Legendary Ukrainian intelligence agent turns 95

The Museum of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry’s hosted an exposition dedicated to Yevhen Berezniak, a person who became a legend in his lifetime.

This legendary intelligence agent is the prototype of the protagonist in the famous movie “Major Vikhr” based on the book by Yulian Semenov. Upon graduation from the Moscow Intelligence School of the Chief Intelligence Department, Berezniak headed a group of servicemen codenamed “Voice.” In August 1944 this group landed on the territory of Poland near Krakow and for 156 days transmitted the much needed information to the Soviet Army from the occupied area. Eventually, this made it possible to free the city from the German occupants.

After graduating from a pedagogic college and an institute in Lviv and until the beginning of World War II, Berezniak, who originally hails from Dnipropetrovsk, worked as a teacher and school principal in Dnipropetrovsk oblast and later as the head of the Lviv City Department of Popular Education. He continued his pedagogic activity after the end of the war as the head of the Lviv City Department of Popular Education (1945–52), head of the Department of Education Institutions of the Lviv Railway (1952–54), head of the Chief Department for Schools of the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian SSR (1954–84). In 1998 he finished his career in the position of the Senior Researcher at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine.

Berezniak was awarded high orders and medals of the Soviet Union, independent Ukraine, and Poland, including the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degrees, Partisan Cross (Krzy Partyzancki) from the Polish government, etc. In 1961 he received the honorary title of the Merited Teacher of Ukraine. He is also an honorary citizen of Kyiv and Krakow and an honorary academician of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine.

In August 2001 the president of Ukraine issued an edict, giving Lieutenant Colonel Yevhen Berezniak (retired) the title of the Hero of Ukraine and decorating him with the order of Golden Star. On April 24, 2005, Ukraine’s minister of defense promoted him to the rank of major general (retired). But, in spite of numerous awards, Berezniak remains a simple man, and many generations will be learn from his examples of courage.