September 15, 2013 marked the 110th anniversary of the birth of one of the brightest Soviet intelligence officers, the founder of the GRU special forces, Hadji-Umar Mamsurov.

...The military future of the general and intelligence officer “began” early. Already at the age of 15, on the advice of his uncle, the Bolshevik Sakhandzheri Mamsurov, he joined the ranks of the Red Army.

At the age of 20, Hadji-Umar Mamsurov was already in command, political and teaching positions in cavalry units. Since 1935 - in the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters.

Secret commissioner of Special Branch "A" (active intelligence), Soviet military adviser to the military leadership of the Spanish Republican Army, organizer and leader partisan movement in Spain, participant in the Soviet-Finnish war...

Then - exploits on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. In May 1945, H.-W. Mamsurov was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. After the war, Hadji-Umar Mamsurov graduated from the Higher Military Academy. Voroshilov, served in command positions, and in 1957 returned to intelligence as first deputy chief of the GRU General Staff.

He was among the creators of the GRU special forces. Awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree, Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree, Patriotic War I degree, medals. Kh. Mamsurov died in 1968. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

These are the dry summaries of the biography of this legendary person. But behind the words there are years incredible adventures, difficult roads and personal battles, years dedicated to serving his country.

A lot of time has passed since the death of the general, but documents about his activities have not yet been declassified. Happy are those generations who will be able to read real summaries, reports and reports about the life of this unusual person.

Films are made about such people, heroes are “written off” from them, “dreamy” and “romantic” people dream about them. This happy “fate” of being an inspiration did not spare Colonel Xanthi, legendary hero Spanish revolution, Macedonian and rebel, finally, major Soviet intelligence Hadji-Umar Mamsurov.

According to the legend “invented” for the Spaniards, H.-W. Mamsurov-Xanthi was a Macedonian trader who came to Madrid from Turkey. Having volunteered to join a detachment under the command of Buenaventura Durruti (one of the key figures of the anarchist movement - approx. noar.ru), he fought near Barcelona and Zaragoza. Soon he became an adviser to the commander and, at the head of the Durruti Column, went to the aid of besieged Madrid...

Rumors about Colonel Xanthi instantly turned into legends and fables. Desperate partisans served under the command of the taciturn and outwardly unsociable colonel. They committed annoying and noticeable sabotage for the enemy: somewhere in the rear of the “Francoists” artillery depots were blown up into the air, then German bombers with bombs on board exploded right at the airfield, or a railway bridge was blown up... Then “guerrilleros” (partisans ) returned and safely disappeared into the depths of Madrid.

...The mysterious figure of Colonel Xanthi could not help but interest Ernest Hemingway, who was in search of a protagonist for his novel about the war in Spain.

The Spanish "story" of Ernest Hemingway began in 1937. The Spanish Civil War greatly worried the American writer. His sympathies were on the side of the Republicans who fought General Franco; Hemingway even organized a fundraiser in their favor. Having collected the necessary funds, the writer turns to the North American Newspaper Association with a request to send him to Madrid to cover the progress of the hostilities. A film crew led by film director Joris Ivens was soon assembled and intended to film documentary"Land of Spain". The screenwriter of the film was Hemingway... During the most difficult days of the war, Ernest was in Madrid, besieged by the fascists, at the Florida Hotel, which for a time became the Headquarters of Internationalists and the Club of Correspondents.

The correspondent of the newspaper Pravda, Mikhail Koltsov, arranged the desired interview with Xanthi for the writer. An interview at the Florida Hotel in Madrid gave the world Robert Jordan, a young American fighter of the International Brigades, a key character in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.

In the story, Robert Jordan is tasked with blowing up a bridge to prevent Franco reinforcements from attacking Segovia. This storyline also has its real embodiment. After urgent requests from Ernest Hemingway, he was allowed to take part in one of the operations of a small detachment of Xanthi - blowing up an enemy train with ammunition. Having proven himself well, Hemingway, with the consent of Xanthi, took part in another secret operation - this time it was to blow up a strategic bridge in the mountains of Guadarrama. It was this episode, which the writer remembered most vividly, that became the main storyline future novel...

In 1943, based on Hemingway's novel, director Sam Wood made a film of the same name. The main roles were played by Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper. Thus, the history of the legendary Xanthi has found another road to eternity...

Unfortunately, the time has not yet come to speak loudly about the activities of this man, and when the time comes, many will read, be surprised and rejoice that our people raised such wonderful people...

Ossetian Khadzhi Mamsurov was called Xanthi in Spain. A cavalryman, a participant in the civil war, he was famous for that desperate Caucasian courage that Pushkin, Lermontov, and Leo Tolstoy admired. If he were an actor, he would be the perfect Hadji Murad (Shamil’s naib, the hero of L. Tolstoy’s story “Hadji Murad”). However, there was nothing ostentatious about his bravery. She was the air he breathed. Xanthi knew how to fight not only on horseback, but he was one of the most gifted advisers in the war. Ossetian, powerfully built, with warm black eyes, he was taciturn. He was not a diplomat, but his courage, directness, and friendly disposition towards people achieved more than diplomacy... A passionate internationalist, Xanthi is an equally passionate patriot. He was completely convinced and proved it with quotes from history and literature that Ossetia is the birthplace of everything European - but what is European? - world culture. And then the amazed interlocutors learned that... Xanthi had read mountains of books, understood painting, architecture, world history, and archeology. During the Patriotic War he became a general and Hero of the Soviet Union...
Comrades and Spanish friends admired Hadji's courage and his ability to do everything accurately and on time. The Spaniards said about him: “In general, Faber (Faber, like Xanthi, is the pseudonym of Hadji) would be quite suitable for three secret nicknames: he acts for two, if not three, and his activities are top-secret. Prados honestly admitted that he himself does not know about it, but his friend works with Pedro Checa, a member of the Politburo. So Pedro Checa... believes that of the Soviet comrades who were in the capital (Madrid), Faber brought the greatest benefit. And Pedro Checa also says that Faber is the most desperate, the most resourceful, and in times of danger, the most cold-blooded of all with whom he dealt in his life.
The fact that the headquarters of the Madrid Defense managed to defend the capital was his, and considerable, merit. He is one of those people who can be entrusted with any area of ​​work, as long as the work is live.
Hadji's cold-blooded courage was whispered about amazing stories. Not knowing Spanish (he later mastered Spanish), he walked along the fascist rear with a small group of desperate brave Spaniards selected by him. His return to Madrid after another raid was preceded by news of deeds that were crazy in terms of audacity and courage: artillery depots were flying into the air, German bombers loaded with bombs were exploding at fascist airfields, trains with weapons of Hitler and Mussolini were exploding, strategic bridges were exploding... In the novel “For Whom” The bell is ringing,” the classic of world literature Ernest Hemingway described the exploits of Hadzhiumar Dzhiorovich, not suspecting that the name of the man whose courage and courage admired him was Mamsurov.

