As soon as Gordievsky landed in Moscow, he picked up signs that he had gambled wrong. He was free. Wynne dutifully passed the images to his contacts with British intelligence, who established their legitimacy. It was in my fathers handwriting. Leonid Poleshchuk knew his first CIA case officer, who had recruited him in Nepal, as Joe. It also helped Americans to understand how limited the Soviets capabilities actually were in the area, so as tensions grew during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy knew how much rope he could give [Soviet Premier Nikita] Khrushchev, as Duns puts it. 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 . In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. 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. Wynne would later relate that as he walked down the steps of an exhibition pavilion, four men suddenly appeared as a car pulled up and Wynne was pushed inside. When he began spying for the Russians almost a decade earlier, Ames was chief of the CIAs Soviet counterintelligence branch, entrusted with secrets that would be of incalculable value to the KGB. 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. He was recruited to MI5 just before World War II. This photograph was taken in the hotel room at the Mount Royal in London in April 1961, after one of our meetings, where Oleg Penkovsky on the left and yours truly on the right enjoying a small glass of wine. Wynne was arrested and jailed as a spy The moonlighting spy was arrested on a business trip to Budapest in November 1962 and taken to the Soviet Union. Penkovsky supplied the West with information on Soviet deployment of missiles to Cuba and has been dubbed the spy of the century. Theres a fair amount of source material from all different kinds of authors, so by reading everybodynot just Wynnes books, but other historians, and the official history put out by the American side and the Soviet side I was able to try and work out what made the most sense and what seemed liked disinformation, says OConnor. She did, in 1991, but the strain caused by six years of separation proved too much to repair. Alex Palmer is a travel and culture writer who lives in Brooklyn. [7], Former KGB major-general Oleg Kalugin does not mention Penkovsky in his comprehensive memoir about his career in intelligence against the West. We know very well that youve been deceiving us for years, he said. 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. what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and daughter, what happened to oleg penkovsky daughter, what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and child, what happened to oleg penkovsky family, what happened to oleg penkovsky . Cookie Policy After some months, she was released. Arrested? He dropped it, sensing that he was getting into dangerous territory. "His clothes were sort of shrink-wrapped around this skeleton," says Cumberbatch, who spent three months losing weight and physically preparing to portray Wynne's final months of ordeal. After stops in Madrid and Frankfurt, a military jet flew him across the Atlantic. [16] The noted Soviet sculptor Ernst Neizvestny said that he had been told by the director of the Donskoye Cemetery crematorium "how Penkovsky [had been] executed by 'fire'". 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. Oleg Penkovsky, then a colonel in Russia's military intelligence service known as the GRU, had already passed along intelligence about the shoot-down of American satellite planes in Soviet territory and information on his own GRU graduating class. I could sense he had been tortured. Leonid was executed on July 30. Terms of Use Janie and 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. Advertising Notice Before his father left Lagos, Andrei said, he gave a gold watch to his CIA case officer at the time. He was selected for the post of military attach in India, but the KGB had uncovered the story of his father's death, and he was suspended, investigated, and assigned in November 1960 to the State Committee for Science and Technology. Penkovsky never knew his father, who was killed fighting as an officer in the White Army in the Russian Civil War when he was a baby. It dealt with capabilities and intentions. [3] When the US Embassy in Moscow refused to cooperate, fearing an international incident, the CIA contacted MI6 for assistance. No products in the cart. Oleg Gordievsky and Leila Alieva met in Copenhagen: she was a typist for the World Health Organization; he was an unhappily married KGB officer, and a spy for MI6. 