1942, Berlin, Germany) - Gestapo officer, SS Hauptsturmführer and criminal inspector. A secret agent of Soviet intelligence, who became one of the most valuable during almost thirteen years of cooperation with her.

Biography

Recruitment (1929)

Wilhelm Lehmann is a man who opposed the entire German counterintelligence for 12 years.
Photo courtesy of the author

In mid-June 1945, when the ruins of Berlin were still smoking, a handsome young man called Margaret Lehmann in her modest apartment. Hearing the bell, she opened the door. The stranger, who introduced himself as Alexander Erdberg, asked if he could talk to his friend Willie, whom he had met before the war, but then went their separate ways. In response, Margaret burst into tears. Having coped with her excitement, she said that her husband died in December 1942. All that was left of him was an urn with ashes and personal belongings. She does not know any details of her husband’s death.

The visitor, who spoke German with a pleasant Austrian accent, was the Soviet foreign intelligence resident in Germany, Alexander Korotkov, who worked in Berlin in the early 1940s. Immediately after the end of the war, on behalf of the leadership, he took energetic measures to establish the fate of valuable and reliable NKVD agents, contact with whom was lost during the hard times of war. One of these sources was Breitenbach, who had been an employee of this institution since the creation of the German secret state police (Gestapo) in April 1933. His real name was Wilhelm Lehmann.

KAISER POLICEMAN

In 1884, a son was born into the family of a modest schoolteacher Gustav Lehmann, who lived in the suburbs of Leipzig, who was named Wilhelm at baptism in honor of the heir to the throne, the future Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II.

Willie's father, like thousands of his other brothers in the profession, was a poor man and could not give his son a proper education. After graduating from school, Willie began studying to become a carpenter. When the young man turned 17, he volunteered for the German Navy, where he served for a total of 12 years. On board a warship of the German squadron in May 1905, he had the opportunity to observe a Russian-Japanese naval battle off the island of Tsushima, in which Russian sailors showed courage and heroism in the fight against superior enemy forces. The courage of the Russian sailors made an indelible impression on Willie. Since then, he has developed deep respect for Russia and Russians in general.

After being demobilized from the army in 1913, Willy came to Berlin. He settled in a cheap boarding house and began attending meetings of the “Union of Africans,” which included participants in Germany’s colonial wars on the African continent. The cruiser Stein, on which Lehmann served, supported the operations of German ground forces in Africa. At one of these meetings, Willy met his old friend Ernst Kuhr, who by that time worked in the Berlin secret political police. Under his patronage, Lehman was hired as a patrol policeman in 1913. A year later, he was enrolled in the counterintelligence department (Abwehr) of the police presidium of the city of Berlin to the position of assistant chief of the office. Since Lehman was an employee of the secret political police, he was not drafted into the active army.

In May 1918, the Plenipotentiary Representative Office of the RSFSR was opened in Berlin, whose employees were monitored by Lehmann's counterintelligence department. The October Revolution of 1917 enjoyed sympathy in Germany, so the employees of this department did not show much zeal in spying on the “Red diplomats”.

On November 4, 1918, a revolution broke out in Germany, dethroning Kaiser Wilhelm II. It began with a revolt of sailors in Kiel. The Berlin police were overcome by the euphoria of freedom. A Committee of Police Officials was spontaneously formed, the chairman of the general meeting of which, as a former naval sailor, was Willy Lehman. He was assigned to take care of business German fleet. During this period, he became friends with the chairman of the Council of Soldiers' and Sailors' Deputies, Otto Streubel, with whom they once served on the same ship.

In April 1920, German authorities re-established the secret political police, and Lehmann and Kuhr returned to their counterintelligence department. For further career advancement, Leman needed to pass the “rank exam,” and he, along with other department employees, began to intensively prepare for it. However, an acute attack of diabetes left Willie bedridden and the exam was postponed. Paying tribute to Leman's experience and organizational abilities, the leadership of the police presidium appointed him acting head of the office of the department that was engaged in surveillance of foreign diplomatic missions. Here, all correspondence regarding the intelligence activities of foreign missions passed through Lehman’s hands. Essentially, he headed the counterintelligence department of the Berlin Police Presidium.

In 1927, Wilhelm Abdt, an experienced military intelligence officer who spoke Russian and Polish languages. Willy Lehmann realized that he had no chance of getting a promotion, so he chose a quiet place to work in the department’s file cabinet, which concentrated all the information on employees of foreign embassies who, for one reason or another, came to the attention of the Berlin police presidium.

