No, this is not just a high-minded statement whose picture was chosen for politeness. This is the favorite phrase of Sharif Shirinbayev, one of the brave Uzbek intelligence officers who showed courage in the "unseen battlefields" of the Second World War, a word that decided his fate in the most difficult situations, and he lived by it all his life. program.
"Sacrifice your life for your country!"
No, this is not just a high-minded statement whose picture was chosen for politeness. This is the favorite phrase of Sharif Shirinbayev, one of the brave Uzbek intelligence officers who showed courage in the "unseen battlefields" of the Second World War, a word that decided his fate in the most difficult situations, and he lived by it all his life. program.
Thousands of employees of the State Security Service of Uzbekistan who are loyal to their country, people and duty also made an immeasurable contribution to the universal victory achieved in the war. Together with the soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces, they showed great bravery in the battlefields against invaders, among the enemy and in brave battles behind the front, and received many high military and state awards.
Sharif Shirinbayev is one of them. He was born in the family of a servant in Samarkand in 1908. First, he studied at the high school in this ancient city, then at the history faculty of the Fergana State Pedagogical Institute. For some time he worked at the Bogishamol district court in the city. At the age of twenty-four, he started working in the state security system and improved his knowledge and skills in special courses.
His father, Abduqayum Shirinboyev, worked as a translator for the head of Samarkand uyezd, and was one of the enlightened people of his time. It is natural that this has an important place in his son's life.
Great conversationalist
The retired colonel of the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, veteran of the special service Khudoyberdi SAHIBOV told me about Sharif Shirinboyev.
By the way, let's get acquainted first: who is Colonel Khudoyberdi Sahibov himself? What kind of person?
"Who?" My interlocutor thinks for a moment and boldly answers: "An ordinary servant of God. He was born and raised in Sherabad district of Surkhandarya region. Studied at a music school. "Beethoven won't come out of me" and he gave up playing the instrument and heard the reprimands of the famous composer Mukhtar Ashrafiyday. He studied foreign languages at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of TashSU (now National University). He taught English to children in a village school in Nurota. Then he was offered a job in the security service. He is not alien to such fields as counter-intelligence and intelligence.
Perhaps he was sent abroad on special assignments, surely?
"Yes, he also had a son-in-law. Thankfully, he returned with a brighter face."
I wanted to call this skilled specialist, who devoted his life to the work of the secret service, "Domla". So, before our first meeting, even if I happened to be on the street, at a wedding party, I would have addressed Khudoyberdi brother without hesitation: "Domla!"
He really looks like a teacher, or rather, a primary school teacher. Very modest, but tastefully dressed, with silver hair that started to become sparse, combed smoothly, modest, modest. The difference is that when he reaches his age and condemns the 80s, most of the people, as our famous writer said, "lean on his chin." My interlocutor, on the contrary, is extremely jealous. "Grammlab Speaks." He thinks every word a thousand times, does not hurry, and analyzes it. He is a perfect conversationalist.
He received Sharif Shirinbayev's interviews during the years of peace and tranquility after the war. He enjoyed his memories. He diligently studied his life and work.
"I met brother Sharif a lot in the late 60s and early 70s of the last century," began Khudoyberdi. - He was a virtuous and wise man. I, along with other colleagues, received a lot of advice from him. Our teacher. I read some of his works, in particular, the memoir "Breeze from the East" in manuscript. "Unfortunately, it was not possible to print it at that time."
In the fire
We know that Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and this bloody war lasted for a very long time - four years - until May 9, when the Nazis were completely defeated. For Sharif Shirinbayev, it is worth noting that the dark years began much earlier - in 1937.
In the same year, he was sent to China's Xinjiang province on a secret mission, with the name "Sharif Qayumi" based on a legend, and a biography woven according to this name. First of all, let's dwell on the first period of his secret activity.
At this time, China was literally caught in the flames of the Japanese war, and most of it was occupied by the Kwantung Army. During the Sino-Japanese War, which began in September 1931 and lasted for eight years, more than 20 million people died in Chin. Basically, the plan of the Kwantung military was threefold.
It is no secret that the plan was to "conquer" China within a month and then move towards the North.
It was clear that even the Soviet government could not stand idly by in such a situation. Expressing his solidarity with the Chinese people, he makes a statement, and in the 1930s, he provided the country with military equipment, weapons, and food.
The fierce struggle of the Chinese people against the invaders exhausted Japan, and it did not dare to attack the land of the Soviets.
In those years, Japanese, German fascists and British intelligence spread their net wide in China, one of the oldest countries in the world. The power in the country, including the local government, sometimes passed into the hands of a political group supported by various foreign countries, and their bloodshed turned into a civil war. As a result, China was on the brink of an abyss.
"During one of our conversations, brother Sharif, thank you, told us about an interesting observation he witnessed during the service events," continues Colonel H. Sohibov. - It is said that one of the leaders of the insurgent gangs fighting for power can see a picture of Hitler hanging on the wall in the room, Stalin in the other, and Churchill of the British Prime Minister in the other. The situation was so complicated and tangled that it was not easy to clearly know and understand which group was fighting for which goal, neither inside nor outside. Treachery and treachery spread like a plague and destroyed a powerful country like China from the inside and brought it to the point of disintegration.
Face to face with death
Major countries, including the Japanese military and intelligence officers, who masterfully used such fragmentation, were intensifying subversive activities against the Soviet Union, a country bordering China, including the countries of Central Asia. In doing so, they started hiring immigrants who were forced to flee to foreign countries and were in dire straits because they were afraid of collectivization, lynching, and deportation. The goal is to mislead foreigners belonging to Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Uyghur nationalities, give them weapons, throw them into Central Asia, and in this strategically important region, as in China. causing chaos. Looting Movaraunnahr's riches by stoking the fires of a new war and driving the people to destruction.
