Vladimir Efimovich Semichastny, party and statesman, chairman of the KGB in 1961–1967, was one of the “young reformers” who declared themselves during the “thaw” and were displaced from the political Olympus during the era of “stagnation”, although it was he together with A. Shelepin, played a big role in changing the leadership of the USSR in 1964. According to the recollections of the Colonel General, not all projects for the removal of Khrushchev assumed a bloodless outcome... The characteristics given by Semichastny to the leaders of our country force us to take a fresh look at Brezhnev, who “ dragged the country to failure,” and on Andropov, an “unprincipled and spineless person” who failed to prepare a project for the country’s exit from the crisis, and on the irresponsible projector Gorbachev... In addition, Semichastny shares his memories of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the Penkovsky case, the escape for border of Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva, which put an end to his career as a security officer.