The Soviet spy who foxed the zis - and inspired a hundred jokes

Spy fiction we have been used to for years had Soviet/Russian agents as the bad, ruthless guys. Though there were exceptions - the KGB chief in Frederick Forsyth’s “The Negotiator”, in some James Bond films, Ilya Kurakin in “The Man from UNCLE” and even Vladimir Putin (initially), they were in supporting roles. But this situation wasn’t for lack of availability - a Soviet super-spy still regales his countrymen, but is virtually unknown in the outside world.

Col. Maxim Maximovich Isayev is more famous as SS Standartenfuhrer Max Otto von Stirlitz, the cover me in his most successful operation - infiltrating the Third Reich’s intelligence services, and foiling a range of zi machitions, including a separate peace with the Western Allies, while remaining undetected. Also inspiring a series of jokes, he was the creation of Soviet jourlist-cum-author Yulian Semyonovich Semyonov (1931-93), who himself had an exciting life.

After a stint as diplomatic interpreter around Asia, Semyonov became a jourlist in 1955 with his stories appearing in leading Soviet newspapers and magazines such as Pravda, Literaturya Gazeta and Komsomolskaya Pravda. He was also a foreign correspondent in the next two decades, reporting from hot spots like Afghanistan, Francoist Spain, Allende and Pinochet’s Chile and elsewhere.

A pioneer of investigative jourlism in Soviet periodicals, he also traced fugitive zis and Sicilian mafia leaders, accompanied Vietmese and Laotian communist partisans into combat, and interviewed former zi leaders and soldiers, becoming the first jourlist to talk to the notorious Otto Skorzeny, who had led a daring rescue mission to free the deposed Mussolini and was rumoured to lead a mission to assassite Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower.

Semyonov also began writing fiction in the 1950s with his first works being rather romantic stories. But then came his 12-part Stirlitz series which began in 1966 with the short novel “Parol ne Nuzhen (Password Not Required)”, set in 1921 during the Russian Civil War and ended in 1990 with “Otchaniye (Despair)”, based in the last years of Stalin, though in the book’s interl timeframe, the last one is set in 1967. It is high time that the series are brought back from the ‘out of print’ limbo. Isayev/Stirlitz is an engaging character - cold-blooded but not wantonly violent (he killed only once during his entire career), cultured, knowledgeable about wide range of subjects and speaking all European language save Irish and Albanian. Unlike James Bond, he is a moderate drinker (his main use for a cogc bottle is to hit opponents on the head), chaste, declining services of prostitutes by saying: “I’d rather drink some coffee”, but equally fond of fast cars.

There is a belief that the series was commissioned by then KGB Chairman (later General Secretary) Yuri Andropov to rehabilitate the security agencies’ public image from the effects of the Stalin-era excesses. It is also believed that Semyonov, who had many friends in the KGB, was himself a member, but his close friends deny it. Dealing with Stirlitz’s efforts to sabotage an attempt for zi Germany to end the war on the western front so it could turn all focus to fighting Stalin’s Russia, both the book and the TV series were distinguished by a realism and nuanced depiction of zi characters, including the likes of Martin Bormann, and Heinrich ‘Gestapo’ Muller. (IANS)