The history of the creation of this work is interesting. The novel resurrects in our memory those days of 1936, full of intense struggle, when the whole world anxiously awaited news from the Iberian Peninsula. Then all the people of the earth had the word “Madrid” on their lips. Spanish "patriots defended their freedom with arms in hand. People from all countries rushed to their aid honest people who knew what fascism was bringing to the world. One after another, international anti-fascist brigades were created.
They immediately joined the ranks of defenders of the freedom of the Spanish people.
Many heroes fought near Madrid. The whole world was talking about them. The exploits of a certain Colonel Xanthi especially struck the imagination of everyone. Entire legends were made about him. Xanthi terrified the Francoists. They even said that the bullet wouldn't kill him.
In "Gaylord" E. Hemingway met with our military. He liked Hadji, a man of desperate courage who went behind enemy lines (he was from the Caucasus and could easily pass for a Spaniard). Much of what Hemingway said in the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” about the actions of the partisans he took from the words of Hadji.
Hemingway, who was in Spain at that time, really wanted to get to know the legendary Xanthi. But the modest Hadji-Umar did not like to give interviews and therefore avoided journalists and writers... After much persuasion from his comrades, who convinced him that an interview published by a world-famous writer could serve the Spanish patriots well. Haji agreed to tell Hemingway about his affairs. They talked over a cup of coffee for two evenings at the Florida Hotel. Hemingway was delighted with his interlocutor. His stories made a huge impression on him. And having conceived the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” Hemingway decided to create the brave Colonel Xanthi as the prototype of the main character.
Hadji-Umar was “discovered” by Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin. During one of his trips through the still turbulent country in 1922, Kalinin was attacked by a gang in some Caucasian village. Among the Red Army soldiers who repelled the bandits was Umar. Returning to Moscow, Kalinin took with him a young wounded communist, who was only twenty years old, and recommended him to Berzin (General Y. K. Berzin - head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, leader and close friend of Richard Sorge). Thus began the career of this remarkable Soviet intelligence officer.

On September 15, Ossetia celebrated the 110th anniversary of the birth of one of its most famous sons - career intelligence officer, military leader, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General Hadji-Umar MAMSUROV. But a person who made an invaluable contribution to the strengthening of statehood and the defense of the Fatherland is worthy of the grateful memory of descendants not only on the days of the anniversary.

Like our website, we continue to publish materials about his life. We are publishing an interview that was taken from the daughter of Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich on the eve of Mamsurov’s 100th anniversary. And although more than ten years have passed since then, the interview, which cannot be found on the Internet, reveals many little-known details from the life of the hero and his family.

Asya MAMSUROVA: “My father is a man of duty and honor”

Hadji-Umar Mamsurov, who became famous after the battles of 1936-37 in Spain, went through the Great Patriotic War, as befits a professional military man, “from bell to bell.” Throughout the five war years, he was in those areas where he could demonstrate all his abilities to the greatest extent. best qualities scout and brave defender of the Motherland: in the leadership of the partisan movement or at the head of cavalry formations.

In rare moments when he could allow himself to temporarily put aside thoughts about the important information that needed to be obtained, about the upcoming battles for which it was necessary to carefully prepare, the famous intelligence officer and general remembered his family and, above all, his beloved daughter Pepita, as he called eight-year-old Asya. Then he took a cigarette and sat down to write a letter.

This photograph, stored in family archive Mamsurov, was made during one of these “moments of truth” in August 1944. The commander of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division Hadji-Umar Mamsurov at his headquarters tent: the fascists are already being driven west from the Soviet Union, heavy fighting in Czechoslovakia and the battle lie aheadfor Berlin. But he doesn’t know this yet, just as he doesn’t know how to post-war years will rise to an unprecedented height for national personnel in the leadership of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the greatcountries.

What kind of general and person was Mamsurov? Igor DZANTIEV talks with his daughter about this outstanding military leader Asey Khadzhi-Umarovna MAMSUROVA.

FROM THE ERA OF FINANCIALISTS TO THE ERA OF CULTURAL WORKERS

– This year is very interesting for Ossetia, filled with anniversaries: 100 years of our outstanding commanders– Georgy Ivanovich Khetagurov, Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov, Issa Aleksandrovich Pliev. And at the same time, outstanding representatives of our culture have “round” dates - 100 years of Gaito Gazdanov and 50 years of Valery Gergiev. What an Alan constellation! Are you not surprised by this coincidence?

– There is some kind of finger of fate in this. And it is significant that one era has passed and is being replaced by another. The era has passed when military leaders were heroes, and Gergiev is ushering in another Ossetian era – the civilian man. Ossetians are one of the most ancient peoples in Europe. A people that was known as warlike is now, in the person of Gergiev, opening a new historical page - a page of high art. This is very significant.

– In fact, Gaito Gazdanov was discovered for us quite recently.

- This is an amazing writer. There is such an interesting point, paradoxically as it may seem: national writers very often master the rich possibilities of the Russian language better than the Russians themselves.

After we read Aitmatov, Fazil Iskander, we discovered Gaito. Gazdanov is not only a person who has an excellent command of the Russian language and all its subtleties, but he is also a great thinker. He accepted Paris not through sobs, but like a man. Although it was incredibly difficult for him.

– Do you feel your father’s anniversary approaching?

- Yes! I run from room to room, leading constant telephone conversations, I’m sorting out many issues related to the film that my son’s father-in-law is making at the Nadezhda film studio. Creative group I was in Ossetia, they were well received there. I hope the film will turn out good too. Although no film documents have survived about my father. And his memories were more of a military nature. But in certain episodes that have come down to us, he reveals himself from a completely unexpected side - as a politician, as a strategist, which, in general, should not have manifested itself in a military man of that time. The film will be released on the Culture channel in October. Maybe he will disappoint someone.

- Why?

- When we're talking about about a military leader who is a guiding star for Ossetians, then everyone wants to see him as varnished, sparkling, ideal person. But Mamsurov was not ideal. He was contradictory because time split him into several parts. He was many-sided, unpredictable. And since he was silent by nature, his violent unpredictability and calm expression of disagreement do not at all fit into the type of hero of that period. I hate to say it, but I think my father was ahead of his time.

– Not every daughter will say about her father that he was a controversial person.

– He was not an icon, nevertheless, he was an example to follow. We are all human, and we all have darkness. negative aspects. Sometimes we ourselves don’t know about them, but they sit within us. It seems to me that Mamsurov, when he was already over fifty, understood that he was torn apart by contradictions. I can now analyze this retrospectively. Some things are preserved in my memory not even photographically, but cinematically. I didn't understand a lot of things before. Let's say dad said something - I was offended. Now I find myself using the same expressions, the same perceptions. That is, I let it pass through me.

"THEORETICAL" POPE

– Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich has not been among us for thirty-five years. How did you perceive him as a child? teenage years? And what is it like now?

– When I was little, I perceived him as a theoretical dad.

– I was born in 1938. It was an alarming time, before the war. And then - the war, the father’s military travels. Mom was also a military man, she worked at a military institute. So I practically didn’t see my father, and I missed him a lot. But I also perceived my mother this way – theoretically. When she returned from the front, I walked around her and said: “In general, you are a good mother for me.” And for my father I had the same wording. I was proud of him as a hero, as a military man, but did not perceive him as a father. When my student years came, and my father was a big fan of reading moral teachings, I naturally saw him as a bore, about three centuries behind...

Asya Mamsurova: “When I became quite an adult, only then did I begin to understand my father’s life principles.”

- Not only that. My father, who was so selflessly devoted to the revolution and the party, believed only in goodness. And suddenly - the arrest of Sahangjeri, the arrest of his beloved and closest, pure and honest friends who went through Spain and other wars with him. He was so twisted, so squeezed that he was constantly waiting for the return of that era. And that’s why he raised me so that I wouldn’t get hit by a steamroller.

True, there was an episode in my childhood, in the fourth grade, when a Caucasian man took over. This is the strongest and most persistent - a gene that does not dissolve. It was 1948, my father studied at the Academy. Voroshilov. I came home, sat down to dinner, and he asked: “Why were you so late?” I said with great pride that I was at the meeting. “And what did you discuss there?” – the father asked a question. I answered: “Whose name should I give to the pioneer detachment?” He asked who suggested what. Having learned that I suggested the name Pavlik Morozov, my father turned gray. And an ominous silence hung over the table. I didn’t understand anything, but I was scared. Like a goose swallowed all the food and ran away to do her homework.

He paced around the apartment - he had this habit when he was preparing to say something important or wanted to suppress his anger. Half an hour later he came up and put a booklet directly on my notebook - an appendix to Ogonyok. There was a story by Prosper Merimee "Matteo Falcone". And we are talking about a nine-year-old boy who, together with his peasant parents, was in the field. At this time, a wounded revolutionary came running. They hid it in a haystack. But when the carabinieri arrived, the boy gave him away. The carabinieri took the carbonari, and the boy’s father led his son to a post and, with the words “We have no traitors in our family,” shot him. My father told me to read this book and wanted it to be on my desk.

The father was convinced that betrayal was the greatest sin. He himself suffered from this. So many of his friends and comrades died because of snitching. And like any mountaineer, snitching and cowardice were unacceptable to my father. Ossetia for him remained the same as it was on that day, month and year when he left it. He didn't accept many changes. He had a bad attitude towards drunkenness and was worried that people in Ossetia began to drink a lot. When I became quite an adult, only then did I begin to understand my father’s life principles.

– Did you understand that you are the daughter of the legendary “Colonel Xanthi”?

- No, what are you talking about! I learned that he was an intelligence officer after his death.

– And you didn’t recognize him in the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls”?

- Only when Yegor Yakovlev wrote an article about this in Moscow News did I read this novel on English, since it was not published in Russian. But he does not appear there as a scout. There he appears as a partisan. After reading it, I was pleased, but I was never interested, and no one ever told me where my father works and what position he holds. I just knew that he was going to the General Staff - that’s all.

JEALOUS, HE WAS FOLLOWING ME WITH BINOCLERS

– Where did you live? How was your destiny?

– When I was born, my father had a room in a communal apartment on Tverskaya-Yamskaya. And then he received a three-room apartment on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street. And, starting from the fifth grade, I studied at the school, which is located right at the entrance to Neskuchny Garden. I spent my childhood and youth there. That’s why I have a pathological love for Neskuchny Garden. And in 1958, when I was already a second-year student at the English Faculty of the Institute foreign languages, we moved to Tchaikovsky Street, now it is Novinsky Boulevard. I graduated from college in 1961 with very good grades, and for the first time in my life my dad said that he was proud of me.

