Chernyak, Yan Petrovich

Son of Czech Jew and Hungarian Jewess . Born in the family of a poor merchant ^[2] . Parents died or went missing during the First World War, and the boy was brought up in an orphanage ^{[2] [3]} . After graduating from high school in 1927 he entered the Prague Higher Technical School ^[2] . He graduated from it and the Polytechnic Institute in Berlin, where he joined the Communist Party of Germany . He became an agent of Soviet military intelligence in 1930. In 1931–32 he served in the Romanian army at the headquarters of the cavalry regiment with the rank of sergeant. Got access to classified documents and transferred their contents to the USSR. Then he lived in Germany, where he created a reconnaissance group. In 1935–36 he studied at a reconnaissance school in Moscow. Then he went to Switzerland under the guise of a TASS correspondent under the operational pseudonym “Jen”. Since 1938 - after the conclusion of the Munich Agreement ^[2] - lived in Paris, and since 1940 - in London.

Regularly traveling to Germany in 1936–39, Chernyak created a powerful intelligence network there, bearing the code name “Krona”. Chernyak recruited over 20 agents, whose work was supervised from abroad through messengers. Not a single agent of Chernyak has ever been exposed by the Gestapo , even today nothing concrete is known about them . Among the agents of Chernyak were a large banker, the secretary of the minister, the head of the research department of the aviation design bureau, the daughter of the head of the tank design bureau, and high-ranking military men. Allegedly, one of the agents was actress Marika Ryokk ^[4] .

Chernyak’s agents managed in 1941 to obtain a copy of the Barbarossa plan, and in 1943 the operational plan for the German offensive near Kursk. Chernyak transmitted valuable technical information to the USSR about tanks, artillery, on jet weapons, the development of chemical weapons , and electronic systems. In 1944, they were transferred over 12,500 sheets of technical documentation and 60 samples of radio equipment. Chernyak’s network was one of the best in the history of intelligence - there wasn’t a single failure in 11 years of work ^[3] .

Chernyak since 1942 also transmitted information on atomic research in England, and in the spring of 1945 he was transferred to the United States , where he was to join the work on the US nuclear project. However, in the summer of 1945, due to the betrayal of the cryptographer I. Guzenko , who worked in Canada, Chernyak was urgently recalled to the USSR. The leadership of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff introduced Jan Chernyak to the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union, but since Chernyak gave a good assessment to the immediate superior of Guzenko a few months before the flight, he did not receive the award.

Since 1946, Y. P. Chernyak worked as a referent in the GRU, since 1950 - as a translator in TASS . He was involved in intelligence tasks in Europe and in teaching.

In 1969 he retired ^[2] .

By decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 14, 1994 “for courage and heroism shown during the performance of a special task” Chernyak Yan Petrovich was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation . The decree was adopted when Jan Petrovich was in a coma in the hospital 10 days before his death, and the award was presented to his wife ^[3] . At the funeral, Army General Mikhail Kolesnikov told reporters that Chernyak was one of the prototypes of Colonel Maxim Isaev ( Shtirlitsa ) in the film based on the novel “ Seventeen Moments of Spring ” by Julian Semenov ^[5] .

• Kolpakidi A. [I.] GRU in the Great Patriotic War. - M .: Yauza: Eksmo, 2010 .-- 608 p. - (GRU) - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-41251-8