Rank: Major Branch of troops: the USSR Navy and the Naval Forces of the NKVD Border Troops Tolmachev Mikhail Ivanovich was born in 1912 in the village Pupki of the Ranenburg district of the Ryazan province (now the Chaplyginsky district, Lipetsk region). At the age of 14, he left with his father to Moscow to work, from July 1929 to April 1930 he worked as a carpenter on the Construction of the Velozavod, then another year at the Dynamo plant, until 1934 as a Technician - rate setter at various plants. In 1934 (at the age of 22) he entered to study in the city of Kronstadt as a cadet - Radio Operator of an Electronic School, then he was a Senior Radio Operator for a long time. Until 1943 he had been Starshina, Super-conscript Radio Operator at the disposal of the department of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army. From 1944 to 1946 he had been a Technician - Lieutenant of the 4th Regiment of the Pacific Fleet. From September 1946 to July 1948 he graduated from the Navy courses in Leningrad (special radio courses). From July 1948 to October 1948 he had been Senior officer, 2nd group, UBF. From December 1947 until his retirement he was at the disposal of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of V.S. (order 0461 GU), with the rank of Captain, then Major. According to his wife Anna, it is known that after completing the Kronstadt courses, he was sent to Japan (Tokyo) to work at the embassy, where he was with his family before the war. It was during his watch that the famous R. Sorge conveyed information about the beginning of the Second World War to the embassy. He was awarded in the period from 1941 to 1946 the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, the Medal for Military Merit, in 1946 the Medal for Victory over Japan and then eight more jubilee medals. There is also "Kortik" No. 05562 dated 1947. Due to the confidentiality of Mikhail Ivanovich's service, the family still does not have detailed information for which military services he was awarded high government awards. From the memoirs of his daughter (my grandmother) it is known that the location of his military service was the Far East (Russky Island, St. Helena Island), and in the post-war years - the embassy in Romania, Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia).