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After a West German agent overheard a remark at Stasi headquarters, paraphrased as "I wonder how things are going in Cuba" he passed it on to the CIA. Soon there was a plan for an exfiltration, the CIAs term for spiriting an agent in danger out of a foreign country. It is possible that Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk fell under KGB suspicion through some operational error or communications intercept. They had to go through a show trial, basically, so on the stand Wynne accused MI6 of using him as a dupehe may have just been saying whatever he could say because he worried they might execute him, says Jeremy Duns, an author of several spy novels set during the Cold War as well as the history book Codename: Hero: The True Story of Oleg Penkovsky and the Cold Wars Most Dangerous Operation. Thats when they showed me a piece of paper with the words, I met Joe, Andrei told me. He was to stand on a certain Moscow street corner on a designated day and time until he saw a British-looking man who was eating something. Its OK. To be dead or to be alive was the question for my dad. But as he began researching Wynnes story, he learned that this ordinary man could also tell some extraordinary lies. The Soviets had arranged for the apparent good news to reach his wife through a friend and former co-worker in Moscow, who wrote to her in Lagos. It also gave US President John F. Kennedy, during the Cuban Missile Crisis that followed, valuable information about Soviet weakness that allowed him to face down Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and resolve the crisis without a nuclear war. Inside the CIA, Howard was blamed for Tolkachevs unmasking and subsequent execution, although Ames, too, had betrayed the researchers identity. Poleshchuk was lured back to his fate. At least the timeline based on what Ames said when he was debriefed.If it wasnt Ames, then it was someone else, so we began to search for the source of the compromise, Wiser said. But some highly experienced U.S. counterintelligence experts doubt it. Three other officers were also disciplined. He had never told his wife that he was working for the CIAit would have put her in mortal dangerbut now he had to say something. His first attempt was to approach two American students in Moscow. [4], Greville Wynne, a British salesman of industrial equipment to countries behind the Iron Curtain, was recruited by MI6 to communicate with Penkovksy. We know very well that youve been deceiving us for years, he said. Here's what to know about Wynne's real history. In addition to Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk, more than a dozen other sources were exposed. "In a way, it's a love letter to Penkovsky,"Cumberbatch says. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lore and popular culture tout Col. Oleg Penkovsky as "the spy who saved the world" during the Berlin and Cuban missile crises. After a meeting in Paris in September 1961, Penkovskys next trips were mysteriously cancelled at the last minute. Penkovsky-wynne spy trial, May 1963, a Sanyo portable transistor radio . He was about to be married, and his debts were mounting. The mole isnt just some guy who stole a few secrets. Dun s denouement is both startling and convincing a fitting climax to this irresistible real life thriller Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday 'This excellent book contains lessons that are still valid in the 21st century' --Oleg Gordievsky, Literary Review 'This excellent book contains lessons that are still valid in the 21st . It was in my fathers handwriting. Leonid Poleshchuk knew his first CIA case officer, who had recruited him in Nepal, as Joe. The Cuban Missile Crisis was high-stakes brinkmanship played out between US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, bringing Washington and Moscow to the precipice of nuclear war in October 1962. OConnor makes clear that The Courier is not a documentary, even as he explains that he took pains to stick to the facts as much as they could be ascertaineddrawing on works such as Jerrold L. Shecter and Peter S. Deriabins The Spy Who Saved the World: How a Soviet Colonel Changed the Course of the Cold War and other accounts that could be trusted more than Wynnes own inventions. The film seeshim arrested on a plane leaving Moscow and does not delve into his show trial for spying alongside PenkovskyinMay 1963. Faced with these unexplained losses, the CIA in October 1986 set up a small, highly secret mole-hunting unit to uncover the cause of this disaster. Afterward, we drove to a home in Virginia for a reception, where I met Joe, Andrei told me in a conversation over lunch at a restaurant tucked away on a side street in Washington. He didnt have a choice. Today, Sergei and Alla live quietly in the Sun Belt under his new identity. Oleg Penkovskiy. [10], The Soviet leadership began the deployment of nuclear missiles, in the belief that Washington would not detect the Cuban missile sites until it was too late to do anything about them. But this Land Rovers driveshaft had been rerouted through one of the vehicles doors, the former CIA officer says, so that Gordievsky could fold himself into the hump, in effect hiding