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. John Turner. In 1965 his journal, The Penkovskiy Papers, was published in the United States, though the books authenticity has been questioned by some. 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. After many years, I understood him. Now, his relationship is perfect. Thats when they showed me a piece of paper with the words, I met Joe, Andrei told me. 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. Corrections? Wynne who was also arrested for espionage would claim that Penkovsky committed suicide in prison. I could sense he had been tortured. Leonid was executed on July 30. He asked if they were there to greet an important diplomat. Ti Lin X, gin ip l mt trng ti. Northolt Airport, England. Then, learn about Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet military man who saved the world from nuclear war in 1983. Keke Wyatt Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Facts. By 1939 he had graduated from a Soviet military school and had been part of a group called Komosomol, meaning "young communists. April 22, 1964. Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel of the USSR Central Intelligence Agency, a distinguished officer in the Second World War, who has a close relationship with many high-ranking military personnel, is also USA and Great Britain was a spy working for the intelligence agency. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In the back seat were a jacket, hat and sunglasses. Stuzhin & Cheredintzev/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. How Soviet Spy Oleg Penkovsky Single-Handedly Prevented Nuclear War During The Cuban Missile Crisis. 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. Northolt Airport, England. The agency cautioned that it would be too risky for him to bring that much cash through the airport and told him the money would be in Moscow, stashed inside a fake rock. The FBI declined to comment on whether the search Wiser began is continuing. In passing along the information stolen by Penkovsky, the two men played a role in deterring an all-out nuclear war. He later worked at the Soviet Committee for Scientific Research. I was angry because I was dropped from military school and sent to the Army, far off, near Vladivostok, he said. Your business came highly recommended, and I am glad that I found you! She did, in 1991, but the strain caused by six years of separation proved too much to repair. Alexander Zagvozdin, ngi ng u b phn thm vn ca KGB, cho bit Penkovsky "c l b tra hi hng trm ln" trc khi b bn. He decided to leave Athensbut not for Moscow. His escape plan was bound under the flyleaf of a novel; he had to slit the cover open to read the instructions. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The Soviet public was first told of Penkovsky's arrest more than seven weeks later, when Pravda named Wynne and Jacobs[clarification needed] as his contacts, without naming anyone else. Without the senior Soviet military intelligence officer or his active role as a double agent during that time the Cold War could have gotten very hot. Upon his return, Greville married his secretary and narrator, Herma Van Burren. If it should turn out that the mole is no longer alive, the intelligence agencies would still run a damage assessment to try to reconstruct what and whom he might have betrayed. This information allowed the West to identify the missile sites from the low-resolution pictures provided by US U-2 spy planes. 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 Janet continued to travel around the world until well into her 70s. Gordievsky was taken home, but Grushko confronted him at the KGB the next day. Maria, then 16, was carrying the patatuff. Oleg Penkovsky had his sights set on moving to the West and building a better life with his family and, therefore, he was keen to expose some of the Soviet's most valuable military secrets. Penkovsky and Greville smuggled more than 5000 top-secret military documents out of the USSR. IN their own highly bizarre fashion, these two books represent what seems to be the first public encounter, via the literary confrontation of its agents, between the Soviet KGB and the Ameri- can CIA: the British, as spies and the spied-upon, occupy a hazy middle ground. Between the information from Oleg Penkovsky and the U-2 pilots photos, America now knew the exact location of the Soviet launch sites, and most importantly, their weak long-range capabilities. A colonel in Soviet military intelligence, Oleg Penkovsky, was working for them as an agent-in-place, photographing thousands of top-secret documents with a miniature camera, and delivering the. GRU agent Vladimir Rezun, however, claimed in his memoir that he saw footage of Penkovsky being strapped to a stretcher inside of a crematorium and burned alive. 