The legendary story about President Putin.

President Putin has been in power for nearly four years, but most Russians only know that he is a native of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and has been a sports fan since childhood-judo, wrestling, swimming, skiing, equestrian and many other sports are good at everything. Besides, they still know little about the current president. At present, with the rising popularity and prestige of Putin, especially the approaching of the new presidential election, people are eager to know more about President Putin, especially "Putin in the past". That is, before Putin became president, what kind of person was he in the eyes of his acquaintances? What extraordinary experience did Putin have when he was young?

In order to satisfy people's above wishes, reporter Elisov of Moscow Youth Daily made a special trip to St. Petersburg and other places for an in-depth investigation. During the investigation, the reporter interviewed several comrades-in-arms of Putin in his early years in the KGB. ...

Join the KGB

1In the summer of 975, Putin, who was just over 2 1 year old, graduated with honors from the Law Department of Leningrad University and was assigned to the KGB 40 1 secret school.

Putin studied in 40 1 school for only one year. Because of his outstanding achievements, he was assigned to a reconnaissance unit of the KGB and worked in its secret service every day. The Secret Service undertakes a special task: tracking foreigners and diplomats of foreign embassies. As we all know, this is no secret. Countries all over the world, without exception, closely monitor foreign embassies.

At that time, the general agent didn't have his own office and telephone. So several of them have to squeeze into a house, and each room has only one telephone, which brings them a lot of inconvenience. People often argue over the phone. Young Putin is already a lieutenant. Being competitive, he is often at the center of argument. Putin always rudely grabs the only phone and talks to friends outside the bureau. To this end, colleagues joked that he was an "expert on calling."

"Putin can do this because leaders attach great importance to him and often treat him differently." Victor Frolikov, a colleague of Putin, said, "He also has a work permit from the criminal investigation department of the detachment. This is special treatment. In our reconnaissance unit, there are only a few people who hold this certificate at best. No one knows what task Putin is carrying out. We can't ask. At that time, we had a clear rule: don't ask what you shouldn't know, and don't ask about colleagues' work at will. "

Soon, Putin attended a German refresher course organized by the Secret Service. Who can get this opportunity is completely decided by the department head. According to Frolikov, only the most promising people can be sent to advanced research classes. The refresher course lasts for two hours three times a week. Initially, there were 8 to 10 students in each class, and each class lasted for four years. The advanced class strictly implements the principle of survival of the fittest. Therefore, even if there is only half left when you graduate, it is still very good. This German class does not issue diplomas, only diplomas, and foreign language scores are stored in personal files. 12

"Volodya (Putin's nickname) was recommended to me by one of our superiors." Colonel sergey petrov, then head of the Secret Service, recalled with deep affection, "The first time I talked with Putin, I immediately felt that he was alert, outstanding and had excellent analytical skills. Intelligence work needs people with high IQ and broad vision most. The young officer in front of me is such a person. So, we didn't talk for a few words, and I fell in love with Putin deeply.

Soon, Putin was sent to Hongqi College. For many young KGB officials, this is a dream.

"Since Putin has performed so well with you, why did you let him go?" The reporter asked Petrov puzzled.

"It is true that I personally funded Putin to go to Hongqi College." Petrov pondered for a moment and said with deep affection: "To tell the truth, I really don't want to let an excellent and young officer like Putin go easily. But I know that Putin needs to further improve his business, even though he was promoted to major at that time. Volodya has a bright future and will surely succeed in the future. As the saying goes, a swift horse cannot run out of the yard. I don't want to leave Putin with us and delay his bright future. "

Learn good skills

Hongqi College is now ballas Institute of Foreign Intelligence, but not long ago, the villagers nearby and the outside world mistakenly thought it was a confidential research institute under the Ministry of National Defense.

Time flies when the stars move. Putin's alumni have already parted ways from Hongqi College and scattered all over the country. Fortunately, the reporter from Moscow Youth Daily found two people who were familiar with Putin's situation at that time: one was Colonel Alexander Kobelov, the former head of Putin's department; The other is gleb Novikov, a classmate of Putin, who is now a major general of the Russian Federal Security Service. When I heard that the reporter wanted to know about President Putin's study and life in Hongqi College, both of them talked about the situation in Kan Kan. As a result, many little-known things about Putin were salvaged from the depths of their memories. ...

"If you want to enter Hongqi College, you must go to Moscow for a rigorous examination. Only if your grades are qualified can you step into the threshold of this school, "Major General Novikov from the outer suburbs of St. Petersburg spoke first. "Admission mainly depends on the level of students' foreign language knowledge. The quality of a foreign language determines the whole learning cycle. The academic system is three years of complete ignorance of a foreign language, two years of proficiency and one year of proficiency. Putin and I speak foreign languages as fluently as Russian, so we both study for one year. "

"After the official start of school, freshmen such as Putin were placed in a gray four-story building in our college." Sitting there, belov stopped and said, "There is high-voltage barbed wire around the building. Plainclothes guards are armed with live ammunition and patrol around the building day and night with police dogs. "

When they arrived in a new place, these freshmen were sent to an airborne division in Polga, southwest Ukraine for special training before they could get to know each other and get familiar with the surrounding environment. Speaking of this training, Major General Novikov still has a lingering fear.