in plain sight. A large man let him in and flashed a badge. The film sees him arrested on a plane leaving. In fact, his contribution to U.S. intelligence and policymaking is exaggerated, distorted, and in several instances falsified. Oleg and Vera are both even-tempered and have mutual respect for each other. During the 1960s, a corrosive mole hunt led by James J. Angleton, the CIAs counterintelligence chief, led to institutional paranoia, paralyzed operations aimed at the Soviet Union, and disrupted the lives of many innocent CIA officers who were fired or sidetracked in their careers. The Untold Truth of Hugh Hefner's Son - David Hefner. They had a sumptuous lunchBokhan knew it might be his last meal with his familyand Maria bought a stuffed Greek doll called a patatuff. He decided to leave Athensbut not for Moscow. Privacy Statement Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (Russian: ; 23 April 1919 16 May 1963), codenamed HERO,[1] was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) colonel during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In one of his biggest whoppers, Wynne explains that he and Penkovsky took a trip together in a private military jet from the U.K. to Washington, D.C. Though a former colonel of the 'KGB' by designation, who was appointed "resident-designate" at the . Toasty. Penkovsky informed the United States and the United Kingdom about Soviet military secrets, most importantly, the appearance and footprint of Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missile installations and the weakness of the Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile program. In June he was expelled from the Central Committee for 'having relaxed his political vigilance.' The information he provided on the Soviets . His character's execution was the opening scene for the movie. After they drove home, he packed a gym bag and announced that he was going for a jog. The year 1985 was a catastrophe for U.S. and British intelligence agencies. When the driver turned off the engine, Gordievsky could hear dogs close byAlsatians, he later learned. Considerado como el doble agente ms valioso que tuvo Occidente durante la Guerra Fra, Penkovsky ofreci informacin que le dio al gobierno de Kennedy una ventaja clave durante la Crisis de . Long after the massive losses in 1985, the lingering questions still gnaw at their counterintelligence experts. And the intelligence culture is not going to let that go. The agents he betrayed that day, he has said, included Oleg Gordievsky, whose CIA code name was GTTICKLE; Sergei Bokhan, or GTBLIZZARD; and Leonid Poleshchuk, or GTWEIGH. In his fourth-floor office at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, he wrapped up five to seven pounds of secret documents and walked out of the building. Among the materials Penkovsky provided to Wynne were four photocopies of plans for construction sites of missile-launching installations in Cuba. He was arrested by the Soviets in October 1962, and then tried and executed the following year. Bokhan assumed that both the KGB and the GRU were watching him. Donec gravida mi a condimentum rutrum. He asked them to deliver it to an intelligence officer at the US Embassy. Penkovsky's American contacts received a letter from him notifying them that a Moscow dead drop had been loaded. In 1962, Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky defied his country to save the world from nuclear war then paid for his heroism with his life. His MI6 handlers assured him theyd picked up no sign anything was wrong. He worked as a double agent for the British secret service during the Cold War, between 1974 and 1985. [13], Penkovsky was arrested on 22 October 1962. This information was decisive in allowing the US to recognize that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba before most of them were operational. He was flown to Moscow, imprisoned, and tried alongside Penkovsky, who it would later be learned had been arrested the week before Wynne entered Hungary. The Cuban Missile Crisis. After Penkovsky and Wynne were captured by the KGB, which happened very similar to how their capture is depicted in the film, the GRU lieutenant colonel been convicted of treason and sentenced to death by firing squad. On September 21, 1985, Howard eluded FBI surveillance and escaped into the New Mexico desert with the help of his wife, Mary, and a pop-up dummy in his cars passenger seat (a technique he had learned in CIA training). Strange" to Sherlock Holmes. U.S. counterintelligence agents have established that neither Howard nor Hanssen had access to the identities of all the American intelligence sources who were betrayed in 1985. But unlike other famous characters, his personality, the role he played and what . harvp error: no target: CITEREFSchecterDeriabinPenkovskij1992 (. He was free. In October 1962, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were on the brink of nuclear war after Soviet nuclear missiles were spotted in Cuba. A KGB general told him he had confessed. I knew many heads in the KGB had rolled again, as they had after Stalin". [20] The head of the GRU, Ivan Serov was sacked during the same period. On this trip, Penkovsky submitted to hours of interviews with British and American intelligence officials about the Soviet Unions military and political developments. Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky, (born April 23, 1919, Vladikavkaz, Russiadied May 1963?, U.S.S.R.), senior Soviet military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for the United Kingdom and the United States. It was the signal to launch his escape. A drink-lovingbon vivante as portrayed onscreen, Wynne'sreal-life salesmanship and genuine naivet made him perfect for throwing off serious suspicion. [17] A similar description was later included in Ernest Volkman's popular history book about spies, Tom Clancy's novel Red Rabbit and in Viktor Suvorov's book Aquarium. He had planned to write a memoir but died of malariabefore he could begin. His dining companion, Dickie Franks, revealed himself to be an officer of the. As a top ranking Russian officer, he sinks into the depts and rises to the heights of international intrigue. Wynne went along, slightly concerned about whether Penkovsky was on the level and concerned about putting himself into a dangerous situation, kicking off what would be one of the most productive clandestine operations in Cold War history. Her eyes were empty. What happened to wife of Oleg Penkovsky? In 1945, Penkovsky married the teenage daughter of Lieutenant-General Dmitri Gapanovich, thus acquiring another high-ranking patron. Among the explanations are a desire for money or fame, a ruinous case of alcoholism, or perhaps even psychological scars left by his time in Soviet prison or the shame he felt for publicly turning against British intelligence during the trial. According to an official Soviet announcement, he was executed on May 16, 1963, though other reports have him committing suicide while in a Soviet camp. He attended the prestigious Frunze Military Academy in 194548. Thanks to his priceless information the Cuban crisis was not transformed into a last World War". On the front door of his apartment, someone had locked a third lock he never used because he had lost the key; he had to break in. Wynne, despite claiming ignorance of what materials he was smuggling to the West, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The daughter of a Russian mother . In July 1994, Leslie Wiser, the FBI agent who unmasked Ames, flew to London to interview Gordievsky. The programme featured original covert KGB footage showing Penkovsky photographing classified information and meeting up with Janet Chisholm, a British MI6 agent stationed in Moscow. Businessman Greville Wynne is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Leonid and his wife, Lyudmila, had been back two weeks when the KGB showed up at their door. If I was waiting for the elevator, they went down the stairs. Menu. The "cremated alive" hypothesis appears in several Clancy novels, though Clancy never identified Penkovsky as the executed spy. 3.80. Oleg Penkovsky was a Soviet military intelligence colonel during the late Fifties and early Sixties responsible for informing the UK about the Kremlin's emplacement of missiles in Cuba. He was arrested by the Soviets in 1962 and executed the next. As soon as Gordievsky landed in Moscow, he picked up signs that he had gambled wrong. Wynne agreed, and during his visit to Moscow the following month he wound up connecting with Oleg Penkovsky, a lieutenant colonel in the GRU (the Soviet Unions foreign-intelligence agency) who was eager to leak high-level military information to Western powers. "Greville Wynne was anordinary mandoing an extraordinary thing," Cumberbatch says. The 23-year-old journalist had been working late for Novosti, the Soviet press agency. je voulais juste avoir de tes nouvelles what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and child. Your Privacy Rights Penkovsky was wounded in action in 1944, at about the same time as Varentsov, who appointed him his Liaison Officer. Oleg lives a quiet and unassuming life with his wife Vera (played by Maria Mironova) and their daughter Nina (played by Emma Penzina), who's about 5 or 6 years old. what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and child. In a letter to me from the federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where he is serving a life sentence, Ames wrote: Im quite sure of my recollection that I gave the KGB no names of any other than the two or three double agents/dangles I provided in April 85, until June 13th.. We had neighbors that were very close. He succeeded in transferring to the West 111 Minox films with 5,500 top-secret military documents, totaling 7,650 pages, as well as revealing the identities of hundreds of Soviet agents in the West. Andrei Poleshchuk told me his fathers arrest was a disaster for his mother. They know.. Now, he feared, the KGBs counterspies had become suspicious and were recalling him to confront him. