For the first time, using a number of previously unknown documents, a comprehensive study of the formation and development of Soviet military intelligence and military counterintelligence during the Civil War was carried out; the organization and activities of the first Soviet body of military intelligence, counterintelligence and censorship - the Operations Department of the People's Commissariat of Military Affairs - were analyzed for the first time; the history of the Intelligence and Military Control Courses, which became the first body for training intelligence officers in Russia; “the espionage case” of one of the founding fathers of the GRU, Georgiy Teodori. The pages of the book examine: the origins of the Soviet intelligence services and the preparation of a new generation of their employees, the formation and development of Soviet military intelligence and military counterintelligence agencies. The main attention is paid to the evolution of the organizational structure and personnel of the intelligence services.