Thematic justification of the study of foreign languages is more obvious in connection with the globalization of the world, the exchange of information and the transformation of international cooperation of states into a real necessity. The novelty of the research is dictated by the insignificant circle of historiography on the problem under consideration and the emergence of new sources such as memoirs, archival materials, and diaries of participants in the events. The subject of this research is the role of foreign languages, which was realized by the leadership of the USSR in the 1930s, the training of military linguists and their role during the Great Patriotic War. In the system of public education conditions were created for the training of personnel and the material base. The research methodology includes historicism and objectivity, which make it possible to show the training of specialists in the formation and development, the contribution of military linguists to propaganda against the enemy during the war, to evaluate the optics of peoples’ perception of each other. The prosopographic method made it possible to highlight specific biographies of military linguists, whom fate brought to the forefront of historical events, whether it was the translation of the testimony of a prisoner of war German officer, on whose recognition depended the fate of a local operation or a large-scale offensive, to participation in the meetings of the Nuremberg Trials of the highest political and military leaders of the Third Reich, which has been studied and evaluated by historians and jurists for 65 years. We have used official documents, memoirs, notes and diaries of military linguists of the war years, archival documents.