This information allowed the West to identify the missile sites from the low-resolution pictures provided by US U-2 spy planes. He was probably the Wests most valuable double agent during the Cold War. After attending the Military Diplomatic Academy from 1949 to 1953, he officially became an intelligence officer and worked in Moscow. In April 1985, he has said, he told a Soviet contact in Washington the names of two or three double agents who had approached the CIA but who were actually working for the KGBdangles, in intelligence parlance. 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. In 1988, he took a Moscow river cruise and met a blond, blue-eyed and very beautiful woman named Svetlana, who worked for an automotive magazine. In 1955 Penkovsky was appointed military attach in Ankara, Turkey, but was recalled after he had reported his superior officer, and later other GRU personnel for a breach of regulations, which made him unpopular in the department. [13], Penkovsky was arrested on 22 October 1962. For those who are betrayed, the damage persists long after the initial shock passes. Over the course of his espionage, he delivered rolls of film, classified documents, and over 5,000 photos. He was like a walking dead man. In July 1994, Leslie Wiser, the FBI agent who unmasked Ames, flew to London to interview Gordievsky. One theory links his arrest to the spouse of a contact. Oleg and Vera are both even-tempered and have mutual respect for each other. He had a massive ego, incredibly thwarted by the system he grew up in with all sorts of hang-ups. 3 3.Oleg Penkovsky - Your Resource for Espionage on the Web; 4 4.What Happened To Greville Wynne And Oleg - Showbizcorner; 5 5.The True Story Behind 'The Courier' | History| Smithsonian Magazine; 6 6.Spy Penkovsky biography. He played a role in both the Berlin Crisis in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year. Mr. Wint: Very moving. April 22, 1964. Of course Cherkashin, who worked in the Soviet Embassy in Washington and handled Ames, may have been unable to resist a chance to taunt the FBI and the CIA. 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. I had no job. In 1945, Penkovsky married the teenage daughter of Lieutenant-General Dmitri Gapanovich, thus acquiring another high-ranking patron. 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. Thanks to his priceless information the Cuban crisis was not transformed into a last World War". 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. Thanks to Penkovskys Ironbark files, CIA analysts were able to accurately identify the Soviet missiles that had been photographed in Cuba and give President Kennedy precise reports on the range and strength of those weapons. Controversy surrounds Penkovsky's death, with many believing that MI6 put him in danger after Blake confessed all to the Soviet officials. Penkovsky, sadly, was tried and executed for conspiracy by the Soviets in 1962. However, while working together, something unexpected happens: The two men become friends. 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. [2] On Varentsov's recommendation, he studied at the Frunze Military Academy in 1945-48, then worked as a staff officer. They drove through several checkpoints with no trouble, but they had to stop at Soviet customs when they reached the border. 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. The CIA. May 11, 1963. Greville Wynne is a legend in the history books and his family has also benefited from it. Expert extermination for a safe property. In June 1986, Leonid was tried and, predictably, convicted. Penkovsky, who was tried with him, was sentenced to death for treason. He had planned to write a memoir but died of malaria before he could begin. He was immediately. With Vladimir Chuprikov, Merab Ninidze, James Schofield, Fred Haig. His escape plan was bound under the flyleaf of a novel; he had to slit the cover open to read the instructions. 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.. If I was waiting for the elevator, they went down the stairs. But it was only a matter of time. He was later traded in an exchange after the British had a Russian spy, Konon Molody in their custody. 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. Leonid never made it to the rock, his son said. He did so, he said, to prove his bona fides as a potential KGB mole. What happened to wife of Oleg Penkovsky? 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. Lt. Col. Oleg Penkovsky, born the same year as Wynne in 1919, was the man on the inside, the Russian GRU spy who smuggled out military documents, photos, and human intelligence - including gossip he'd pick up at parties - which he passed to Wynne during business meetings. That Friday, Gordievsky received a cable ordering him to report to Moscow urgently to confirm his promotion and meet with the KGBs two highest officials. For two years I went to Lefortovo two, three times a week, Alla Bokhan told me. Son And Daughter Now Greville Wynne And Oleg Penkovsky were both arrested by the Soviets in 1962. The CIA would want to debrief him at length to try to determine the full extent of his treachery. 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. I always thought there was another one, he told me. He dropped it, sensing that he was getting into dangerous territory. He would not say why. Continuing the family, Greville Wynne had a son named Andrew Wynne. Mr. Wynne served 18 months in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow. 