OPERATING NAME BREATENBACH

During his years of working in Germany's secret political police, Willy Lehmann became disillusioned with the policies of the country's ruling elite. He carefully studied the materials available in it about Soviet representatives in Germany and came to the conclusion that in its pure form they were not engaged in any subversive activities against his country. And Leman decided to offer his services to Soviet foreign intelligence.

It should be noted that Willy Lehman did not immediately decide to take this step. Initially, in March 1929, at his suggestion, the Soviet embassy was visited by Ernst Kuhr, who by that time was unemployed, but had not lost some connections in the Berlin police. After a conversation with Kur, one of the employees of the INO OGPU residency, the Center came to the conclusion that it was advisable to recruit him on a financial basis. The newly minted agent was assigned operational code A-70. It was planned to use it to collect information about persons who came to the attention of Soviet intelligence. Monthly A-70 was paid a monetary reward depending on the quality of the information.

However, in order to find answers to his supervisor’s questions about persons of interest to Soviet intelligence, Kur increasingly began to resort to the services of Lehman, who became increasingly burdened by this state of affairs. In addition, having received a reward from his Soviet friends, Ernst loved to throw parties in a restaurant, waste money, and treat everyone. Such places were full of police informants who might be interested in where the unemployed man got so much money and set up surveillance on him. This would inevitably lead the Berlin criminal police to Willy himself, and he decided to independently establish contact with Soviet representatives. In turn, Kur’s contact with Lehman was also of great interest to the INO residency

OGPU in Berlin. The center decided to contact Leman directly and find out the possibility of involving him in working with Soviet intelligence.

The Berlin station assigned Willy Lehmann the operational index A-201 and began its active development.

On September 7, 1929, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, Meer Abramovich Trilisser, sent an encrypted telegram to the Berlin station, in which, in particular, he indicated:

“We are very interested in your new source A-201. Our only concern is that you have climbed into one of the most dangerous places, where the slightest carelessness on the part of A-201 or A-70 can lead to numerous troubles. We consider it necessary to work out the issue of special conditions for communication with A-201.”

These recommendations of the Center were accepted for immediate implementation by the Berlin station. Willy Lehmann, who received the operational pseudonym Breitenbach, was transferred to the illegal station, headed by illegal intelligence officer Erich Tacke.

IMPORTANT SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Since 1930, Lehmann-Breitenbach's tasks in working in the counterintelligence unit of the Berlin Police Presidium included developing the personnel of the USSR Plenipotentiary Mission and combating Soviet economic intelligence in the country. The information received from the agent allowed the station of the INO OGPU to be aware of the plans of German counterintelligence and take measures to prevent failures of the operatives and the sources in their contacts.

In order to improve the quality of secrecy in working with Breitenbach, at the beginning of 1931, the Center decided to involve another illegal intelligence officer, Karl Silly, who had extensive experience in underground work, in leading the agent. Considering the importance of the source and the information received from it, in the future it was planned to transfer it to the experienced illegal intelligence officer Vasily Zarubin, who was working in France at that time and was supposed to specially move to Germany. To eliminate the possibility of the source's failure, a decision is made to take Ernst Kur away from him and use the agent himself. Later, when Breitenbach “began to work for the Gestapo, his friend was transferred to Sweden, where, with funds from Soviet intelligence, he maintained a small store that served the European OGPU stations as a “mailbox.”

The situation in Germany became more complicated. The Nazis were openly striving for power. Breitenbach knew many prominent bosses of the Nazi Party, including the leader of its assault troops, Ernst Rehm. After Hitler came to power in February 1933, Breitenbach, on the recommendation of Hermann Goering, then Prime Minister of the Prussian government, was transferred to work in the Gestapo. In May 1934 he joined the SS. On June 30 of the same year, as Goering's confidant, Breitenbach took part in Operation Night of the Long Knives to eliminate Ernst Roehm and other stormtrooper leaders.

In 1935, on Goering’s initiative, the Gestapo began purges of “unreliable elements.” Lehmann also came under suspicion, having been reminded of his connection with Otto Streubel. However, the intelligence officer, thanks to his good performance characteristics, managed to retain his post. (In addition, by that time Streubel had converted to Nazi positions and was Goebbels’ deputy in the Ministry of Propaganda.)

