Leonid Vladimirovich Shebarschin

Leonid Vladimirovich Schebarschin ( Russian Леонид Владимирович Шебаршин ; * March 24, 1935 in Moscow ; † March 30, 2012 there ) was a Soviet agent , from 1989 to 1991 head of foreign intelligence of the KGB and from 22 to 23 August 1991 chairman of the KGB.

Life

Shebarchin came from a Moscow working class family. In 1952 he graduated from middle school and began higher education at the Indian Department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, where he studied Urdu intensively . In 1954 the institute became part of the Moscow Institute for International Relations , which he graduated from in 1958. From 1958 to 1962 he worked as a translator for the ambassador to Pakistan and was appointed embassy attaché in 1959. Towards the end of his stay abroad he worked in the Department for Southeast Asia of the Foreign Ministry of the USSR as 3rd Secretary. In 1962, Schebarschin was offered a job in the reconnaissance and in the same year began a course at the KGB school, which trained cadres for foreign reconnaissance . After graduating from school, he was employed in the central apparatus of foreign espionage in the department for Southeast Asia. From 1964 to 1968 he was again in Pakistan as a foreign agent. He then took part in courses at the KGB Academy for Foreign Reconnaissance, which trained senior cadres for international espionage. From 1970 to 1971 he worked in the central apparatus of the First Headquarters (PGU) of the KGB. From 1971 to 1977 he was on a longer assignment abroad in India , initially as a deputy and later as resident of the foreign intelligence service. Back in Moscow, he worked from 1977 to 1979 in the KGB's Central Intelligence Unit. From 1979 to 1983 he was used as a resident of the KGB in Iran . Schebarschin served from 1983 to 1987 first as a deputy and then as head of administration for information analysis of the PGU of the KGB. On more than 20 business trips from 1984 to Afghanistan, he investigated the situation of the Soviet occupation troops . From 1987 to 1989 he was deputy head of the foreign intelligence. He was head of the PGU from February 1989 to September 1991 and also acted as deputy chairman of the KGB. In the days of the August coup he took over the leadership of the KGB. On September 30, 1991, Shebarhin was retired with the rank of lieutenant general.

At the end of 1991, together with a group of veterans from the KGB and the Ministry of the Interior, he founded and managed the company "Russian National Economic Security Service", a kind of security agency, and worked as a self-employed business consultant. From 2005 he was a board member of the joint stock company " Motowilichinskije zavody ".

Schebarschin was a specialist author of several books, articles and essays on the history of foreign intelligence.

He committed suicide and was found dead on March 30, 2012 in his apartment in central Moscow.

Awards

• Order of the Red Banner (1981)
• Order of the Red Star (1970)
• Medal "For Merit in Combat" (1967)
• further decorations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "A terrific fiasco". Der Spiegel , May 18, 1992, accessed December 31, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Леонид Владимирович Шебаршин. Биографическая справка. RIA Novosti , March 30, 2012, accessed December 31, 2017 (Russian). 
3. ↑ “Put everything in God's hands”. Der Spiegel, March 16, 1992, accessed December 31, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Ex-KGB boss Shebarchin dead. Neues Deutschland , April 2, 2012, accessed on December 31, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Леонид Шебаршин, генерал не нашего времени. RIA Novosti, March 31, 2012, accessed December 31, 2017 .