Table of contents:
- Autobiography and the reason for emigration
- Recruitment by the Abwehr and reports on the USSR
- High confidence of the German command
- Versions about Ira's true impulses
Video: How the White Guard "Stirlitz" became a spy for the Abwehr and made an important contribution to the victory of the USSR
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
White Guard Longin Ira began his military career with the ranks of the volunteer army, took part in the "Ice" campaign, and lost his eye in the clashes near Chernigov. After the defeat of the whites, he emigrated and volunteered to supply intelligence to the German Abwehr. Declassified documents prove that many strategic decisions on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War were made with an eye on Ira's reports. But all this information was fabricated by a talented adventurer.
Autobiography and the reason for emigration
After the fall of the whites, Longinus (he called himself Leonidas) with the remaining fellow soldiers was evacuated to the Gallipoli camp. As an emigrant, he entered the university in Prague, which he soon left. He worked in Mukachevo as a lawyer and at the same time was active in the national union of Russian emigrants, headed by General Turkul.
In 1939, with the capture of Subcarpathian Rus by Hungary, Leonid Iru, as a hypothetically hostile activist, was arrested and sent to Budapest prison. In captivity, where he spent several months, and a fatal meeting with cellmate Richard Cowder took place. The latter, when he was released, quickly realized that it was necessary to build bridges with the Germans. Here his recent acquaintance Leonid Ira came in handy, who repeatedly hinted at extensive connections with agents in the USSR.
Recruitment by the Abwehr and reports on the USSR
Experienced adventurer Cowder made a living in Budapest by obtaining visas for rich Jews who decided to emigrate for good bribes. At some point, luck ceased to accompany the entrepreneur, and he went to prison for scams with officials. Having reached out to intermediaries, Cowder offered his services as an informant to the Abwehr fascists. Oddly enough, the Germans believed in the presence of Cowder's most valuable contacts and agreed to cooperate. In 1940, the Nazis did not have extensive agents in the USSR, and on the threshold of a big war, any information came to the court.
Richard Cowder was given the clandestine call sign Klatt, after which he moved to the Bulgarian Sofia. In 1941, the so-called "Klatt Bureau", which was de facto a division of the German Abwehr, began its activities in the sunny capital. Soon after the new mentor Ira came to Sofia and joined the ranks of the Bureau.
High confidence of the German command
At the turn of 1942-43, when the war came to a turning point, the data supplied to the Germans from the Klatt Bureau was highly valued. During that period, German intelligence was experiencing a shortage of information sources. And in some areas and directions they were not at all. Therefore, many decisive actions were taken on the bare reports of creative spies. Throughout the war, the "Bureau" sent more than one thousand encrypted messages to the Nazis. The Abwehr has always been satisfied with his productive sources of information.
An agent named Max (Ira), who was in charge of Soviet intelligence, was especially highly regarded. It is paradoxical that during all the years of cooperation, Ira led the Germans by the nose. Even more surprising is that no one saw through it even after the war. Modern military historians, who have recently familiarized themselves with the documents, have come to the conclusion about the talent of the forger. Leonid Ira had considerable military experience before the revolution. He knew very well what a convincing intelligence report should be. Most of the information was formed by Ira on the basis of Soviet newspapers with summaries. Although Bulgaria was formally an ally of Germany, it was possible to get a seal from the USSR until 1944.
Ira learned about the situation in the Middle East from the Swiss media, which were sent specifically for the Klatt Bureau. The front-line maps of the Germans were obtained by the same roundabout ways. So, armed with all these sources open to the public, Ira literally composed "secret" reports. Most of them looked very blurry; the intelligence data lacked specific numbers and names of units. Ira supplemented some of the reports with the names of armies, units and even the names of officers, which are often non-existent in nature.
Versions about Ira's true impulses
Recently, versions have surfaced that Longin Ira acted at the behest of Soviet intelligence. Allegedly, he worked for the NKVD, in contact with the authoritative intelligence officer Sudoplatov. And lulling the fascist vigilance, the Soviet special services even supplied Ira with insignificant reliable data, for the most part throwing blanks. There are also suggestions that Longin Ira acted in the interests of the Motherland alone, risking mortal risks and inventing fables about the movements and operations of the Red Army on the basis of Soviet newspapers. But a third of the historians who have studied the activities of the spy agree that he was simply an outstanding adventurer. According to this version, the white émigré Ira managed to organize a truly incredible scam in the entire history of military espionage. He not only secured himself a safe, warm place in the rear, but also received a solid reward for his improvisations.
When the war ended, the British arrested Leonid Ira and his closest associates. During interrogations, the British side tried to find out from the secret agent the details of such a cleverly planned interaction. After all, the British, who had intercepted Ira's inaccurate encryptions more than once during the war, were confident in his connections with Soviet intelligence. This time Ira did not invent anything and claimed that he acted alone and according to personal convictions. He was lucky again, and the British, who had not achieved anything, released him after a couple of conversations. He did not demand that the agent be handed over to the USSR, since the secret services knew from the very beginning the far-fetched background of all the encryptions.
Today it is difficult to assert something for sure, but in any case, the bold activities of even a fake intelligence officer indirectly played in favor of the Soviet side. So Longin Ira's adventures and the existence of the Klatt Bureau ultimately contributed to the fall of Nazi Germany.
Men were not always involved in sabotage. After all, history has kept names 5 bravest spies to kill Nazis during World War II
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