"Do you know what kind of training we received there?" Novikov asked himself and answered, "The first is the so-called' drilling tanks'. At the beginning of training, several tanks chased you at the same time. When I arrived at the training ground in Ma Pingchuan, I didn't even have a trench. You stand on a flat ground and watch this monster come straight at you. At this critical moment, you must dive under this water tank quickly and accurately. The most important thing here is to drill just right, then lie still and hold your breath to avoid hitting the track of the rumbling tank. A little carelessness or mistake will kill you. Just for this kind of training, I didn't know how many tragedies happened before. "

According to the reporter's understanding, in the new training program, drilling tanks is actually far from the most extreme training subject. What these future intelligence personnel really feel terrible is the test of skydiving in the highlands.

"The second training is highland skydiving. We should put on training clothes with straps, such as parachutes and umbrellas, and then jump off the high ground. Oh, this is terrible! " Novikov continued to immerse himself in deep memories. "It was in this highland that I first met Putin. We both jumped off the highland in tandem. When we were about to land, we began to slow down the descent. I have been dragging Putin. Suddenly ... the umbrella rope broke. The ground where we are going to land is very hard. The corn has just been harvested and the corn stalks are scattered on the ground. Putin held me tightly and I began to fall. But I actually had time to turn over in the air. Finally, we fell to the ground, and then we stood firm. I don't understand. How can it be so close? Putin is embarrassed to say that he used a trick of judo and helped me. That's how we met. I also like to practice judo. Like Putin, I have won the judo championship in our city. By the way, many of us didn't know each other's real names until the day before graduation. "

The monitor took the lead in buying wine.

At Hongqi College, all students use aliases. At first, many students accidentally let slip their names because they were not used to it. But Putin never makes mistakes. At that time, Putin assumed the alias of Platov. Interestingly, this name was personally given to him by Ke belov, the dean of the department.

Every morning, students have to get up early to run, but Putin tried to avoid it from the beginning and went swimming in the school swimming pool alone.

"What do the teachers in your school learn?" The reporter asked Ke belov.

"Our teaching principle is to apply what we have learned and teach the practical skills of these future intelligence personnel in their future work." Belov explained, "There is no adulteration or tenderness here. Our teacher's teaching is very specific, with clear purpose and strict requirements. During school, students must learn a full range of self-defense techniques, such as unarmed combat and using swords and guns to deal with the enemy. Senior experts also teach students the culture, customs, national characteristics and history of various countries. "

"It says that students will receive special training at school. What is special about this kind of training? " The reporter couldn't help asking again.

"Especially in all aspects, it can also be said that this kind of training is all-encompassing." Novikov said firmly, "Take driving for example. The instructor with stunts not only teaches us to drive, but also teaches us to observe while driving, that is, every student should learn to drive skillfully and learn to watch accurately all the way. When driving, the instructor may suddenly ask the car number of the car behind us. The order of car brands that can be seen in the rearview mirror is reversed! As soon as the instructor's voice falls, you must read it word for word! We all joked that this is the real' retrogression'. But this is just a piece of cake, and the harder part is yet to come. For example, the instructor also asked us to reverse the car quickly on the winding path in the forest. Even if it suddenly rains, this kind of training can't stop for a moment. At first, you couldn't drive all the way to the ditch on the side of the road, but in the end you got handy driving skills. "

After teaching the new students superb driving skills, the instructors also taught them to practice shooting, requiring everyone to be a sharpshooter. Young Putin is the best among these new students. He can drive any car skillfully and use any gun skillfully.

"Oh, we have to play football twice a week." Novikov suddenly remembered and said, "It was a fierce and wild game. Putin and I called back. The two of us held the foot hook, elbowed and ran from side to side on the court, and rarely let our opponents get close to our goal. Putin's kicking movements are coordinated, with a strong sense of direction and tacit cooperation. "

"Are you close to Putin?"

"yes. We are very moody. Even our birthdays are the same day. " Novikov said happily, "I still clearly remember our birthdays together in the college: we set the table in the dormitory and invited the students to get together." We tell jokes, talk about mountains, eat jam, drink tea and play chess together. The laughter in the dormitory is endless, and everyone has been reluctant to leave for a long time ... "

"Don't you drink some wine when you drink tea like this?"

"Drinking is strictly prohibited in the dormitory. Once someone is found drinking, the school will stamp his name on the wall newspaper and count him as informed criticism. However, we also have ways to deal with it. Here's what we do: ask the teacher for leave after class. Suppose you run in the wild and exercise. After leaving, we quietly ran to a nearby village under the leadership of our monitor Putin and bought private wine from the villagers. The local villagers gave away herring with wine for free. We hid in the dense forest, sat on the stump, sipping strong liquor and enjoying the beautiful scenery around us. However, everyone can still master the sense of proportion and try to restrain themselves. Therefore, none of us has ever been drunk. "

"Didn't you get caught doing this?" The reporter asked in a curious tone.

"In fact, everyone in our recruitment school knows that this is no secret!" Novikov smiled. "Doing this at school is actually passed down from generation to generation. Teachers are like us students. When they were students, they lived such a harsh and austere life. They asked for leave from the leader and lied that they were going to run in the Woods and move in the arms of the birch forest. But when they returned to school, they were all red noses and drunk. The teacher knows exactly what we are doing. They just understand our situation and turn a blind eye. "