Reconnaissance ends where they shoot. To work, a scout needs intelligence, knowledge, a stable psyche and love for his homeland. Military-applied knowledge and skills are undoubtedly a useful aid, but they are needed mainly by military intelligence officers and specialized reconnaissance units operating in specific combat conditions. The life of an intelligence officer consists of many interdependent events, factors and details, and it is possible to display all this diversity within the framework of one book hardly seems possible. The author, based on his own operational experience and the experience of his colleagues, tried to give the most objective picture of the life of a Soviet intelligence officer from 1960 to 1990.