Sharif Shirinbayev was entrusted with the extremely dangerous and delicate task of preventing such great threats, and the Uzbek son fulfilled his duty with great honor.
After arriving in Kashgar, with the help of relevant people, he managed to get a job as an assistant to the head of the operational agency department of the police department of the Xinjiang region. "Sharif Qayumi"'s thorough knowledge of several languages, including the languages of the peoples of Central Asia, played an important role in this.
"It is worth noting," says brother Khudoyberdi, "that getting a job in the security service of a foreign country, on top of that, in its "heart" - the agency's department, is the greatest luck an intelligence officer can dream of. Because information about hundreds of agents working in China and abroad, including the Soviet Union, and the top secret actions they are carrying out and planning, was collected and summarized in the same department where Sharif Shirinbayev served. At the same time, the task of this department included the investigation of suspects who were arrested and accused of committing political crimes. On the one hand, this was a huge opportunity, but on the other hand, it meant that a sharp sword was always playing over our scout. After all, it was out of the question that his secret would suddenly be exposed and he would face an inevitable death.
A year later, Sharif Qayumiy, who was promoted to the position of inspector of the regional public security department, used the opportunity very effectively. First of all, he found reliable supporters among the emigrants and immigrants and established strong relations with them. He identified the leaders and leaders of many gangsters who escaped from Central Asia and worked under the guidance of foreign intelligence agents in Xinjiang.
According to the archive information, in May 1939, more than thirty officers, including Sharif Shirinbayev, were imprisoned by the Kashgar Police Department on charges of being involved with foreign intelligence. Despite torture during the investigation, he completely denies any involvement with foreign, including Soviet, intelligence. As noted, the name "Sharif Qayumi" based on legend and the biography woven accordingly.
He is sentenced to be shot. The agony of waiting for their execution in solitary confinement begins. The punishment will last more than four months.
Iron door
the opening of
On the morning of September 17, 1939, the iron door of the cell suddenly opened, two soldiers entered and threw his vest lying on the pillow on his head. A thirty-year-old intelligence officer realizes that his day is over.
When they drag Sharif Shirinbayev out of prison, they ask him for the last time: "If you tell who you really are and that you are connected to Soviet intelligence, we will save your life!"
"Of course, our intelligence officer did not know at that time that this was a test question," recalls Khudoyberdi Sahibov. - The answer of the young man under the gallows is firm: "I am Sharif Qayumi. I don't know anything else!"
They put him in the car and drive away. Brother Sharif later remembered that he thought, "I must be thrown out of the city."
As they were leaving through the rough roads, the Chinese officer sitting next to him hummed softly again: "Sacrifice your life for the motherland!"
These were conditional words - a password - that only a very few people knew, said for testing among the trusted and intimate colleagues of our intelligence officer.
"Somebody bought it!" Sharif Shirinboyev thought that he didn't understand.
"The car drove a long way," he later recalled. - Too far. The flat streets were left behind, and the dirt road began. I smelled the sweet smell of the fields and grass.
"So, they want to shoot in the desert. He wants to lose the crime track!" My hometown Samarkand, my parents came to me and I said goodbye to them in absentia. Suddenly, the car stopped and they led me up some stairs. Airplane! We flew and landed in Almaty. It's ours!"
"The special services will certainly save their employee, whether he is abroad or inside the country, when he is in a helpless situation during the execution of an important state mission," said Colonel Kh. Sohibov. - This is the golden rule of our service.
Sharif Shirinbayev was also freed from a heavily guarded fortress-prison in China by his brave colleagues."
Confession
After two years of investigations, finally, on November 29, 1939, a letter numbered 5293/b was sent to Tashkent with the signature of V. Merkulov, the deputy chairman of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. It contained the following lines:
"Comrade Sharif Kayumovich Shirinboyev, former head of the Karadarya district department of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, sergeant of the State Security Service, was sent to Xinjiang in October 1937 on a special mission.
Under certain circumstances, Shirinbayev was arrested and kept in a Chinese prison for four months. In view of the combat mission, we had to allow him to be imprisoned. However, as a result of the measures taken later, Shirinbayev was rescued from prison and brought to our territory. During his stay in the Chinese prison and during the investigations, Shirinboyev showed the tenacity typical of a real person, a loyal employee of the State Security Service. At the moment, it is impossible to send him back to Xinjiang due to certain reasons. The arrest by the Xinjiang police should not be interpreted as information that casts a shadow on Shirinbayev's reputation.
Please let me know what position Shirinbayev, who is being sent to you, has been appointed to."
This was a high assessment of Shirinbayev's intelligence activities.
Thus, the first period of the activity of our skilled spy will end successfully and the second phase will begin.
During the war years, the Central State Security Service lieutenant Sharif Shirinboyev was included in the reserve of intelligence officers of the USSR to prepare him for special tasks abroad. In October 1941, he was invited to the reception of the famous intelligence officer, lieutenant general Pavel Sudoplatov. In 1942, Sharif Shirinboyev went on a special trip to Iran, which lasted until 1948, after a conversation with this man, who was in charge of organizing the partisan movement, intelligence work abroad, among the enemy. He will be charged with the combat task of identifying and destroying the subversive actions of the Nazi agency against the Soviet Union.
Slave is OPEN
Source: "Hurriyat" newspaper.
