Forward - to the past

In the Moscow district of Yasenevo, they decided to rename almost two dozen streets and squares in honor of Soviet spies, and the district itself may become Fitino

The head of the SVR, Sergei Naryshkin, plans to massively rename streets in honor of Soviet spies, The Insider * has learned . The Yasenevo district, where the headquarters of the SVR is located, became the experimental site; since 2018, four “spy” toponyms have already appeared here.

In November 2018, an unnamed square, next to which the departmental houses of the SVR are located, was named after the star of international espionage Kim Philby, a member of the Cambridge Five. Philby simultaneously led a division of the British intelligence bureau MI6, and was responsible for the fight against Soviet agents. During the Second World War alone, he transferred no less than 914 secret documents to Moscow. In 1963, Philby fled to Moscow and subsequently served as a freelance adviser to the KGB PGU. For special services, the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee awarded the defector the Order of Lenin, the Red Star and a 120-meter apartment in Trekhprudny Lane.

In 2020, a street appeared in Yasenevo bearing the name of the head of USSR foreign intelligence Pavel Fitin, and in 2022 school No. 1694 began to bear his name. Pavel Fitin joined the NKVD in 1938 and, against the backdrop of repressions in the department, made a dizzying career - a year later he headed foreign intelligence. At the same time, 31-year-old Fitin acquired the nickname of Beria’s favorite; after the arrest of the latter, Fitin was fired from the authorities.

Following Philby Square and Fitin Street, not far from the headquarters of the SVR, two more “spy” addresses appeared: intelligence officer Deitch, who recruited the “Cambridge Five”, and Gevork Vartanyan, who became the hero of the myth of saving the Big Three at a conference in Tehran in 1943 . According to the publication, Vartanyan later worked for the KGB’s political intelligence in NATO countries. He maintained unofficial contacts with the future Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and allegedly brought him into contact with Putin.

According to The Insider's source in the capital's mayor's office, Naryshkin suggested that Sergei Sobyanin assign the names of Soviet spies to at least twelve more squares and streets. In the next five years, it is planned to perpetuate the names of Yuri Shevchenko, who worked in Spain and Portugal under the guise of a UNESCO employee, the head of the KGB station in Tunisia, Vadim Kirpichenko, the former head of the SVR, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, who was called the “knight of the Cold War,” Yevgeny Kim, who spied in Asian countries, and former KGB resident in Iran Vladimir Lokhov. The publication's source also said that they want to name one of the streets after Pavel Sudoplatov, who organized the murders of Leon Trotsky in Mexico and the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Yevgeny Konovalets in the Netherlands. In addition, he developed plans to assassinate former People's Commissar of Education of Ukraine Alexander Shumsky, Greek Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha, shipbuilding engineer Naum Samet and former Comintern member American Isaac Augins. In 1953, Sudoplatov was arrested as an accomplice of Beria and sentenced to 15 years in prison. So far, the SVR has limited itself to installing a bust of Sudoplatov in the Bryansk region and a street named after him in occupied Melitopol. However, there are immediate plans to rename the street in Moscow. Moreover, as The Insider writes, in the administration of the Yasenevo municipality there is talk about renaming the area to Fitino.

* Recognized in Russia as a “foreign agent” and an “undesirable” organization.
Photo: Sergey Mikheev/RG