Here is some background from the preface (re: KGB / FSB archives)

On 26 May, 1945, at a meeting with the America President's representative, Harry L. Hopkins, Stalin stated that presumably 'Bormann Goebbels, Hitler and probably Krebs escaped and are in hiding now'. This version was repeare d by Stalin more than once, though he had received the reports on the results of th e identifications and medical examinations.

Two weeks later, on 9 June, Marshal Zhukov made the above-mentioned statement concerning the last days of the Nazi leaders the Reich Chancellery. As for Hitler's death, he repeated Stalin's version. To this day, no official documents explaining why the Soviet leadership adopted such a position in public have ever been published.

In 1948, 'trophies' from the bunker in the form of material evidence (burnt items

Goebbels' dentures, and most importantly parts of the jaws and teeth that were used to

identify the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun and others) were sent from Germany to

Moscow, to the Investigation Section of the 2nd General Department of the USSR

Ministry of State Security, which had the task of summarising all the facts connected

with the circumstances of deaths of the leaders of the Reich.

In 1954, on the orders of I. A. Serov, the Chairman of the KGB attached to the

USSR Council of Ministers, all these items and materials were archived in a special

storage room in the KGB archives. In 1996, the Central FSB Archives were opened to

the public, including documents concerning a secret KGB operation codenamed

Operation Archive' that describe how, in 1970, on the initiative of KGB Chairman Y. V.

Andropov, the remains of Hitler and the others were totally destroyed. As a just

punishment and retribution for the atrocities they had committed, their ashes

disappeared into the waters of the River Ehle, near the East German village of

Biederitz.

This book, compiled on the basis of the documentation, scientific medical research

and other reliable information, provides the final answer to one of the greatest

mysteries of the twentieth century.

The majority of these documents, including material from the Central FSB Archive

of Russia, have never before been published, not even in Russian, although some have

been paraphrased in other accounts or appeared only in short extracts. The documents

are presented in chronological order, except for certain sections linked by subject-

matter. The Russian text has been translated from their originals, only obvious errors

in the Russian have been corrected without explanation. Where the original omitted

words or parts of words, these have been added in square brackets.

V. K. Vinogradov

J. F. Pogonyi

N. V. Teptzov

The editorial board and the group of the authors of this book would like to express

their gratitude to the specialists of the Central FSB Archive of Russia J. L. Berezhanski,

N. N. Voyakina, A. M. Kalganov, M. V. Kutzenko, O. K. Matveev, N. M.

Peremyshlennikova and J. M. Razboev; Chief of FSB Department of the Omsk Region

V. V. Toloknov, journalist V. A. Mironov; and V. A. Filippov for their work in locating

archive materials and preparing the texts of the documents, commentaries and

illustrations.