Судоплатов: Мастер советской разведки и политических операций

Soviet spy (1907–1996)
Sudoplatov was involved in several major Soviet intelligence operations, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940 in Mexico, as well as Operation Scherhorn, a Soviet deception operation conducted during World War II. He also provided management of the Soviet espionage efforts which obtained information about the feasibility of the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project. His autobiography, Special Tasks, published in 1994, made him well known outside the Soviet Union and provided a detailed account of Soviet intelligence and Soviet internal politics during his years at the top.

Sudoplatov was recruited into the Cheka in 1921, at the age of 14, and was promoted to the Secret Political Department (SPO) of the Ukrainian State Political Directorate (OGPU) in 1927. According to Sudoplatov, the order to assassinate Konovalets came directly from Joseph Stalin, who had personally told him: "This is not just an act of revenge, although Konovalets is an agent of German fascism. Our goal is to behead the movement of Ukrainian fascism on the eve of the war and force these "gangsters" to annihilate each other in a struggle for power."

In March 1939, Stalin rehabilitated Sudoplatov, promoting him to deputy director of the Foreign Department, and placed him in charge of the assassination of Trotsky, which was carried out in August 1940. Sudoplatov later said that he understood the offer to be a ruse, although other evidence suggests that Stalin was open to a peace settlement.

In February 1944, Beria allegedly named Sudoplatov to head the newly formed Department S, which, according to Sudoplatov, united both the army intelligence (GRU) and NKVD intelligence in an effort to aid and secure the Soviet atomic bomb project. Sudoplatov's exact role and contribution, as well as his claim that he "engineered the theft of atomic secrets from the United States with the aid of four eminent scientists" is under discussion, since, according to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, Department S was established in September 1945, and Sudoplatov had limited access to the Soviet atomic effort from that time until October 1946 and did not have any access to foreign agents tasked with collecting the atomic intelligence. In 1995, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F. B. I.) conducted an investigation and declared that it "is not in possession of any credible evidence that would suggest that Neils [sic] Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, or Leo Szilard engaged in any espionage activity on behalf of any foreign power [ ], the F. B. I. has classified information available that argues against the conclusions reached by the author of 'Special Tasks.' The F. B. I., therefore, considers such allegations to be unfounded".

In the summer of 1946, Sudoplatov was removed from both posts, and in September he was placed in charge of another group at the newly renamed MGB, one which was supposed to plan sabotage actions in Western countries. In November, 1949, he was given a temporary job helping suppress a guerrilla Ukrainian nationalist movement in Ukraine that was a relic of World War II.

There are streets named after Sudoplatov in the city of Smolensk and the town of Gagarin. There is also a plaque honoring him in Smolensk. In 2022, during the Russian occupation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast as part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a monument to Sudoplatov was erected in the city of Melitopol. The occupation authorities also renamed the city's Dmytro Dontsov Street to Sudoplatov Street. Later in 2022, pro Russian collaborators in Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast raised a militia named after Sudoplatov and led by Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian installed governor whose son also plays a prominent role in the militia.