Old cadres of the political police were leaving the Gestapo. The Nazis believed that they were all infected with the “spirit of liberalism” of the Weimar Republic. Breitenbach, according to the Nazis, also belonged to the “old guard”. However, he was left in the Gestapo, since he did not hold leading positions in the criminal police, and for many years he worked against Soviet institutions in Germany, which the leadership equated with the fight against communism. In addition, his colleagues respected him for his experience and calm disposition.

As a result of the purges of the Prussian police authorities, the entire secret police of the country, including the Gestapo, was brought under the control of Himmler. The political police departments in the German states, including the secret political police of Prussia, were merged into a single secret police of the Third Reich, the head of which was Reinhard Heydrich, who was also the head of the Security Service (SD) of the Nazi Party. He took with him to Berlin about 40 of the most qualified criminologists from Munich.

On Heydrich’s initiative, the leading department in the Gestapo became the second department, which was engaged in the fight against the “internal enemies” of the Reich, which he himself headed. Breitenbach worked in the third, counterintelligence, department.

In December 1933, Breitenbach was handed over to Vasily Zarubin, who specially arrived in Germany on an American passport for this purpose as a representative of one of the American film companies. Zarubin established permanent contact with Breitenbach in July 1934. Detailed information was received from the agent about the structure and personnel of the IV Directorate of the RSHA (Reich Security Office), its operations, the activities of the Gestapo and Abwehr (military intelligence), military construction in Germany, Hitler’s plans and intentions in relation to neighboring countries. Such information was of particular interest at that time.

A new important stage in working with Lehmann was his move to the Gestapo department, which oversaw issues of counterintelligence support for the defense industry and military development in Germany. This coincided with the creation and first tests of rockets by the German scientist Wernher von Braun, which took place in 1934 near Berlin. It was thanks to Lehmann-Breitenbach that Moscow learned about the launches of the Max and Moritz rockets, on the basis of which the rockets were later created long range V-1 and V-2.

At the end of 1935, Breitenbach was personally present at the testing of the first German liquid-fuel rocket, the V-1, at the Peenemünde test site. By the way, already in 1940, missiles of this class were used to bomb British territory. Breitenbach compiled a detailed report on the missile tests and transmitted its description to the station. Based on this information, Soviet foreign intelligence prepared an analysis of the state of rocket science in Germany on December 17, 1935 for a report to Stalin and People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov.

In addition to issues related to rocket science, information received from Breitenbach during this period concerned, in particular, the Nazi programs for the construction of submarines and armored vehicles, as well as data on the production of new gas masks and the production of synthetic gasoline.

Of course, the illegal Zarubin had other sources of information. However, Willie Lehman remained the most important link in his illegal network. Over the course of 12 long years of active cooperation with Soviet intelligence, he, risking his life, reported to the Moscow Center extremely valuable information about the development and strengthening of the fascist regime, about its large-scale preparations for establishing world domination, about the active build-up of military potential and the latest technical developments. Important information about the structure of the German intelligence services, their personnel composition, and methods of work also became available to Soviet intelligence.

Breitenbach was the “shield” of Soviet intelligence in Germany. He promptly warned Soviet intelligence about all Gestapo actions, possible arrests and provocations against Soviet representatives, “legal” and illegal intelligence officers, which during all this time did not know failure. He regularly informed Zarubin about all changes in the operational situation in the country, planned political actions, and behind-the-scenes struggles among the Nazi elite.

It should be emphasized that Breitenbach not only warned Soviet intelligence about the planned provocations of the Gestapo. Using his capabilities in this institution, he sought to attract the attention of the station to the activities of the Polish intelligence services in Germany. In 1934, the Gestapo arrested a prominent Polish intelligence officer, Jurek von Sosnowski, who was engaged in active recruitment work in the most important departments of the Third Reich. So, Sosnovsky managed to recruit a cipher clerk from the General Staff, as well as a typist from the personal office of Alfred Rosenberg, the ideologist of Nazism and the future Reich Minister for the Eastern Territories. He also had “his own people” in the Main Directorate of Imperial Security. Later, while on a business trip in Moscow, Sosnovsky was recruited by Soviet intelligence.

