The collection contains documents of Soviet military intelligence from January 1939 to June 1941, many of which are published for the first time. The published materials give a fairly complete picture of the activities of the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army during the specified period. They show the role of military intelligence in informing the Soviet leadership about the aggressive plans of Nazi Germany and its allies and make it possible to more fully understand the most complex events and problems of that time, in particular, why the tragic events of the initial period of the Great Patriotic War became possible.