For the first time, the book attempts to recreate the life path of Lieutenant General Pavel Yakovlevich Meshik (1910-1953), who was shot in the Beria case, replete with sharp turns. At the center of the story is his work in the Soviet "atomic project" and as the "chief security officer" of Ukraine.The author, a veteran of state security agencies, based on documentary material and memoirs of contemporaries, shows the inseparability of the contradictory fate of Meshik from the dramatic events of Soviet history in the 1930s and 1950s. The book will be interesting to anyone who is interested in national history.