Hadji-Umar Mamsurov (right) was selflessly devoted to the party and the Fatherland called the USSR.

– Why “for the first time in my life”? Was he stingy with praise?

- Very. He wanted to make me into some kind of superman. And after college I was sent to Cuba. At that time, many specialists had already left there, but there were no translators.

– But you studied English?

- Yes, but Spanish is for me - home language. And they gathered people from all over the country who could at least say the word “cow” in Spanish. I worked there for a year and three months. Returning from Cuba, she entered a secret military unit, from which the Institute of Military Translators grew. But a year later she left there, and in 1963 she married a Cuban and went to Cuba.

– How did your dad take it?

- Very bad.

– Did he really want you to definitely find a husband in Ossetia?

- No, he wanted me not to get married at all. It's hard to imagine a more jealous father. In the summer of 1958, I was invited to the International Congress of Architects. Tired, I returned home from some reception and quietly walked on tiptoes to the bathroom past the dining room. The following picture appeared before me: a wide-open balcony, a chair on the balcony, and on this chair – my father with binoculars. It was artillery night vision binoculars. He was looking out for who I was returning with. I deliberately started making noise in the kitchen: I was afraid that if I called out to my father, he would fall from the balcony. And he comes in and says: “Where did you come from?” I say that I have been home for a long time. He was surprised that he didn't hear. I said that my legs were tired and, taking off my sandals, I walked barefoot. A few days later I asked: “Dad, why were you standing on a chair with binoculars?” He said he was looking at the starry sky.

He also had this obligatory ritual. If I come home with a young man, he will definitely make us sit down for tea. Then I asked him: “Well, dad, did you like him?” He replied: “Very smart man“It’s nice to talk to him, but, you know, I have to upset you, he’s dirty.” For my father this was a terrible vice. I asked: “How did this manifest itself?” He said the guy's cuff was dark gray on the inside. Therefore, in order to get married, I had to go far away.

I DID NOT ACCEPT REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

– Where did you meet your future husband?

– He was my boss in Cuba when I worked there. Then he came to the Union, and we got married. In his tediousness and isolation, he very much reminded me of my father.

– In a word, have you found your soul mate?

“When my father met him, he received him very warmly. They could sit with him for two hours and not say a word. We sat and read.

– When did he meet him?

– My husband Sergio Hernandez Estrada constantly came on business trips, and once it happened that he was sent to Zaporozhye for six months to attend UN courses for mineral enrichment engineers. Although he graduated from a university in the USA and worked in air conditioning in vehicles. This is very relevant in America and Cuba.

But when the part of the revolution that affected the economy began in Cuba, not only was there no air conditioning and refrigeration there, but there were no cars left. And my husband switched to mineral enrichment.

– So, your father met Sergio and blessed his daughter for marriage?

“Dad resisted desperately. As I later learned, I even went to the Central Committee and asked to be stopped. And there they patted him on the shoulder and asked him to calm down, saying that I was not going to Antarctica, but to a normal socialist country.

My father and I made peace when he saw my son. It was a very interesting moment. I flew with my son, who was eleven months old at the time. I was met by my mother, sister and my friend. We arrived very early, and they were stalling for time so that my father could leave for work. But the father took it and stayed at home. We arrived, we open the door - my father is standing there. The child lay all the time on his mother’s shoulder, woke up, looked around, looked at my father, stretched out his arms and clung to him. The father took a deep breath... This is how reconciliation happened. And my son’s first word was “grandfather.” Later, his father taught him Ossetian words, and the kid tried to pronounce them with great seriousness.

– Did you then live in the Soviet Union?

– I stayed in Moscow for six months, and then left and lived in Cuba until the end of 1973. And when complete insanity set in there, which continues to this day, I decided to leave. I started having strange problems. On the one hand, I was a simultaneous interpreter for the congress department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. On the other hand, I was being watched all the time. And not because I am a foreigner, but, most likely, because of my open statements. At one point I had a run-in with the police. Moreover, I was protecting not myself, but the children. They dragged me to the police station, but they fooled me by calling the embassy. The vice-consul, a pleasant woman, and an employee of the diplomatic mission arrived. He advised me that I should leave: “You have no idea what’s starting here.” I suggested that my husband leave, but he wanted to see how socialism would end. I had to save my son, because on top of everything else, there was a terrible famine in the country. And after my child got sick, and I had nothing to make broth from, I said: “Fuck you with your socialism...”. And she left.

– And you haven’t been to Cuba since then?

- No. Until Fidel dies, I will not go there on principle. I predict that after his death there will be a repeat of Romania after Ceausescu.

GRANDFATHER AND EVEN ME WERE CONSIDERED SPIES

– Did your future fate follow a less revolutionary scenario?

- Anything has happened. I arrived in December 1973 with my son, my husband wrote a thousand pieces of paper and applications that he allowed me to pick him up. And I began to work in Moscow, in the representative offices of a number of foreign companies, until an article appeared in one of the major Spanish magazines about my boss Mendoza, who was allegedly a spy and collaborating with the KGB. The publication also mentioned my name as his assistant. This was a pure provocation of competitors: Mendoza’s blue dream, the goal of his whole life, was to become the president of the Real Madrid football club. But after such an article, he was “taken for a ride” in Spain, and here I was sent to the “settlement facility” - the Cuban permanent mission in order for this whole story to settle down. It was so stupid.

– How did the Cuban permanent mission perceive your appearance?

- No way.

– Has everything been forgotten there?

– No, naturally, because there were members of the Cuban secret services who knew about me, but they needed qualified translators. But, fortunately, I didn’t work at this tedious and uninteresting job for long.