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine In 1944, he was assigned to the headquarters of Colonel-General Sergei Varentsov, commander of artillery on the 1st Ukrainian front, who became his patron. Soon after they arrived in the United States, there was a ceremony honoring his father at a Russian Orthodox church in Washington. "He came from a very humble background, but was always trying to better himself," says Cumberbatch. In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. His dining companion, Dickie Franks, revealed himself to be an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, and asked Wynne for his help. The emaciated Wynne's returntohis middle-class Londonhomewherehis wife and child waited made for a jarring scene in newsreels at the time. Penkovsky's father might have fled to the West rather than have died of typhus as Penkovsky had previously reported, the KGB prohibited Penkovsky from assuming his post in New Delhi but permitted him to remain in the GRU after his mother submitted a statement detailing her family's ignorance of her husband's fate.28 (1) BBC Broadcast (11th May, 1963) A British businessman accused of spying for the West has been sentenced to eight years' detention by a Moscow tribunal. Clearly the KGB had searched his flat. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Would she ever live in the West? It said his parents had unexpectedly heard of an apartment they could buy for him; his father decided to take his vacation early and come home to close the deal. You, in your own mind, have developed this sense of self-importance, says West. Wynne had worked as both Penkovsky's contact and courier; both men were arrested by the Soviets in October 1962. Wynne was a British businessman who, from 1960 and 1962, smuggled thousands of pieces of intel out of Russia before he was captured, imprisoned, and tortured for two years by the KGB. After attending the Military Diplomatic Academy (194953), he became an intelligence officer, serving primarily in Moscow. Penkovsky was portrayed by Christopher Rozycki in the 1985 BBC Television serial Wynne and Penkovsky. Dont call us, well call you in a couple years. When Greville got out of prison, he was not prepared, as people obviously are not in those circumstances, to be ignored.. He always hoped Leila would join him in England. Penkovsky joined the Soviet Red Army in 1937 and served as an artillery officer in World War II, being severely wounded in 1944. The FBI declined to comment on whether the search Wiser began is continuing. Oleg Penkovsky Born: April 23, 1919 Birthplace: Vladikavkaz, Russia Death: May 16, 1963, Moscow, USSR (executed by Soviet Union) Jessie Buckley Born: December 28, 1989 Birthplace: Killarney, Ireland Sheila Wynne Keir Hills Andrew Wynne Angus Wright Born: November 11, 1964 Birthplace: Washington, D.C., USA Sir Arthur Temple 'Dickie' Franks Seeking ways to parlay the notoriety he received, he became what Duns calls a rent-a-spokesperson for all kinds of espionage stuff, making appearances in the media about anything related to spycraft, whether or not it was anything he had experience with. Because his father opposed the Communist revolution, Penkovsky was routinely denied promotions. After Ames was arrested and charged with espionage, his attorney, Plato Cacheris, negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors: Ames wife, Rosario, an accomplice in his spying, would be spared a long prison sentence if he cooperated fully with the authorities. But Wynne paid a heavy price for his heroism. Ten agents were executed and countless others imprisoned. By all appearances Oleg and Vera have a happy marriage and are loving parents to Nina. No, he was told, theyre here for you.. Controversy surrounds Penkovsky's death, with many believing that MI6 put him in danger after Blake confessed all to the Soviet officials. He asked if they were there to greet an important diplomat. He created his own computer consulting firm and dabbled in film production. [12], Penkovsky's activities were revealed by Jack Dunlap, a National Security Agency (NSA) employee and Soviet spy working for the KGB. West maintains that its the result of something all too typical in the intelligence communitywhat he calls post-usefulness syndrome., Imagine that I recruit you and I tell you that whatever you report to me, within an hour, it will be on the presidents desk. Maybe a fifth. Greville Wynnefitthe bill simply assomebody who was taking business into Eastern Europe.". In May 1963, after his trial, Izvestya reported that Varentsov, who had since achieved the rank of Chief Marshal of Artillery and Commander in Chief of Rocket Forces and candidate member of the Central Committee had been demoted to the rank of Major General. These events serve as the inspiration for The Courier, the new film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Wynne and Georgian actor Merab Ninidze as Penkovsky, out in theaters on March 19. Maria, then 16, was carrying the patatuff. Was there a fourth mole in the U.S. intelligence system that blew these secret agents covers? (Howard, Russian authorities reported in 2002, died of a fall in his KGB dacha near Moscow. Penkovsky papers, they do provide a fascinating glimpse into the strange and distorted world of Communism in the Soviet Union. cole and rye leather swivel chair; north star cherry tree colorado It's the early 1960s and Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a salesman who represents Western manufacturers in foreign countries. He is known as one of the greatest spies in the world. But the CIA and FBI debriefers soon recognized a glaring anomaly in Ames account: It was clear that those three agents had fallen under suspicion in May 1985before Ames insists he handed over the documents. The stories of Oleg Gordievsky, Sergei Bokhan and Leonid Poleshchukreported here in extensive new detail and based on interviews with Gordievsky, Bokhan and Andrei Poleshchuk, as well as former FBI and CIA officialssuggest the damage a mole can do. Yet the secrets that the Soviet colonel passed on to the West helped keep the Cuban Missile Crisis from becoming the Cuban Missile War . He had been drugged. