About the book: 2015 / March 2015 marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of the last head of foreign intelligence of the KGB of the USSR, Leonid Vladimirovich Shebarshin. This memorable date coincided with another - in the same month, thirty years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev took charge of the Soviet Union and the so-called “perestroika” began. L.V. Shebarshin was an eyewitness to this disastrous “perestroika” - in his book he writes about the conditions under which USSR State Security employees had to work then. Themes of recruitment work, connections with foreign agents, obtaining information, “illegal” intelligence are revealed against the backdrop of a crisis of power and society, which also affected intelligence. Many years have passed since then. Some of us managed to fully adapt to the new realities, but not L.V. Shebarshin, a legendary intelligence officer whose decency, honesty and courage were recognized even by his enemies, took his own life at the age of 77. The book includes memoirs and recent interviews with Lieutenant General Shebarshin.