Then I was an employee at the bureau of a leading Spanish news agency, and in August 1985, the Spanish Ambassador to the USSR gave me an exam and accepted me. I worked at the embassy until 1997. During these years, my mother was already ill and died in 2000.

Autumn mood. Paulina and Hadji-Umar Masurov.

– Did your parents live in perfect harmony?

– I wouldn’t say that. They had a highly intellectual relationship. They argued every other day, but the funniest thing is that their differences concerned only political issues and cultural spheres. Mom was a person of very sharp views and an extremely liberal sense. These are the kind of people who make real revolutionaries. The father was more cautious, as he was wise from the experience of his work and the experience of his life. And if mom could say how to cut something off, dad would answer lazily.

Mom had a very strong premonition. In many ways, she later turned out to be right. In such cases, dad said: “Your mother is a witch.” What captivated my father about my mother was her masculine courage and incredible reaction.

– Where did she work after the war?

“Mom was a senior teacher at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, and her sister Adelina Kondratyeva worked there. They worked there until 1951, when my grandfather, their father, was arrested.

- For what?

– Why then were they all arrested? He was an Argentine and Turkish spy, and also a Trotskyist.

– And in 1951 they remembered Trotsky?

- But of course! On the very first day, Aunt Adeline was also arrested, but then she was released. During the arrests, my mother was able to quarrel with the KGB officer. He started yelling and being rude, and she wanted to put him in his place. She was a major, and the one who came to arrest was a captain. He told her: In a year we will come for you and your man.” This happened before my eyes.

– Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich didn’t come to the rescue?

– He was in Western Ukraine then. But he immediately came to Moscow and went to see Beria at the MGB. My father was offered the following dilemma: they let my father-in-law out, and he goes to work for them. My father refused and did not go to work for the MGB. Then grandfather was given 15 years, and he returned from prison only in 1956 under an amnesty.

Grandfather was from Polish Jews. His last name was Abramzon. He has a very interesting story. As a boy, as a high school student, he participated in Volodarsky’s revolutionary group. Because of someone's betrayal, they were arrested, but their comrades escaped. Not everyone was able to escape, but he was able to. As he said, he ran to present-day Nikolaev and hid on a ship that was carrying coal to Brazil. There he came ashore, started working, and then moved to Argentina, where he met my grandmother.

– So your mother was born in Argentina?

- Yes, both mom and aunt. They came to the USSR when my mother was seventeen years old and my aunt was fourteen.

– When your mother met Mamsurov in Spain, was he married?

– According to the documents, he was already divorced.

– What year did they get married?

- First I was born, and then they got married - in 1938.

THE FATHER SMOKED, DID NOT OBEY THE DOCTORS AND DANCED THE LAZGINKA

– You said that your father, being a man of few words, passed all his experiences through himself...

– ...And as a result I had three heart attacks. An anecdotal incident. After the second heart attack, my father was in the senior hospital in Serebryany Lane. Suddenly a call comes from the head of the hospital. He asks his mother to urgently come to him for an interview. Mom is in a panic. She rushed over, and the head of the hospital told her: “You must urgently influence your husband. We reprimand him for his behavior.”

And the whole point is that dad read a lot and was interested in everything. After his first heart attack, he asked the US military attache to send him the latest literature on how Americans deal with heart attacks. He was given what he asked for. And dad really liked that in America people with heart attacks are immediately lifted up and forced to walk. He laughed heartily and said: “Now I’ll show you this!” His favorite word- “this.”

After the second heart attack, he stood up and appeared in the corridor. The nurses laid him down and he stood up again. Then his pajamas were taken away. So dad took the sheet and began to walk around in it. It was then that they called my mother to help. The most interesting thing is that he also gave money to the workers who painted the facade of the hospital so that they would buy him cigarettes.

– Did he smoke a lot?

- So many. Kazbek was smoking. And my mother didn’t smoke at all. Doctors forbade smoking, but he said that it was impossible to suddenly quit smoking. And he was right.

– Which Ossetian did your father keep in contact with?

- With Pliev. He always said: “Damn! Issa dances lezginka better than me!” They competed in dance all their lives.

But there were also unpleasant stories. Once a grandfather with a long beard came to us from Ossetia. He lived with us. His youngest son served in Germany and did something serious there. The father arranged a meeting for the relative with the military prosecutor. And after some time, an adjutant came to our house and said that this grandfather unbuttoned his jacket in front of the prosecutor and took out money. My father was very worried.

WE ARE ALL MAMSUROVS

– What is your son doing now?

– He is a representative of several Spanish companies and is constantly approaching Ossetia.

– How does a businessman choose?

– It’s possible. Sergio was in Ossetia as a child when my father's museum opened. And the second time recently, on film business.

- And when are you in last time have you been to Ossetia?

– In 1984. I came to see Aunt Dunethan. She died last summer. She lived in the village of Zavodskoy, she was very a modest person, she had diabetes and of course there were difficulties in getting good medicine. But she didn’t like to complain or ask for anything.

– What is your last name now?

- Mamsurova. I never changed it. We are all Mamsurovs - me, my mother, and my younger sister Nina.

– Why were you called Turgenev’s name?

– It’s not easy sad story. When I was born, my father was sure that either nothing or a boy would be born. Although he later said that he secretly wanted a girl. Best friends father's were Harry Tumanyan and Artem Mikoyan. When I was born, they went and drank, and the Armenians persuaded my father to give me the name of Tumanyan’s sister, who is also the wife of Anastas Mikoyan. Her name was Ashen. And at home they called me Asya in Russian.

– So, according to your passport, you are Ashen?

- It was there for a long time. And when I started working at a military institute, it was easier for a Russian person to hang himself than to pronounce Ashen Hadzhi-Umarovna. I realized that people shouldn’t create such difficulties. And she changed Ashen to Asya. The father never found out about this.

– He still called you Asya?