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Gordievsky was told his London posting was over, but he would be allowed to remain in a non-sensitive KGB department in Moscow. Brought up in the North Caucasus, Penkovsky graduated from the Kiev Artillery Academy with the rank of lieutenant in 1939. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. He divorced his first wife Sheila after his return before entering a second failed marriage. Like Popov, Penkovsky volunteered his services and Kissevalter was called in to handle the spy, in league with two counterparts from the British Secret . Kennedy was deprived of information from a potentially important intelligence agent, such as reporting that Khrushchev was already looking for ways to defuse the situation, which might have lessened the tension during the ensuing 13-day stand-off. He handed them a bulky envelope and pleaded with them to deliver it to the American embassy. There is no statute of limitations for espionage. Soon after his arrest she collapsed psychologically. In a Moscow park, Penkovsky also passed packets of sweets (with camera film hidden inside) to the wife of a British MI6 officer while she was pushing her children in a pram. On that first day, Andrei pressed his questioners to explain why his father had been arrested. While Oleg was tried and executed by the Soviets, they sentenced Wynne to eight years in prison. "Thistrue story is a very interesting, skewed way to tellingaticking time-bomb, spy-thriller.". Wynne, a British businessman, he offered his services to British intelligence. Penkovsky's story is a tragic and revealing one, and it is regrettable that with it all he did not tell us more of what he could tell best, the story of his own life and of the lives of his close associates.-GEORGE A . Cookie Settings, Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, 5,000-Year-Old Tavern With Food Still Inside Discovered in Iraq, The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars. In the midst of the Cold War, a top-ranking Soviet officer named Oleg Penkovsky feared that the risk of nuclear war was too great, and decided to share some of the most closely held secrets of the Soviet arsenal with the West. Wright noted that, unlike Igor Gouzenko and other earlier defectors, Penkovsky did not reveal the names of any Soviet agents in the West but only provided organisational detail, much of which was known already. His father, Leonid Poleshchuk, was a senior KGB counterintelligence officer, most recently the deputy rezident for counterintelligence in Lagos, Nigeria. He has two daughters. But the chummy interactions between the agents and Penkovskys prolific, even reckless, acquisition of materials grew increasingly perilousand finally caught the KGBs attention. He asked it be given to Joe, with a message, Here is something from Leo. By the time Joe learned of the gift, Andrei said, his father had been arrested. These guys were in the foxhole togetherthey each had a secret that only the other man knew, says OConnor. Gordievsky's Wife was not with him live Former Colonel of the First Central Board of the KGB of the USSR, recruited in the mid-80s the CIA and worked for British intelligence, abroad called the largest Soviet "mole" after Penkovsky. I dont want to live in a tent, she said. Moscow seemed to have no clue hed been secretly working for MI6, the British secret intelligence service, for 11 years. These things have to be run to ground.. MI6 and the CIA ran Penkovsky jointly, in an operation that ran through . When I found a job, the KGB called and they fired me. He met with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan, wrote a memoir and co-wrote a book on the KGB. They made an odd contrastthe short, energetic, and thinly mustachioed Wynne alongside the military bearing of Penkovskybut there seemed to be genuine affection between the two, and this friendship is a central focus of The Courier. He was an intermediary for the important Soviet spy Oleg Penkovsky, who was engaged in selling arms and weapons secrets to British intelligence. His spying career was the subject of episode 1 of the 2007 BBC Television docudrama Nuclear Secrets, titled "The Spy from Moscow" in which he was portrayed by Mark Bonnar. I could not believe what was happening. This both kills the victim and disposes of the body in one fell swoop. If he refused the summons, he would destroy his career. No child today is doing duck and cover drills or helping to build a fallout shelter. He was probably the Wests most valuable double agent during the Cold War. Penkovsky was the highest-ranking Soviet official to provide intelligence for the West up until that time, and is one of several individuals credited with altering the course of the Cold War.