The book by N.M. Golushko is the memoirs and testimonies of an employee of state security agencies, who went from an ordinary operative to the Chairman of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, a member of the Board of the KGB of the USSR, the Minister of Security, then the Director of the Federal Counterintelligence Service of the Russian Federation and stood at the origins of education independent national intelligence services of Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR. Within the framework of what is reasonable and permitted by professional ethics and conspiracy, the author analyzes the fateful events of the socio-political life of the country: the destruction of the Soviet Union, the acts of the State Emergency Committee, the liquidation of the KGB of the USSR, the irreconcilable confrontation between the presidential and parliamentary branches of government, the dramatic events of October 1993, etc. Tragic destinies intelligence services, the conditions in which they were placed by time and law have so far been little studied and described. The author allows the reader to form his own point of view regarding the image of security officers based on the realities of the environment in which they had to operate. The book will be of interest to a new generation of security officers and a wide range of readers.