– He called me Asyava. In general, my childhood name at home was Pepita. This is the most common name in Spain and is derived from Josefina. Everything is very difficult for me. My former boss, director of a Spanish company, said: “Asenka, you have a biography, while others have no biography at all.”

– As far as I know, do you still have the memories of Khadzhi-Umar Mamsurov?

- Yes, my father left his comments on various events. They reveal in him not just a military man, but also a person who thinks logically, a person who understands and knows what needs to be done.

– Where are these memories now?

– I have them on a floppy disk, I’m working on them now. And I gave the originals to the military archives.

Igor DZANTIEV
Newspaper "Stolichnaya" (Vladikavkaz), August 16, 2003

Mamsurov Khadzhi-Umar Dzhiorovich (02(15).09.1903, the village of Olginskoye, Vladikavkaz district, Terek region, now the Right Bank region of the Republic of North Ossetia - 05.04.1968, Moscow).
Ossetian. From peasants. Colonel General (1962). Hero of the Soviet Union (05/29/1945). In the Red Army since 1918. Member of the Communist Party since 1923. Graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow (March 1921 - May 1923), military-political school (1924), Advanced training courses for political personnel (1932), intelligence command staff at the RU headquarters of the Red Army (1935 ), senior command staff at the Military Academy named after. M. V. Frunze (1941), Higher Military Academy named after. K. E. Voroshilova (1946-1948). He spoke Spanish.
Participant Civil War. Soldier of the detachment of the Vladikavkaz Soviet of Deputies, the Mountain Red Hundreds of the 11th Army (1918-1920), the operational group of the Terek Regional Cheka, instructor of the Vladikavkaz Committee of the RCP (b), employee of the Regional Cheka, political fighter of the squadron of the 10th Army (March 1920 - March 1921).
In command, political and teaching positions in cavalry units (May 1923 - February 1935).
From February 1935 at the disposal of the RU headquarters of the Red Army (November 1935 - February 1936), carried out important tasks of the leadership, secret commissioner of Special Branch "A" (active intelligence) (February 1936 - April 1938) RU of the headquarters of the Red Army.
Soviet military adviser to the military leadership of the Republican Army in Spain (August 1936 - October 1937), organizer and leader of the partisan movement, participated in a number of operations.
Head of the special department (from May 1939, department) “A” (April 1938 - August 1940), during the Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940 - deputy chief of the operational group of the General Staff on the North-Western Front, commander of the Special Ski Brigade operating in to the rear of the Finnish troops since December 1939. Head of the 5th department of the RU General Staff of the Space Forces (August 1940 - June 1941).
Participant of the Great Patriotic War. In August 1941, the special commissioner for the Northern Front and the leadership of the partisan movement, head of the Special Operational Group RU of the General Staff of the Red Army (June 1941 - January 1942), was involved in organizing the partisan movement on the Western, Northwestern and Leningrad fronts.
Commander of the 114th Cavalry Division, deputy commander of the 7th Cavalry Corps (January-August 1942), chief of the Southern Headquarters of the partisan movement (Caucasus, Crimea) (August-November 1942), head of the operations department and assistant chief of the Central Shpd (November 1942 - March 1943), Deputy Chief of the 2nd Directorate of the GRU of the Red Army (March 1943). At his personal request, he was sent to the front. Commander of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division (April 1943 - August 1946). Major General (1943).
Battalion commander of the combined regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Front at the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, 1945.
Commander of the 3rd department. Guards Evpatoriya Rifle Brigade in Bryansk (October 1946 - March 1947), 27th Mechanized Division of the 38th Army (1948 - 1951), 27th Rifle Corps of the 13th Army (1951-1955), commander of the 38th Army of the Carpathian VO (June 1955 - July 1957). Lieutenant General (1953).
Head of the Special Purpose Center, Deputy Head of the GRU of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (October 1957 - 1968).
Awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, Order of Kutuzov, 1st class, Order of Suvorov, 2nd class, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and medals.

Book materials used: Gorchakov O.A. Yan Berzin - GRU commander. St. Petersburg, "Neva", 2004.

Mamsurov Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich (ps.: Faber, Xanthi). 09/15/1903, p. Olginskoye, Vladikavkaz district, Terek region - 04/05/1968, Moscow.

Ossetian. From peasants. Colonel General (1962). Hero of the Soviet Union (05/29/1945). In the Red Army since 1918. Member of the Communist Party since 1924. Graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow (March 1921 - May 1923), the district Military-Political School in Rostov-on-Don (1923-1924), Advanced Courses at the Military-Political Academy in Leningrad (September 1931 - June 1932), KUKS for intelligence at the RU headquarters of the Red Army (February - November 1935), Advanced training courses for senior command personnel at the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze (November 1940 - May 1941), Higher Military Academy named after. K. E. Voroshilova (1947-1948). He spoke Spanish.

Worked for hire in agriculture (1917-1918).

Participant Civil War. Soldier of the detachment of the Vladikavkaz Soviet of Deputies, Mountain Red Hundred of the 11th Army (1918), underground fighter, partisan in the Caucasus, participated in reconnaissance and sabotage activities of partisan detachments (1918-1920), fighter of the operational group of the Terek Regional Cheka, fought against banditry (1920), instructor Vladikavkaz Committee of the RCP (b), employee of the Regional Cheka, political fighter of the squadron of the 10th Army (1920-1921).

Head of the district Military-Political School and at the same time studied there (September 1923 - August 1924), teacher at the National Cavalry School in Krasnodar (August 1924 - May 1927), assistant military commissar of the Separate Consolidated National Cavalry Regiment (May - September 1927), military commissar of the Separate Dagestan cavalry division, Separate National Cavalry Regiment (September 1927 - March 1933). Participated in battles to eliminate banditry.

Commander of a separate cavalry squadron of the 1st Infantry Division in Kazan (March 1933 - September 1934), a separate reconnaissance division of the same division (September 1934 - February 1935).