It should be noted that security issues in working with Breitenbach were constantly in the center of attention of both the station and Moscow. At Zarubin’s request, the Center produced a passport for the source in someone else’s name, into which his photograph was pasted. In case of danger with the agent, a detailed plan for his travel outside Germany was worked out. At the same time, conditional signals were introduced to notify the station in case the Gestapo prepared a surprise raid on the Soviet embassy or planned to arrest one of its employees.

The center also demanded that the illegal station exercise maximum caution when organizing communications with the source. This was caused both by the general aggravation of the situation in the country in connection with Hitler’s occupation of the Rhineland, and by the deterioration of the health of Breitenbach himself, who suffered from acute renal colic due to diabetes. Sometimes attacks of illness even led to loss of consciousness. The Center responded to Zarubin’s message about Breitenbach’s serious illness with an urgent coded telegram. It emphasized that if treatment requires large financial expenses, it is necessary to help the source financially, having previously worked out with him the legend of receiving money. Breitenbach's well-known passion for running helped. Once at the hippodrome, after another race, Breitenbach announced to his entourage about a rather large win. At the same time, in a conversation with his friends, he emphasized that he could now afford to see an expensive doctor. Further development of the disease was prevented, and Breitenbach’s relationship with the intelligence officer became even more trusting. However, new challenges awaited Breitenbach.

In 1936, our source was summoned for questioning by the Gestapo and they began to inquire about his connections in the Soviet trade mission. Breitenbach replied that, due to the nature of his service, he deals only with the affairs of the Soviet embassy, has no relation to the trade mission and does not know anyone in it. During further proceedings, it turned out that it was about the agent’s namesake, who was slandered out of jealousy by his mistress. She was arrested by the Gestapo. All suspicions against Breitenbach disappeared after her intensive interrogation.

Communicating with leading Gestapo employees, Breitenbach was able to compile and transmit to Zarubin detailed characteristics of Heinrich Müller, Walter Schellenberg, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and other leaders of the German intelligence services. And the trust in the agent on the part of the Nazi leadership is evidenced, for example, by the following fact: on the occasion of New Year 1937, Lehmann received, in a ceremonial ceremony, among the four best Gestapo employees, a portrait of Adolf Hitler with his autograph in a silver frame.

In the summer of 1936, the Gestapo leadership also entrusted Breitenbach with counterintelligence support for a number of additional areas of the country's military industry. The source began to receive important information concerning the development of the German military industry: about the laying of more than seven dozen submarines of various classes at its shipyards at once and about the creation of a secret plant for the production of chemical warfare agents. The agent gave Zarubin a copy of the secret instructions, which listed 14 types of the latest weapons that were in the manufacturing or design stage. He also obtained a copy of the secret report “On the Organization of the National Defense of Germany.” All these materials allowed the Soviet leadership to objectively assess the striking power of the Wehrmacht.

ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION

In 1937, Zarubin's collaboration with Breitenbach ended. In the USSR, repressions against security officers began. By order of People's Commissar of State Security Yezhov, the detective was recalled to Moscow. Before leaving, Zarubin instructed the agent to maintain contact with the Center. Fortunately, the operative escaped repression and subsequently worked successfully in the United States and in the Center, becoming a general. But he never returned to Berlin.

An orgy of repression against career intelligence officers virtually paralyzed all Soviet intelligence activities in the late 1930s. This was also reflected in the work with Breitenbach. By that time, the only employee left in the Berlin “legal” station was Alexander Agayants, who, despite the enormous workload, began meeting with the source. Left without an experienced curator, Breitenbach acted at his own peril and risk, obtaining information that, in his opinion, could be of interest to Soviet intelligence. In one of the letters to the Center, the agent wrote: “I have no reason to worry. I am sure that friends know that everything here is done in good faith, everything that can be done. For now, there is no particular urgency in coming to me. If necessary, I will let you know."

Gradually, however, Breitenbach's enthusiasm began to fade. Hitler was preparing the Anschluss of Austria, and the “Munich Agreement” to dismember Czechoslovakia was next. Breitenbach had top secret, proactive information on this matter, which, undoubtedly, could be of primary interest to the Soviet leadership. Nevertheless, during such a dramatic period in history, he was left with virtually no connection with Soviet intelligence. By that time, he collaborated with her for ideological reasons. The material side of the matter interested him little, since his wife Margaret inherited a hotel that brought in a good income. Of course, he did not refuse material rewards, because, like any German, he believed that all work should be paid. But this was not the main thing in his cooperation with Soviet intelligence. Working in the Gestapo and having access to the highest secrets of the Reich, Breitenbach saw where Hitler’s leadership, which was preparing a new world war, could lead the German people.

