Leonov, Nikolai Sergeevich

Born into a peasant family, father - Leonov Sergey Mikhailovich (born 1903), mother - Trifonova Natalya Vladimirovna (born 1906) ^[3] . In 1938, Nikolai moved to his mother and stepfather in the city of Elektrostal , where ^[2] in 1947 he graduated from high school with a gold medal ^{[2] [4]} , after which he entered the Moscow Institute of International Relations ^[2] . Even in his school years, he became interested in history ^[2] .

At the end of the institute, he was sent not to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but to an unprofitable place due to a conflict with Foreign Minister A. Y. Vyshinsky (because of the refusal to give her a recommendation to the party, a classmate accused five students of attempted rape, and Leonov, being a group commissar and knowing the true background of what is happening, he wrote about this to the Minister ^[2] ) ^[5] - to the publishing house of literature in foreign languages ^[4] . In May 1953 he was sent for an internship in Mexico ^[2] , where he went on board the Andrea Gritti merchant ship from the port in Genoa. On it, he met Raul Castro ^{[2] [3]} . After arriving, Leonov began attending classes at the University of Mexico City ( National Autonomous University of Mexico ) at the Faculty of Philology and Philosophy, and became an official in the Soviet embassy.

In the summer of 1956, Nikolai Sergeevich met with Che Guevara . However, after some time some Cuban revolutionaries were arrested, and during a search in Guevara’s apartment they found a photograph of Leonov ^[3] . This was the reason for the return of Nikolai Leonov to his homeland in the same publishing house. In 1958, he entered the correspondence graduate school in Latin America at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR ^[2] .

In 1958 he was admitted to the 101st KGB school for training as a scout. ^[6] In 1959, as part of a delegation led by Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers A.I. Mikoyan, he went to Mexico, and in 1960 in Cuba, where he met with Fidel Castro . Since 1960, Leonov, in intelligence in Latin America, has been working against US intelligence ^[3] . Accompanied and translated F. Castro on his trip to the USSR in 1963. Leonov headed the Cuban direction in foreign intelligence ^[2] , he had to take an active part in many events related to the struggle against American influence in Latin America. He also went on short-term business trips in Afghanistan and other countries ^[6] .

Since 1971, the deputy, two years later became the head of the information and analytical department of foreign intelligence. In September 1983, he was deputy intelligence chief.

From January 30 to August 27, 1991 - head of the analytical department of the KGB of the USSR with the rank of lieutenant general.

According to intelligence historian V. Lashkul, the predictions of analysts that Leonov directed for 12 years have never been erroneous ^[7] .

On behalf of the chairman of the KGB of the USSR V. Kryuchkov, on August 17-18, 1991, he participated in the preparation of the GKChP Address to the Soviet people ^[8] .

In 1991, with the collapse of the USSR, Leonov resigned. Together with friends from the KGB, he organized JSC “Russian National Economic Security Service” ^[3] . He defended his candidate and doctoral dissertations ^[2] . Since 1994 he has been teaching modern history at MGIMO ^[2] . Since 1996, he has been collaborating with the Russian House magazine, in which he still writes analytical articles, and also took part in the Russian House television program until its closure. Member of the State Duma of the IV convocation of the IV convocation (2003-2007) from the Motherland bloc, member of the Narodnaya Volya party.

In 2005, he signed a letter of 5000 . In one of his interviews in the late 2000s, he said: “... all my 80 years have been given to the Russian state. There was no clanism, no partisanship in me ” ^[9] .

He declared: “Reflecting on the fate of our country, I proceed from the fact that the human dream of equality was born many millennia ago. Not the Bolsheviks, not Marx “invented” socialism . The roots of the human dream of equality and brotherhood go back to the ancient, which means true Christianity ” ^[10] . He also noted: “I remain committed to the socialist system, which I sincerely served all my life. That which is not a product of human labor — land, water, subsoil, forests, etc., cannot be private property. Huge production cannot be taken away from society and transferred to private ownership, created by society, and even more so entire branches of the economy ” ^[10] .

Personal life

“He is generally a very emotional person, he usually just controls himself,” said his spouse ^[10] . Married to Kondireva Evgenia Nikolaevna (born 1946), two children ^[4] . N. S. Leonov is an Orthodox Christian ^[11] , his confessor is Bishop Egorievsky Tikhon (Shevkunov) ^[12] .

• Order of the October Revolution
• Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor
• Order of the Red Star
• Cuban Order of Che Guevara I Degree ( 2003 )

• The struggle of the church with the state in Mexico ( 1965 ).
• Essays on the new and recent history of the countries of Central America ( 1975 ).
• Omar Torrijos: I do not want to go down in history, I want to go into the canal zone ( 1990 ).
• Hard Times ( 1994 ).
• Fidel Castro: political biography ( 1998 , 1999 ) - together with V. A. Borodaev.
• The Way of the Cross of Russia. 1991-2000 years ( 2002 ).
• Sunset or dawn? Russia: 2000-2008 ( 2008 ).
• Cold war against Russia ( 2010 ).
• What else can Putin do? ( 2012 ).
• Raul Castro ( 2015 )

• Biography
• History reference
• Publications on the Russian Folk Line website
• Russia, in fact, is immortal (interview with Finam FM radio station)
• Nikolai Leonov: I regret that they did not allow me to release Corvalan // Fontanka.ru , 11/13/2010
• Nikolai Leonov: “It is premature to talk about Venezuela as an ally of Russia”
• Nikolay Leonov. The role of information in human life
• Nikolay Leonov. "Intelligence shouted loudly ..." // CENTURY news agency, 04/19/2011