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. After his release, Wynne struggled with . Chief KGB interrogator Alexander Zagvozdin said Penkosvky was questioned perhaps a hundred times and then shot. Wynne had worked as both Penkovsky's contact and courier; both men were arrested by the Soviets in October 1962. But it was only a matter of time. The Courier: Directed by Dominic Cooke. Her eyes were empty. We have no more Information about his Father; we will try to collect information and update soon. Finally, in 1991, with the KGB in disarray after its chief led the failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the authorities let Alla and her daughter leave. Then the car started up again, and the radio, which had been playing pop music, suddenly boomed out SibeliusFinlandia. By 1993 their marriage was over. It was the signal to launch his escape. Penkovsky was put on trial for treason in May 1963 and was found guilty and sentenced to death. They have two children, and he works as an independent research analyst for business and government contractors in Northern Virginia. Gophers and other rodents can prove to be a real nuisance for open sporting fields, and if you want to have an undisturbed game or event, our specialists will make sure that everything is OK. He is considered one of the most valuable double agents during the Cold War because the information he provided was critical to the United States throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis 1.The political race of the Soviet Union and the United States began after the end of the . Within two weeks after his flight to the United States, he had a new name, a fake background, a Social Security number and a 9-millimeter Beretta. No one knew what became of America's perfect spy until January 1990, when the state-controlled Soviet newspaper, Pravda, reported that on March 15, 1988, General Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov was executed for espionage. He was arrested by the Soviets in 1962 and executed the next. In June 1986, Leonid was tried and, predictably, convicted. By 1960 he had become a colonel in the GRU and deputy chief of the foreign section of the State Committee for the Coordination of Scientific Research (196062), in which post his task was to collect scientific and technical intelligence on the United States, Britain, and other Western countries. [8] The KGB defector Vladimir N. Sakharov suggests Penkovsky was genuine, saying: "I knew about the ongoing KGB reorganisation precipitated by Oleg Penkovsky's case and Yuri Nosenko's defection. Espionage charges in a Soviet court were not to be taken lightly and Penkovsky was sentenced to death. Some believe Penkovsky was burned alive as Soviet punishment for his treasonous espionage. 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. Penkovsky was portrayed by Christopher Rozycki in the 1985 BBC Television serial Wynne and Penkovsky. 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. He was about to be married, and his debts were mounting. [2] On Varentsov's recommendation, he studied at the Frunze Military Academy in 1945-48, then worked as a staff officer. It remains unclear to this day exactly how Penkovsky was found out. 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). This story is a selection from the November issue of Smithsonian magazine. He was the real deal. He had a massive ego, incredibly thwarted by the system he grew up in with all sorts of hang-ups. Penkovsky (right) during his trial. 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. With Vladimir Chuprikov, Merab Ninidze, James Schofield, Fred Haig. Five days after Bokhan received the cable about his son, he took his wife, Alla, and their 10-year-old daughter, Maria, to the beach. Oleg Penkovsky was executed by firing squad one week after the trial. Penkovsky and Wynne's motivation to steal top-secret intel from the USSR is driven by their desire to protect their loved ones from a nuclear holocaust. A Russian undercover agent and a cooperating MI6 had the opportunity to gain close access to a vast amount of information that prevented an atomic conflict at the time. This both kills the victim and disposes of the body in one fell swoop. Henceforth, the ranks of your armed forces are increased by one man.. secret papers written by Oleg Penkovsky, the Soviet official sentenced to death after the Greville Wynne trial. London, May 17, 1985: Oleg Gordievsky was at the pinnacle of his career. On the appointed day he startedproverka, or dry-cleaningwalking an elaborate route to throw off anyone who might be watching him. As soon as Gordievsky landed in Moscow, he picked up signs that he had gambled wrong. [14] That information might have reduced the pressure on Kennedy to launch an invasion of the island, which could have risked Soviet use of 9K52 Luna-M-class tactical nuclear weapons against U.S. 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. Penkovsky's fate is also mentioned in the Nelson DeMille spy novel The Charm School (1988). For a long time he resented the impact of his fathers CIA spying on his own life. We had neighbors that were very close. But we are sure that it is not available and his spouses name is not available. The Cuban Missile Crisis began on Oct. 14, 1962, when a U-2 spy plane photographed missile installations in Cuba confirming the Soviets were gearing up with capabilities of their own. Either one of ours or theirs., When the FBI Spent Decades Hunting for a Soviet Spy on Its Staff, Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America, David Wise The film tells the story of Oleg Penkovsky, one. He was a highly placed Soviet official in Moscow who fed secrets to the West before and during the Cuban Missile crisis. Impossible. If there is a fourth mole, and he is still alive, the FBI would surely want to catch him and prosecute him. The "cremated alive" hypothesis appears in several Clancy novels, though Clancy never identified Penkovsky as the executed spy. 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. At the same time, the enormous risks for the spy himself became evident in the fate of Penkovsky . 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