His deeds eventually caught up with him, when he left his post to take another in military intelligence. There he was disgraced, when one of those in his command was exposed as a spy for the West.
Serov died in 1990 of a heart attack, at age 84.
But the gift of knowledge that he left his descendants and to humanity cannot be measured. It goes without saying that he knew what he was doing; knew that writing such information could mean his life. In fact, he hid the suitcases with his papers around 1971 — just around the time his superiors decided it was time to begin surveillance of his activities.
As head of security and intelligence in what was arguably the most dangerous place on earth after World War II, Serov knew full well the risk he was taking. And yet, he made sure the information would survive.
His historic, earth-shattering memoir was released as part of a museum exhibition curated by the Russian Military-Historical Society. It has yet to be published in a mass-market edition. A cursory search by JewishPress.com found it is not available in any language, either on the UK-based BookDepository.com international book-selling site, nor on the U.S.-based worldwide Amazon.com site.
