Table of contents:
- Failed chief of intelligence in Washington
- Atomic spy guarding the safety of the planet
- Owner of the largest Soviet espionage fee
- Lost trail of Bandera's liquidator
- British millionaire who led an agent network
Video: Who were the spies working for the USSR, and how their fate developed after exposure
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Information rules the world, so every state has secret agents of intelligence networks on its account. These mysterious people are waging a dangerous war in a time of peace for the rest. Living among us, they imperceptibly influence the balance of power on the political, military and economic maps of the world. But what happens to them if they fail?
Failed chief of intelligence in Washington
After World War II, a high-ranking British intelligence officer, Kim Philby, headed the department of British-American cooperation in the fight against communism. Before the war, an agent of the USSR was in charge of the so-called "Great Five" - a very strong Soviet intelligence group operating abroad. The spy was preparing to take the chair of the head of Washington intelligence, but in 1951 he came under suspicion and went under the guise of a journalist to Lebanon.
In 1963, one of the agents of the network was declassified, and Philby was visited by the representative of British MI6 intelligence, Nicholas Eliot, who offered immunity in exchange for full recognition. Kim Philby shared information with an old acquaintance orally, having agreed to meet officially at the British Embassy. Sensing an ambush, the scout contacted the Russian curator, who arranged an urgent naval evacuation of the Soviet spy. After the failure, Kim worked in central intelligence as a consultant for Western intelligence services, training intelligence officers. He was repeatedly awarded by the Soviet government for high achievements. The frank recollections of a Soviet intelligence officer are collected in the book "My Secret War" by Kim Philby. READ MORE …
Atomic spy guarding the safety of the planet
German nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs fled to England after Hitler came to power. Since 1940, he collaborated with Birmingham scientists involved in the development of the atomic bomb. A year later, he voluntarily contacted Soviet intelligence, wishing to transfer information about the secret development of atomic weapons in England to the Soviet Union. Taking such a serious step, the scientist was guided by an exclusively personal view of the future of the planet, which could be threatened by nuclear weapons. Fuchs is recognized as a genius scientist in the field of nuclear physics. His developments were of valuable interest, which marked the beginning of the creation of the atomic bomb.
In 1943, after a test year of cooperation, Klaus Fuchs was transferred to the KGB of the USSR for communication. From that moment, the recruited spy worked in the American laboratory at Los Alamos, maintaining continuous communication with Soviet intelligence. The Americans were engaged in the creation of a thermonuclear (it was also called "hydrogen") bomb with direct participation in the development of Fuchs. In 1950, the agent was arrested in the UK on a tip from the FBI and sentenced to 14 years in prison. After 9 years, the scientist was released ahead of schedule. The former spy returned to his homeland in the GDR and was appointed deputy head of the Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Owner of the largest Soviet espionage fee
Aldrich Ames is deservedly considered one of the most valuable intelligence agents in Soviet history.
Only a few senior officers knew about this agent in the USSR. His intelligence activities were accompanied by the development of complex cover operations and multimillion-dollar royalties. It is known that over the years of cooperation with the Soviet special services, Ames was paid a record amount in the history of Russian intelligence - more than 2.5 million dollars.
Aldrich Ames was the head of the CIA's anti-Soviet counterintelligence department. From 1985 to 1994, he transmitted to the USSR, and later to Russia, information about the CIA agents operating on our territory. The Americans are confident that Ames' espionage activities killed about a dozen American agents from Soviet citizens, and also revealed the secrets of intelligence equipment used by the CIA.
In 1994, Ames and his wife were exposed and sentenced to life imprisonment, which the spy still serves today. In 2017, it was announced that work was still underway to get Ames out of the Pennsylvanian High Security Prison.
Lost trail of Bandera's liquidator
In 1957, KGB officer Bogdan Stashinsky killed the head of the OUN, Stepan Bandera, with a shot of potassium cyanide. Among the operations carried out by Stashinsky and the murder of the ideologue of Ukrainian nationalism Lev Rebet. For the successful struggle against the Ukrainian nationalist underground, the Supreme Soviet awarded Stashinsky the high Order of the Red Banner.
While working as a translator at the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade, Bogdan met a citizen of the GDR Inge Pohl, who later became his wife. In 1961, after several conflicts with the Center on the basis of marriage with a foreigner, he fled with his wife to West Berlin, where he confessed to the murders and surrendered to the police. West German court sentenced Stashinsky to 8 years in prison. There is a version that after his release, the defector spy left under a new name for the United States or South Africa under the witness protection program. On November 4, 2017, he could have turned 86 years old. There is a good chance that he lived to that age and is still alive today.
British millionaire who led an agent network
Konon Molodiy was an illegal British KGB resident. In 1954, under a false name, he opened a business in London, becoming a millionaire. The most valuable military and political information was sent to the USSR through an agent network headed by an entrepreneur. In 1961, due to the betrayal of the Polish intelligence officer Mikhail Golenevsky, who had defected to the United States, Konon Molody was arrested right during a meeting with Soviet agents.
The court sentenced Konon to 25 years in prison, but after 3 years the Soviet spy was exchanged for the British intelligence officer Greville Wynn, detained in the USSR. Returning to his homeland, Konon Molody became an employee of the central apparatus of the KGB. He is the prototype of the hero in the feature film "Dead Season".
And today the KGB archives contain information about 5 spies executed in the USSR … Truly detective stories.
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