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 Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, with Henry R. Schlesinger, 'Fatal Encounter' BBC TV documentary 3 May 1991, KGB, MI6 and CIA officers involved with the Penkovsky reveal their stories, This page was last edited on 30 January 2023, at 08:39. From the day they talked, Wiser told me, we believed it was important for us to consider the strong possibility that Gordievsky was compromised by someone within the U.S. intelligence community., Wiser acknowledges that Ames may have lied or been mistaken about the dateAmes has conceded that he drank heavily before his meetings with the KGB. He traveled frequently, to the United States, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia, South America and the Middle East. In extended CIA and FBI debriefings, he talked about his nine years of spying for Moscowincluding the day when he turned over, in his words, the identities of virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA and other American and foreign services known to me.. Here's what to know about Wynne's real history. President John Kennedy read it and understood. His first attempt was to approach two American students in Moscow. He did so, but nothing happened. Businessman Greville Wynne is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the history of U.S. intelligence, only three major molesmen whose betrayals had lethal resultshave been identified. In 1965 his journal, The Penkovskiy Papers, was published in the United States, though the books authenticity has been questioned by some. In 1961, jet travel did not allow someone to fly from the U.K. to the U.S. and back again in 24 hours, says West. One of them finally answered: For espionage.. Since Oleg Penkovsky offered his services to both the Americans and the British, the CIA and MI6 developed him jointly. He drove around Athens in his BMW for close to an hour to make certain he wasnt being followed, then walked into a 100-foot pedestrian tunnel under a highway. He decided to leave Athensbut not for Moscow. After they drove home, he packed a gym bag and announced that he was going for a jog. On this trip, Penkovsky submitted to hours of interviews with British and American intelligence officials about the Soviet Unions military and political developments. Penkovsky's espionage about Soviet missiles . Now, he feared, the KGBs counterspies had become suspicious and were recalling him to confront him. Greville Wynne, a British spy who told in his celebrated memoirs how he pried loose some of Moscow's best-kept secrets and who served 18 months in a Soviet prison for Long after the massive losses in 1985, the lingering questions still gnaw at their counterintelligence experts. Some of the documents provided were originals, which Wright thought could not have been easily taken from their sources. Penkovsky (right) during his trial What happened next is unclear. In July 1994, Leslie Wiser, the FBI agent who unmasked Ames, flew to London to interview Gordievsky. 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. For months, Andrei had been hoping his father would find him an apartment. Benedict Cumberbatch is known for bringing outlandish, extraordinary characters, from Marvel's "Dr. London, May 17, 1985: Oleg Gordievsky was at the pinnacle of his career. 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 In the Jack Ryan universe, he is described as the agent who recruited Colonel Mikhail Filitov as a CIA agent (code-name CARDINAL) and had urged Filitov to betray him to solidify his position as the West's top spy in the Soviet hierarchy. To top it off, it would have been physically impossible at the time. It's athank you from the West for what he sacrificed.". 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. Thats when they showed me a piece of paper with the words, I met Joe, Andrei told me. I went into the bathroom, locked the door and stared at myself in the mirror.. Oleg Gordievsky is a Russian-born former British secret agent. Ten agents were executed and countless others imprisoned. He didnt have a choice. Today, Sergei and Alla live quietly in the Sun Belt under his new identity. Brought up in the North Caucasus, Penkovsky graduated from the Kiev Artillery Academy with the rank of lieutenant in 1939. Penkovsky provided plans and descriptions of the nuclear rocket launch sites in Cuba to the West. [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 over time, intelligence experts and those involved in the case, though reluctant to share sensitive information, cast doubt on much of what Wynne laid out in his books. Penkovsky felt stunted in his career with GRU and expected that by helping the West for a year or two, he and his family could be relocated and build a better life, and that he would personally be showered with recognition and honor. This information was decisive in allowing the US to recognize that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba before most of them were operational. When the driver turned off the engine, Gordievsky could hear dogs close byAlsatians, he later learned. troops.[15]. He was the real deal. Assisting him in his role as "courier" is Oleg Penkovsky ( Merab Ninidze ), a far more experienced Russian agent. He would not say why. It said Bokhans son, Alex, 18, was having trouble in military school and suggested the deputy take his vacation now, three months early, and return to the Soviet Union to deal with him. pictures of the galvin family; springfield, ma city council candidates; what happened to penkovsky wife The KGB told Andrei his fathers remains were cremated and there would be no grave. 41 ratings1 review. Gordievsky never took a penny from MI6 until after he had defected to the U.K. His actions were motivated by a hatred of the tyranny of the Soviet system, and the degraded condition in which it. Never formally acknowledged by the British government, Wynnewrote about his experiences in two self-aggrandizingbooks, "The Man From Moscow" (1967) and "The Man From Odessa" (1981). He has two daughters. 