At disposal (February 1935 - October 1937), “carried out a number of important tasks”, was on a special mission in Spain (October 1936 - October 1937). “He organized and led the entire partisan movement in Spain. Personally participated in the operations of a number of detachments.” He was listed in the RU headquarters of the Red Army as a secret commissioner of Special Branch “A” - active intelligence (February 1936 - April 1938).

Boss special department (from May 1939 - department) "A"(April 1938 - August 1940). During Soviet-Finnish War(1939-1940) - deputy chief of the operational group of the General Staff on the North-Western Front, commander of the Special Ski Brigade, operating in the rear of Finnish troops since December 1939. Head of the 5th department of the RU General Staff of the Red Army (August 1940 - June 1941). “He loves intelligence work and devotes all his strength and abilities to it” (from the certification, 07/15/1940).

Participant of the Great Patriotic War. In August 1941, the special commissioner for the Northern Front and the leadership of the partisan movement, head of the Special Operational Group RU of the General Staff of the Red Army (June 1941 - January 1942), was involved in organizing the partisan movement on the Western, Northwestern and Leningrad fronts.

Commander of the 114th Cavalry Division (January-May 1942), deputy commander of the 7th Cavalry Corps (May-August 1942), chief of the Southern headquarters of the partisan movement - in the Caucasus and Crimea (August-November 1942), head of the operational department and assistant chief of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement (November 1942 - March 1943). “He showed himself only on the positive side” (P. Ponomarenko, 01/04/1943).

Deputy Head of the 2nd Directorate of the GRU of the Red Army (January - March 1943). At his personal request, he was sent to the front.

Commander of the 2nd Guards Crimean Cavalry Division (April 1943 - August 1946). Major General (1943). Battalion commander of the combined regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Front at the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, 1945.

Commander of the 3rd Separate Guards Evpatoria Rifle Brigade in Bryansk (October 1946 - March 1947), 27th Mechanized Division of the 38th Army (1948-1951), 27th Rifle Corps of the 13th Army (1951-1955), commander 38th Army of the Carpathian Military District (June 1955 - July 1957). Lieutenant General (1953).

Head of the Special Purpose Center, Deputy Head of the GRU of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces (October 1957 - April 1968).

Awarded three Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Kutuzov, 1st class, Order of Suvorov, 2nd class, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, medals, foreign orders and medals.