At the end of November 1938, the last meeting of Agayants with Breitenbach took place. In early December, the operator was hospitalized and soon died in the hospital during surgery.

Breitenbach was left without contact with the Center. Concerned about this state of affairs, in June 1940 he dropped a letter addressed to “the military attaché or his deputy” into the mailbox of the Soviet embassy. In the letter, the agent offered to immediately restore operational contact with him. “If this does not happen,” he wrote, “then my work in the Gestapo will lose all meaning.” However, the pause lasted until September, when Alexander Korotkov, who had arrived in Berlin shortly before as deputy resident of the NKVD, met with the source.

On September 9, 1940, the station received an order personally from People's Commissar Beria, which emphasized: “No special assignments should be given to Breitenbach. It is necessary to take for now everything that is within his immediate capabilities, and, in addition, everything that he will know about the work of various intelligence services against the USSR, in the form of documents and personal reports from the source.” The immediate supervisor of the source was a young station employee, Boris Zhuravlev, who had recently arrived in Berlin after graduating from the Special Purpose School, which trained personnel for intelligence.

Having received materials from the source, he photographed them and returned them the next morning, before the agent went to work. A large amount of material began to arrive from Breitenbach, indicating that Germany was preparing for war against Soviet Union. So, in March 1941, he reported that the Abwehr had urgently expanded the unit involved in conducting intelligence work against the USSR. It was called "General Command III - Berlin". The head of this unit personally selected candidates for open vacancies.

At a meeting on May 28, the agent informed Zhuravlev that he was ordered to urgently draw up a schedule for round-the-clock duty of employees of his unit. And on June 19, calling the operative to an emergency meeting, Breitenbach reported that the Gestapo had received the text of Hitler’s secret order to German troops stationed along the Soviet border. It ordered military operations against the USSR to begin after 3 a.m. on June 22.

On the morning of June 22, 1941, the building of the Soviet embassy on Unter den Linden in the center of Berlin was blocked by Gestapo officers. Contact with Willy Lehman was lost forever.

TRAGIC ENDING

At the end of the war, Alexander Korotkov was appointed resident of the NKVD in Germany. The employees of his station were given the task by the intelligence leadership to find out the fate of its pre-war sources, including active participants in the anti-fascist organization “Red Chapel”, who died heroically at the hands of Hitler’s executioners.

While sorting through documents in the ruins of the Gestapo headquarters at Prinz Albrechtstrasse 8, one of the employees discovered a burnt registration card for Wilhelm Lehmann, on which a note was made that he had been arrested by the Gestapo in December 1942. The reasons for the arrest were not stated. This registration card, along with other captured documents, was sent to the Center. Moscow quickly established that the executed Gestapo officer was NKVD agent Breitenbach.

Subsequently, Soviet foreign intelligence managed to reconstruct the picture of the death of one of its most valuable sources. Here is how it was.

In May 1942, to restore contact with Breitenbach and continue working with him, Soviet intelligence agent Beck (German communist Robert Barth, who voluntarily surrendered into Soviet captivity) was sent to Berlin. Soon the Gestapo picked up Beck's trail and arrested him. During interrogations under torture, Beck revealed to the Gestapo the conditions for appearing with Breitenbach and the identifying information he knew about him. The Gestapo reported to their boss Heinrich Müller about the betrayal in their own home. On Christmas Eve 1942, Breitenbach was urgently called to duty, from which he never returned.

The Gestapo carried out his arrest and liquidation secretly in order to avoid a public scandal: Himmler and Müller did not dare to report to Hitler that a Soviet agent had been working in the Gestapo for many years. The Gestapo official newsletter included a notice that “criminal inspector Willy Lehmann gave his life for the Fuhrer and the Reich in December 1942.” This is how one of the best agents of Soviet intelligence died tragically, who for many years selflessly, at great risk to his life, honestly informed us about the war being prepared by the Nazis against our country.

Willy Lehman was not a communist, but he sympathized with Russia and its people. His life, his contribution to the common Victory over fascism deserve recognition and grateful memory.

Willy Lehmann is a real Stirlitz. Willy Lehman - a real Stirlitz Performer Willy Lehman biography

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