Pavel Sudoplatov

Lieutenant General Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union who rose to the rank of lieutenant general. He was involved in several famous episodes, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky, the Soviet espionage program which obtained information about the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project, and Operation Scherhorn, a Soviet deception operation against the Germans in 1944. His autobiography, Special Tasks, made him wellknown outside the USSR, and provided a detailed look at Soviet intelligence and Soviet internal politics during his years at the top.

He was born in Melitopol, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire , to a Ukrainian mother and a Russian father, and was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1919 at the age ofhe left home and joined a Red Army regiment near Melitopol. After being assigned to company flags and served in combat against both the White Army and the Ukrainian nationalist movement during the Russian Civil War. He was recruited into the Cheka in 1921, at the age of fourteen, and was promoted to the Secret Political Department of the Ukrainian State Political Directorate in 1927.

Source: Wikipedia