Born on September 2 (15), 1903 in the village of Olginskoye, Vladikavkaz district, Terek region (now the Republic of North Ossetia) in a peasant family. In August 1918 he joined the Red Army. He was enlisted in the mountain cavalry hundred of the 11th Army. There he fought until the end of the year, fell ill with typhus and was abandoned by the retreating 11th Army in Vladikavkaz. Since April 1919, Mamsurov was a scout and liaison officer for partisan detachments operating in the Vladikavkaz-Grozny region. He more than once participated in operations to destroy individual White Guard groups and headquarters behind enemy lines. With the arrival of the Red Army in March 1920, Hadji-Umar was placed at the disposal of the Terek Extraordinary Commission. As part of the Cheka task force, he participated in the liquidation of the surviving White Guard detachments. In 1921, he became an employee of the Special Department of the 11th Army. From March 1921 to May 1923 he studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow. In 1924 he graduated from the Military-Political School. While serving as a teacher at the Krasnodar Cavalry School, he repeatedly participated in combat operations to eliminate gangs in the North Caucasus. In 1929, Mamsurov was promoted to commissar of a cavalry regiment, and then to regiment commander. In 1931, having completed advanced training courses at the Lenin Military-Political Academy, Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov was left to work in the Intelligence Department. Performed responsible management tasks. From February 1936 to February 1938, he was the secret commissioner of the Special Branch “A” (active intelligence) of the RU headquarters of the Red Army. In 1936, Mamsurov was sent by the Intelligence Industry to help the fraternal Spanish people as a military adviser and specialist in guerrilla warfare. This is how Red Spain received the national hero “Macedonian terrorist Xanthi.” Mamsurov organized and led the entire partisan movement in Spain. Legends were made about the brave and successful Colonel Xanthi. Ernest Hemingway, who arrived in Madrid in March 1937, did not ignore him. Mamsurov was also introduced to him by the writers Mikhail Koltsov and Ilya Erenburg, who were sent to Spain. Colonel Xanthi (Mamsurov) was the prototype of the hero of E. Hemingway’s novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” A wound in the arm and a concussion received in November 1936 did not prevent him from continuing to serve. Having recovered, Mamsurov began to go on sabotage raids behind enemy lines, blow up bridges and roads, and destroy the enemy with small arms fire. In October 1937, Mamsurov returned to the USSR. A wave of party purges swept across the country, washing out the best personnel from the army. His uncle Sakhandzheri Mamsurov was shot - he turned out to be a Trotskyist. Mamsurov himself was not affected by the repressions. Mamsurov received the position of head of department “A” Intelligence Agency, and in 1939 he became the head of the operational group of the General Staff of the Red Army. During Finnish war 1939–1940 Mamsurov commanded a special ski brigade of the 9th Army, which made daring forays behind the rear of the White Finns. In 1940, he was appointed head of the V Department of Intelligence and entered the advanced training courses for command personnel at the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, who graduated in 1941. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War on June 24, 1941, Colonel Mamsurov was seconded to the disposal of K.E. Voroshilov to carry out particularly important assignments on the Western and Northwestern fronts. After the German breakthrough in the Chudov area, Mamsurov was appointed commander of the 311th Infantry Division. On August 24, in the battle near Chudov, he was wounded in both legs and arms. After leaving the hospital, he asked to go to the front and in January was appointed commander of the 114th Cavalry Division, and then deputy commander of the 7th Cavalry Corps. Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov took a direct part in organizing the partisan movement in the territory temporarily occupied by the Nazis and personally trained future organizers of partisan detachments. To lead the partisan struggle in the North Caucasus and Crimea, by a decree of the State Defense Committee of August 3, 1942, the Southern Headquarters of the partisan movement was created under the Military Council of the North Caucasus Front. It was headed by Colonel Mamsurov. Mamsurov himself, on the basis personal experience The Civil War focused on the formation of cavalry divisions, indispensable in the conditions of the North Caucasus. In March 1943, Colonel Mamsurov was appointed commander of the 2nd Guards Crimean Cavalry Division, with which he fought until the Victory. At the beginning of October 1943, as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Mamsurov and his division crossed the Dnieper north of Kyiv. Having broken through the German defenses, the division captured and expanded the bridgehead for the troops of the 60th Army. Then, as part of the 1st Horse Guards Corps, she took part in the battles for the liberation of Kyiv. Having broken through the Nazi defenses on the Irpen River north of Kyiv and captured the highway, Mamsurov’s division cut off German group escape routes from the city. Continuing the rapid offensive and destroying suitable enemy reserves, the division captured the city of Korostyshev on November 11, 1943, and Zhitomir on November 12. Armed with tanks and artillery, the 2nd Guards Crimean Cavalry Division held Zhitomir for six days, destroying more than 150 tanks and more than 3 thousand enemy soldiers and officers. For excellent leadership of the combat operations of the division, Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov was awarded the order Suvorov 2nd degree and promoted to major general. At the end of January 1944, Mamsurov's division, successfully developing an attack on Kovel, crossed the Styr River in battle, but received new task and launched an attack to the south. A period of powerful raids behind enemy lines began. Having broken through the German front, the division joined forces with Ukrainian partisan detachments. Finding itself deep in the rear, the division captured many settlements, destroying weak enemy garrisons. Having defeated the 19th Hungarian Infantry Division and the 143rd German Infantry Division, on February 1, 1944, Mamsurov’s cavalrymen occupied the city of Lutsk and, approaching the city of Dubno, pretty much battered the German group retreating to Rovno. On March 15, the division broke through the enemy’s defenses on the Ikva River and, with a swift attack from the rear of the Dubna enemy group, ensured the successful offensive of our troops from the front. On March 19, Major General Mamsurov was wounded in the face, but remained in service. In the Lvov-Sandomierz operation of the 1st Ukrainian Front, his division performed a separate task - to prevent the Brodsky group of Germans from retreating to the west across the Western Bug River in the Kamenka-Strumilovo area. The 2nd Guards Cavalry Division captured the city of Kamenka-Strumilovo and forced the enemy to take battle in unfavorable conditions for him. Despite the large width of the front of 70 km, the division did not miss a single retreater. As a result of this operation, over 8 thousand corpses of enemy soldiers and officers, including 2 generals, remained on the battlefield. More than 2 thousand prisoners, 35 tanks, over 500 guns and mortars, 3 thousand machine guns and 6 thousand horses were captured. Devastating raids on the rear continued. In September 1944, having broken through the enemy’s defenses, Mamsurov’s division as part of the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps successfully operated on the territory of Czechoslovakia. As part of the 1st Ukrainian Front, the division broke through the Nazi defenses on the Neisse River and, having captured a number of cities, reached the area southwest of Berlin. On April 21, 1945, the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division crossed the Elbe River south of the city Torgau and captured a large number of prisoners, freeing hundreds of prisoners from concentration camp. On April 24, 1,230 enemy soldiers and officers were killed in battles on the western bank of the Elbe, 3 heavy tank, 11 armored personnel carriers. 574 soldiers and officers were captured, 8 locomotives, 250 carriages, 117 warehouses with weapons, ammunition and military equipment, 40 tractors and tractors, 480 vehicles, 5,700 horses, 350 carts were captured. 15,600 people were liberated from the two concentration camps. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 29, 1945, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the German invaders and the courage and heroism shown, Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the medal “ Gold Star"(No. 6568). By the Military Council of the 1st Ukrainian Front he was appointed battalion commander of the front's combined regiment, with which he participated in the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945. In 1948, Mamsurov graduated Military Academy General Staff. Commanded a division, corps, army. Front-line experience came in handy for General Mamsurov on November 4, 1956, when Soviet troops by order of Marshal I.S. Konev began to carry out the combat mission of providing fraternal assistance to socialist Hungary. Mamsurov’s unit, without any significant losses, carried out active actions to restore order and restore legitimate authority in the cities of Debrenc, Miskolc and Gyor. In 1957, Mamsurov was transferred to the position of deputy head of the GRU. Soon, at the instigation of Mamsurov, a colossal scandal broke out. It was about the preparation by Defense Minister Zhukov... of a coup d'état! Shortly before his trip to Yugoslavia, G.K. Zhukov called him to his place and shared with him his decision to form brigades special purpose, based on the possible nature of future military operations in that region. These brigades were supposed to be relatively small (up to two thousand people), armed with the most advanced and powerful light weapons. Georgy Konstantinovich entrusted the formation of these brigades to Mamsurov. The “pocket special forces” of the legendary marshal so frightened the country’s leadership that in October 1957 the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee was convened, on the agenda of which there was only one question: “On improving party-political work in Soviet Army and the Navy." This meant that the Minister of Defense would be removed. And the issue of secret brigades raised by Mamsurov played a significant role there. Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov was greatly impressed by what happened. The Plenum unanimously decided to release G.K. Zhukov. from the duties of the Minister of Defense of the USSR, to remove from the membership of the Presidium of the Central Committee and members of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Colonel General Mamsurov retained his position, although relations with colleagues after the “general setup” from the Secretary General became very ambiguous. Colonel General Hadji-Umar Dzhiorovich Mamsurov died on April 5, 1968 and was buried in Moscow.