Alexander Lukin, one of the oldest Soviet security officers, worked in the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR in the thirties and personally took part in the operation described in the story. He is also known to readers as the author of stories, short stories and essays about Soviet intelligence officers. During the Great Patriotic War, A. Lukin was deputy for intelligence of the Hero of the Soviet Union D. Medvedev, commander of the famous special detachment operating in Hitler's rear. The story is based on the events of a complex operation carried out by Soviet counterintelligence officers in the early thirties, in which A. Lukin himself participated. The story “Deceptive Silence” is based on real events: in 1933–1934, in the city of Nikolaev, state security agencies discovered and liquidated a German espionage and sabotage organization. Well, Alexei Karotin, an employee of the Odessa GPU, was very interested in the frequent visits to Nizhnelimansk and employees of German companies. But there, the shipyard. And new submarines are being built. And there may be a leak of secret information. And so, a business trip. And the first information is already being released. A German intelligence resident works here. About the disclosure of an extensive network of German intelligence agents, about the mystery of the death of the new battleship "Empress Maria" during the First World War and much more. And then it was 1933... In 1966, a shortened version of the story was published in the Smena magazine under the title “In Silence, Before Thunder.” Based on the story in 1989, director Gennady Poloka made the film “Was there Carotene?” The author of the illustrations is A. Nikolaev