Yuri Drozdov's biography: family, activities, awards and life history

Today, not to mention the Soviet era, films and books about agents, spies and other fighters of the invisible front are quite popular nowadays, not to mention the Soviet era. However, not everyone knows and even suspects that the plot of these works only to a small extent reflects the actual processes taking place or taking place in this or that intelligence situation. Exceptions are, perhaps, the books of Yuri Drozdov.

General information

Of course, the intelligence activity of the state is a state secret. Only after a certain time such information is declassified and becomes available to the public.

Drozdov Yuri Ivanovich - a man who revealed some such secret moments to a common man in the street. He worked in the most secret organization of the Soviet Union - the Committee of State Security, had the rank of Major-General. Recently, he publishes his publications, or rather, his memoirs. Events from his books literally stun the reader and amaze his imagination.

A family

Yuri Drozdov's father was a military man, who served under tsarist rule. For his service, Ivan Dmitrievich Drozdov, having shown courage, was once even awarded a very high award - the St. George Cross. Participated in the First World War. After the change of power, he began to work for the Soviet government, serving in the Red Army. Mother of the future scout, Anastasia Kuzminichna Pankevich, was from Belarus, graduated from high school, passed special courses on secretarial work. Later she worked as a secretary-machinist at a paper mill in Pereslavl-Zalessky.

About the father of the mother only knows that he participated in World War II, was a partisan, died at the age of ninety years.

Yuri Ivanovich has his wife Lyudmila Alexandrovna, two sons - Yuri and Alexander, as well as several grandchildren, granddaughters, great-grandchildren.

Military years: training and front

The birth of Yuri Drozdov fell on September 19, 1925. A significant event occurred in the capital of Belarus. After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Drozdov studied at a special school in Kharkov, so he was not called to the front. However, already in 1943 Yuri Ivanovich was sent to Engels, where he entered the artillery school. His release took place at the end of the war. However, by that time inexperienced cadets and graduates of military schools were not taken to the front. But Yuri Ivanovich was still eager for war. Contributed to this irresistible desire and news of his father's wound, as well as the death of his grandfather.

In the end, Drozdov still achieved what he wanted and got to the First Belorussian Front. He was appointed commander of a platoon of an anti-tank fighter battalion. It was with him that he reached the capital of Germany.

After the war: educational institutions

After the end of the war, Drozdov, who continued to perform military service, in parallel in 1951 entered the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. Now this institution is one of the subdivisions of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. According to Yuri Ivanovich himself, the training was very difficult, but this did not prevent him from becoming a senior officer and one of the best cadets. Graduated Drozdov school after five years.

By that time, mass cuts took place in the ranks of servicemen , under which theoretically Yuri Drozdov could also fall. His biography, however, was directed in a different direction. He received a very interesting proposal - to become a Chekist, to work on the Lubyanka. Fearing for his future military career, more precisely, for her sudden end, he agreed.

For retraining Yuri Ivanovich sent to the Leningrad Institute of Foreign Languages.

Beginning of service in exploration

After graduation, Yuri Ivanovich Drozdov began to receive various proposals for work - profitable and not very good. Among these were proposals for illegal work, and about working in Germany as an operative translator. However, none of them Drozdov did not accept. The reason was the family, he did not want to leave his family and friends alone in a foreign city for a long time and without his support.

However, his domestic problems still helped. General Korotkov suited Yuri, and he, in turn, began to work in Germany. His place of work was the official Soviet representation at the Stasi. Yuri Ivanovich became an illegal scout there.

One of the first tasks of Yuri Ivanovich was to participate in the liberation of Rudolph Abel. This legendary man in 1957 was convicted in the United States for thirty years' imprisonment. Drozdov's job was to establish contact with Abel. When they were given the right to correspond, Yuri Ivanovich (who was then Jurgen Drivs, a cousin of a prisoner) began to send him letters with hidden instructions. Already later, Yuri Drozdov was on the Glyniker-Bruckke bridge with Abel's relatives. It was then that the Soviet intelligence officer was exchanged for a US spy pilot from Powers.

New task

After the successful fulfillment of the task, Abel was assigned a new one to Yury Ivanovich. He was commissioned to create a legend and conduct the necessary training of new agents - George and his girlfriend-partner. For these purposes, the scout spent a lot of strength and patience, but did the job in good faith. The agents were properly trained and sent to the United States, where they have lived together for more than fifteen years. Soviet spies have realized many operations that have brought the Soviet Union good. Among such, for example, was that they were introduced into the team engaged in the development of the rocket "Titan". All information received by the agents was immediately presented to the KGB, respectively, the Soviet leadership was well informed about the progress of American developments.

In 1963, Yuri Drozdov returned back, passed the necessary retraining courses, which were mandatory for the entire operational staff of the KGB. Then Drozdov was sent to China, where he was about four years old, he worked as a resident of the foreign intelligence service of the State Security Committee.

1968-1979

1968 brought Yuri Drozdov the post of deputy head of the "S" department. This was the most important department, which was engaged in foreign intelligence. Seven years later, Yuri Ivanovich was again sent on a business trip, but already in the United States. There, he replaced the then resident Solomatin B. For four years, Yuri Drozdov was considered deputy permanent representative of the USSR to the United Nations.

The most interesting of his operations of that time was rightly considered an operation on the formation of a legend that allegedly in the countries of Latin America there is a huge organization of German fascists. Drozdov acted as the leader of this organization - Baron von Hohenstein. The legend was so realistic that the Soviet intelligence officer had the opportunity to recruit one German intelligence officer. The latter even swore allegiance to A. Hitler.

Operation in Afghanistan

After this operation, Yuri Drozdov's biography was supplemented with fairly good reviews from the leadership of the USSR. After returning to his homeland, he was appointed head of department "C".

A little later, Yuri Drozdov participated in the operation to overthrow the president of Afghanistan. Some historians believe that this changed the course of world history. The operation was carried out jointly with the GRU. Drozdov developed an operation plan and fully controlled its implementation. Hafizullah Amin, after storming his residence, which was about two hours, was killed. Later, he was replaced by a more loyal to the Soviet Union president - Babrak Karmal.

Even later, the results of the operation were reported to the head of the State Security Committee, Andropov, as a result of which a special unit, Vympel, was created. Yuri Drozdov was appointed the head of this unit.

Resignation and author's activity

Drozdov Yuri graduated from his career in 1991, resigning. Over the period of his work, he deserved many awards, among which one can mention the awards given by the governments of foreign countries. Among these are Cuba, Poland, Afghanistan, the GDR. The Soviet government also did not deprive him of it, having awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Red Star and many others.

At present, Major General is the head of the analytical center "NAMAKON". This institution, of which Drozdov was one of the founders, collects and processes various information in various spheres.

The declassification of certain operations, in which Yury Ivanovich took part, allowed him to engage in authorial activities. At the moment he has written fifteen books, some written in co-authorship. Some of these co-authors are Yuri Andropov and Vladimir Putin.

Books by Drozdov Yuri Ivanovich enjoy the explanatory interest of a wide range of readers. Major general's books include such things as "Fiction is excluded", "The impudent eagle", "Towards a revival" and others. And those who are looking for and want to learn any reliable information about intelligence activity, about some figures involved in it in the past, the scout's books can give the necessary biographies and information - Yuri Drozdov knows a lot and told about it a lot through his works.