Yuri Kobaladze Biography

The charming person, a recognized professional, Major General of the SVR of Russia Yuri Kobaladze has been holding the post of deputy dean of the faculty of international journalism in his native MGIMO for many years, where he reads a unique author’s course and brings up young personnel for the media. We decided to talk with him just about life - is there a topic easier and but let's talk about something else.

How do you like, for example, the fact that journalism has a female face today? We have the whole course true, small, 24 people were three girls. And now - three boys for girls. This is the situation. If my will, I would have changed this order, but what kind of institute of noble girls are! In fairness, I’ll say in fairness: many girls at this age are superior to boys, since they are more accurate, and are more serious.

Well, the boys are very talented. Just few of them, significantly fewer than girls. And now, due to what should she replenish? His graduates represented interest, but no more. I can’t imagine how all this works now, because for a long time not there. The world has changed. Today, and this is obvious, attracting a young man to work for reconnaissance by carrots, it is difficult to go abroad.

But no structure can live without renewal and new blood, so the renewal exactly occurs. With difficulty I represent this at this stage: I am about intelligence and about diplomacy. By the way, I, like many, were brought up in the spirit that our intelligence is the greatest of all. Do you agree with this? But the statement that our intelligence is the best is still controversial.

If it is compared with others, especially in Soviet times, during the Cold War, then, of course, she entered the top three of the strongest intelligence of the world: no one had such achievements like her. The CIA, created after the war, initially received colossal material injections. And this allowed them to achieve success, especially when the crisis of ideology in the USSR came.

Well, or take a memorable story of the year, when the Americans recruited 15 people, including intelligence officers ... It was like that. But in general, our intelligence has always coped with the tasks that stood before it, in terms of information, according to forecasts, key episodes of the Cold War. And I can say for sure that intelligence is a flexible structure, deftly adapts to the requirements and requests of time.

Now, of course, it is difficult for me to talk about this, since I have left intelligence for 20-25 years. But imagine when I worked, we did not even have computers! And when I left, the cables were dragged into the rooms. To be honest, I slightly imagine how all this works now, in completely new conditions. But it works. Recently, the SVR recently began to open its archives, but earlier ...-Oh, I am well familiar with this topic, because I headed the SVR press bureaus and we even once had a conversation with Primakov, who at that time headed the SVR.

I asked him: “Evgeny Maksimovich, isn't that a shameful situation? Look: in London you will go to any store, and there is a whole regiment of such literature! We had practically nothing but a few films - about Stirlitz and The Dead Season. And then, on the initiative of Primakov, it was decided to write a six -volumeter of “Essays on the History of Russian Foreign Intelligence”.

But these are the essays, and not a serious study, and serious scientific research - it seems like such as Christopher Andrew does in England - we still have no. There is a talented journalist Nikolai Dolgopolov and several more people who constantly write on these topics. But we would not have a scientist, journalist or group of people who, for example, on a documentary basis, for example, on a documentary basis.

As for the slightly greater openness of the structure, here you are right, in this part the situation has changed. There is a couple of Bezrukovs, for example, advised a multi-part film-about the life and activities of a couple of scouts-illegals. Marochko announced the recruitment of women - chemists and biologists for sending on his - I have no right to judge this. Of course, we are carrying a share of responsibility for this.

And when I hear from the lips of some speakers that our positions in the same Ukraine were weaker than that of the Americans, I ask the question: what, we could not calculate what was going on? But I do not know exactly what tasks were set before reconnaissance in this regard. After the collapse of the USSR, by the way, there were agreements between the former Union republics and Russian intelligence that we were not working against each other.

At what stage it was revised, I do not know. But now to assume that we are not working around Ukraine, it’s just funny.

Did you come up with it yourself? Now I read a course about the most important episodes of the Cold War. The other day, there was a conversation about the Caribbean crisis, my friend Vladimir Mikoyan came to the lecture, who knows the topic in great detail. I try not to be the only speaking head, I am looking for people who would arouse interest and trust in students.And Mikoyan has a famous grandfather, the father is the director of the Latin America Institute, they even thoroughly knew who rockets were imported to Cuba.

Mikoyan, who studied the archives of both grandfather and father, told them such interesting things that I myself listened to open my mouth. There are good guys and loafers. I am lucky, I have mostly good groups. With bad ones - I swear. I ask unpleasant questions. Why, I ask, you learn at the Institute of International - I emphasize - international!

Many students do not need to be taught to write, but we must learn to work with information, share the main and secondary, know the history of international relations and aspects of modern politics. Most Russians advocated the abolition of the exam-UV-F-F ... I am lectures at school now, I say to the guys: you need to prepare for admission! But as it happens.

At the interview, I sometimes offer applicants: choose the topic yourself that you want to talk to. And the topic is chosen. And they have nothing to tell them! How so? I didn’t read this, I don’t know that ... I remember that in the year of preparation for admission to the institute I was engaged in a damned, I read some memoirs, the history of diplomacy, the direction of foreign policy of the USSR, knew I understand that there was another era, but still!

I ask now: well, what's new? And they do not know - Putin said neither about Lavrov’s speech, nor in an appeal to the Federal Assembly. They don’t read anything, they don’t listen to the radio, they don’t watch television. The latter, however, is good, but it is possible to use other sources of information-telegram channels, newspapers ... I say to them: I don’t care where you scoop the information where you understand in which country and in which world we live.

Of course, maybe if we had the Internet and the opportunity to listen and watch anything, we would not sit all day after books. But our main source of knowledge was the book. Relatively speaking, “Master and Margarita” appeared, and if you did not read it within ten days, then there was no longer a particularly full -fledged person ... Now, if in the corridor a student shows a book and says - now, I bought the one that you advised, I say to him: “Thank you, I am happy.” On the other hand, I often think that the times for young people are not simple now.

I don’t know what is better-our previous system, when they gave a referral to work with a diploma, as it was with TASS, or as now, when they do not impose a certain place, you yourself choose one of my friends who occupy a noticeable place in the media, said to me once: “And we do not need your graduates. We have our own training school, there is no personnel hunger ...

”And here's how?! The then Deputy Lapin, the Legend of Legend Enver Mamedov, allocated me kilometers of film and camera, I learned to shoot and learned to do this-until the professional operator arrived. Now they come to me for an interview and record a video on a small apparatus that shoots almost better than those cameras with a film. And any era will give birth to talents.

In the metro’s picture, 70 years ago, the whole car was busy with books with books. And now everything is with mobile phones, even the elderly, and you will not meet the open book in the subway. I began to somehow remember the old days, so the student says to me: Yuri Georgievich, you would still remember the king of peas. Another era! Good, bad - I don't know. I know that you were friendly tell us about it.

There was Khrushchev. After the Caribbean crisis, how did we “stain it”? Voluntarist, unrestrained, so-and-so, "corner." But you begin to study everything calmly and understand - but in his behavior there was logic, he achieved a lot, outplayed the same Americans in the Caribbean crisis. The same with Gorbachev. I think the time will come when we recognize and realize his merits.

After all, he managed to stop the nuclear weapons race, agree with the Americans. Did he make mistakes?