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. Privacy Statement [13], Penkovsky was arrested on 22 October 1962. In fact, his contribution to U.S. intelligence and policymaking is exaggerated, distorted, and in several instances falsified. I had no job. Your fathers been arrested, the man said. The mole isnt just some guy who stole a few secrets. A few months after the U-2 disaster, they had a breakthrough when a Col. Oleg Penkovsky approached them. Penkovsky approached American students on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow in July 1960 and gave them a package in which he offered to spy for the United States. Penkovsky gave a huge amount of details about what missiles the Soviets had, how old they were, how there were queues for foodit was an extremely vivid portrait of the country and the people within intelligence, says Duns. [12], Penkovsky's activities were revealed by Jack Dunlap, a National Security Agency (NSA) employee and Soviet spy working for the KGB. It was the signal to launch his escape. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 445 & 35. The daughter of a Russian mother . He just was an ordinary man who got thrust into this just extraordinary, life-altering situation that was going to define his existence forever, says OConnor. Leonid never made it to the rock, his son said. He just couldnt tell the truth. 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. They have two children, and he works as an independent research analyst for business and government contractors in Northern Virginia. | READ MORE. He was reputedly on friendly terms with Penkovsky,[21] which is very likely to have been a cause of his fall. London, May 17, 1985: Oleg Gordievsky was at the pinnacle of his career. Penkovsky was referred to in four of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan espionage novels: The Hunt for Red October (1984), The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), The Bear and the Dragon (2000) and Red Rabbit (2002). The name of Oleg Penkovsky is not nearly as well known. Oleg Penkovsky was born in Russia in 1919. Director Cooke says Donovan is a composite character representing several real-life people, includingJanet Chisholmthewife of a Moscow-based British visa officer whoalso served as a conduit for information passed to the West by Penkovsky. what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and child. You are wondering about the question what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and daughter but currently there is no answer, so let kienthuctudonghoa.com summarize and list the top articles with the question. He met with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan, wrote a memoir and co-wrote a book on the KGB. They were alone in the world with this incredible burden except for the other man.. On October 29 of that year, just hours after the Soviets stood down during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Wynne went to Soviet-occupied Budapest with a traveling exhibition of British industrial goods, against the advice of his MI6 handlers. Just the day before, Moscow had announced that a Soviet defense researcher named Adolf G. Tolkachev had been arrested as a CIA spy. In Russia, Colonel Oleg Vladimirovich PENKOVSKY, executed in Moscow 34 years ago is regarded as a traitor. But over the course of their two-year friendship, Oleg Penkovsky and Greville Wynne clandestinely smuggled 5000 top-secret documents from Russia to England and the United States. Wynne, despite claiming ignorance of what materials he was smuggling to the West, was sentenced to eight years in prison. They expected I would do something stupid, he told me. The CIA delayed in contacting him. At the time, they were largely accepted at face value and sold well. A skilled intelligence officer, he had been promoted a few months before to rezident, or chief, of the KGB station in the. [18] In a 2010 interview, Suvorov denied that the man in the film[clarification needed] was Penkovsky and said that he had been shot. When it comes to espionage, its hard to know who to trust. Penkovsky is perhaps the best known of Soviet double agents. 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. Bokhans son, Alex, also made it to the U.S., in 1995. He works as a computer programmer. He was like a walking dead man. I could not believe what was happening. I dont want to live in a tent, she said. But some highly experienced U.S. counterintelligence experts doubt it. It was the KGBs way of saying my father worked for the CIA, Andrei said. If there is a fourth mole, and he is still alive, the FBI would surely want to catch him and prosecute him. The case of Oleg Penkovsky, a CIA and MI6 agent deep inside Soviet military intelligence, provided le Carr inspiration for The Russia House (1989). His fear mounted. JB: The first meeting with Oleg Penkovsky was about seven p.m. April twenty first 1961 and he was told what room to go to at the Mount Royal Hotel in London and thanks to my MI6 friends, they permitted me, since he first wanted to meet the Americans, to be the one to answer the door and meet him. This time it's a true story:Wynne served as an unassuming go-between for British intelligence MI-6 and Russian spyOleg Penkovsky atthe height of the Cold War. 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.
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