Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov (; ; July 7, 1907 – September 24, 1996) was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union; over a career spanning 34 years, he would ultimately attain the rank of lieutenant general in the Soviet Armed Forces. Sudoplatov was involved in several major Soviet intelligence operations, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940, as well as Operation Scherhorn, a Soviet deception operation conducted during World War II. He also stated that he was in charge of the Soviet espionage program which obtained information about the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project. His autobiography, Special Tasks, published in 1994, made him well known outside the USSR, and provided a detailed account of Soviet intelligence and Soviet internal politics during his years at the top. However, some of the claims Sudoplatov made have been challenged by historians. Early life and career Sudoplatov was born in Melitopol, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire (in present-day Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine), to a Russian mother and a Ukrainian father, and was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1919, at the age of 12, he left home and joined a Red Army regiment near Melitopol. He served in combat against both the White Army and the Ukrainian nationalist movement during the Russian Civil War. Functions in political police and intelligence apparatus Sudoplatov was recruited into the Cheka in 1921, at the age of fourteen, and was promoted to the Secret Political Department (SPO) of the Ukrainian State Political Directorate (OGPU) in 1927. He transferred to the Soviet OGPU in 1933, moving to Moscow, and soon after became an "illegal", operating under cover in a number of European countries. Assassination of Yevhen Konovalets On May 23, 1938 in Rotterdam, Sudoplatov assassinated Yevhen Konovalets, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, by giving him a box of chocolates containing a bomb. According to Sudoplatov, the order to assassinate Konovalets came directly from Joseph Stalin, who had personally told him: "This is not just an act of revenge, although Konovalets is an agent of German fascism. Our goal is to behead the movement of Ukrainian fascism on the eve of the war and force these "gangsters" to annihilate each other in a struggle for power." After delivering the bomb to Konovalets, Sudoplatov calmly walked away and waited nearby to verify that it had successfully detonated. He then walked to Rotterdam's railway station and boarded