About the book: 2010 / An objective assessment of current events in the world, and even more so a reasonable forecast of their probable development, is unthinkable without knowledge of the history of the past war. Most readers are familiar only with one side of the coin - with official versions of the course and results of the battles. The other side of the coin - secret diplomacy and intelligence activities - for a long time remained inaccessible to historians and, as a result, unknown to the general reader. The author of the book is E.V. Popov, an international journalist, based on his own experience, available archival documents and the memoirs of Soviet military intelligence officers, shows the work of the intelligence services during the war as a means of secret diplomacy. Secret contacts between the warring parties during the war years - as experience shows - serve as the key to understanding the cause-and-effect relationships of the past with the events of our days, including conflicts in the Balkans, the Near and Middle East, the political activity of former allies in countries that separated from the USSR, etc.