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. 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 It doesnt matter, he said, and quoted a Russian proverb: S milym rai i v shalashe. If you love somebody, you will have heaven even in a tent. The most controversial claim in the book was that he and Penkovsky were smuggled into the White House and lauded by President Kennedy. Gordievsky was told his London posting was over, but he would be allowed to remain in a non-sensitive KGB department in Moscow. 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. As they walked on the beach that Saturday, he said his career was in trouble. 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. We know very well that youve been deceiving us for years, he said. I had not opened my garage for more than two months, and when I finally decided to completely clean it, I found out that a swarm of wasps had comfortably settled in it. Hanssen, who was convicted of espionage, is serving a life sentence in the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. I will never forget the day when I got home and she was singing songs, melodies, no words, and looking insane. As the deputy chief, Bokhan was privy to all GRU spy operations aimed at Greece, the United States and the other NATO countries. Penkovsky and Greville smuggled more than 5000 top-secret military documents out of the USSR. In June he was expelled from the Central Committee for 'having relaxed his political vigilance.' The year 1985 was a catastrophe for U.S. and British intelligence agencies. When Oleg Penkovsky offered Soviet military secrets to MI6, she became the go-between. His MI6 handlers assured him theyd picked up no sign anything was wrong. He sort of fought the Nazis off in Kiev, and was leading that and was decorated 13 times. Terms of Use He provided the CIA and MI6 with extensive debriefing sessions totaling up to 140 hours, delivered invaluable documents, and over 5,000 Soviet photos. The same can be said about arriving at your workplaceand finding out that it has been overrun by a variety of pests. Also, we have no idea about his brother and sister, and we dont know their names either. Soon after they arrived in the United States, there was a ceremony honoring his father at a Russian Orthodox church in Washington. Moscow seemed to have no clue hed been secretly working for MI6, the British secret intelligence service, for 11 years. 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. 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 was in my fathers handwriting. Leonid Poleshchuk knew his first CIA case officer, who had recruited him in Nepal, as Joe. Ti Lin X, gin ip l mt trng ti. Guaranteed Reliability and Proven Results! In 1965 his journal, The Penkovskiy Papers, was published in the United States, though the books authenticity has been questioned by some. One news account said he had fallen down the stairs and broken his neck.). 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. Cookie Policy [20] The head of the GRU, Ivan Serov was sacked during the same period. It is possible that Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk fell under KGB suspicion through some operational error or communications intercept. That day was June 13, 1985, by Ames account. Compared to the KGB, which focused squarely on crushing internal dissent, the GRU had more of a geopolitical impact. These things have to be run to ground.. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Oleg Penkovsky was executed by firing squad one week after the trial. Boy and daughter now Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky were captured by the Soviets in 1962. For Oleg Penkovsky, however, his world-altering espionage work hastened his death. How the traitor Oleg Penkovsky was 7 7.The Courier vs. the True Story of British Spy Greville Wynne The film sees him arrested on a plane leaving. Gordievsky was served sandwiches and Armenian brandy. As Penkovskys position necessitated travel to Britain, the Russians initially didnt suspect him of espionage. Poleshchuk was lured back to his fate. They flew to New York and, with help from the CIA and the FBI, were reunited with Sergei at a motel near John F. Kennedy International Airport. 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. This for the spy masters is an exercise in . As soon as I realized what this was, I closed everything up andstarted looking for an exterminator who could help me out. These produced around 1,200 pages of transcripts which the CIA and MI6 delegated 30 translators and analysts to focus on. Janet Chisholms husband, Rauri Chisholm, worked with a man named George Blake who happened to be a KGB agent. The British intelligence agency MI6 (then known as SIS) had already been hard at work to infiltrate the Soviet Unions State Committee for Science and Technology, however. 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. He was arrested for espionage in Budapest on Nov. 16, 1962. Boy and daughter now Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky were captured by the Soviets in 1962. 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. Soon there was a plan for an exfiltration, the CIAs term for spiriting an agent in danger out of a foreign country. 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. With the arrest of Aldrich Ames in 1994, it seemed that the mole hunters had found their quarry. 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