This study clarifies the conclusions of the article «Operation “Everest”» (1944). To the History of the Members of the Surviving Soviet Intelligence Group That Was Part of the «Pickaxe Scheme», published in the journal «Russia and the contemporary world» (2020. No. 1). The assumptions of German academics and documentary filmmakers put forward after this journal published an article about Soviet agents parachuted from Britain over the Reich in February 1944 have made it possible to identify the agent who hitherto has only been known under his aliases as «Gorelov» from the files of Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and books on Russia’s military intelligence known as GRU. The identification of agent «Gorelov» as a German communist and a veteran of the Spanish civil war named Ernst Beuthke allows to add important details as to how the joint operation of SOE and the Intelligence directorates of Soviet NKVD / NKGB also included a «quota» for the Intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army (a.k.a. GRU). An additional intrigue, though, lies in the rumor that «Gorelov», despite solid information on his execution by Gestapo during the war, was reportedly sighted in postwar Moscow.
Ernst Beuthke; Elsa Noffke; «Red Orchestra»; Operation «Tonic»; Pickaxe scheme; WW2.