Despite its great popularity in cinema and fiction, the activities of Soviet military intelligence during the Great Patriotic War were practically not examined in documentation, and its heroic achievements are hidden under a veil of myths and legends, primarily born of modern cinema. A new book by a famous military historian, using materials from not only Russian but also foreign archives, shows the real actions of reconnaissance units of the Red Army. Readers will get acquainted with the equipment and training of military reconnaissance officers, various aspects of the service, selection of personnel for reconnaissance units, their training and material support, as well as those the problems of Soviet military intelligence that it faced at the beginning of the war, and ways to overcome them during combat operations. The author shows that the capture of “tongues” by intelligence officers was not a private initiative, but part of a strategic system to determine the enemy’s grouping, both on the entire front and in its individual sections. The book contains descriptions of individual reconnaissance searches that ended with different results. Readers will be able to find out how they were prepared, carried out and what feats and tragedies took place in the lives of the heroes of Soviet military intelligence, whose names are still unknown. In addition, the book describes the actions of the military intelligence of the Wehrmacht as an enemy of the Red Army. Its activities also still remain a “blank spot” in the history of the war on the Eastern Front. The reader will be able to understand how formidable the German reconnaissance groups were for the Soviet troops.