Fitin became deputy chief of the NKVD 's foreign intelligence in 1938 , then a year later at the age of thirty-one became chief . The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service credits Fitin with rebuilding the depleted foreign intelligence department after Stalin 's Great Terror . Fitin also is credited with providing ample warning of the German Invasion of 22 June 1941 that began the Great Patriotic War . Only the actual invasion saved Fitin from execution for providing the head of the NKVD , Lavrenty Beria , with information General Secretary of the CPSU , Joseph Stalin did not want to believe . Beria retained Fitin as chief of foreign intelligence until the war ended but demoted him
Great Terror
Great Purge
First Chief Directorate