 Korotkov was Soviet intelligence agent, who had been operating clandestinely in Europe for much of the 1930's as an employee of the foreign intelligence service of the Soviet People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB).Korotkow assigned the code name "Starshina" to Schulze-Boysen, a Soviet military rank, as Harnack brought him into the operation.Without being aware of the exact activity of his counterpart at the time, Schulze-Boysen informed him in the conversation that the attack on the Soviet Union had now been finally decided and would take place in the shortest possible time.