"Spy Bridge", or how the USSR returned home its scouts

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Filmmakers of the older generation will undoubtedly remember Savva Kulish's cult film Dead Season and its most dramatic episode - the exchange of a Soviet spy for an English agent. In fact, most of the exciting scene is the creative imagination of the authors: there was no stopping these two against each other, there were no gazes that they exchanged. But there was a bridge on which everything happened. Before the unification of Germany, the Glienicksky Bridge was located on the border between West Berlin and the GDR, and gained worldwide fame because Soviet and American special services exchanged arrested agents on it several times. Hence its unspoken name - "spy bridge".

The first exchange of scouts between the USSR and the USA: Abel for Powers

The beginning of "espionage deals" on the bridge over the Havel River was laid in the winter of 1962. On February 10, Soviet intelligence officer Rudolph Abel and American pilot Francis Powers stood on opposite sides of the border. Abel, whose real name is William Fisher, for 9 years led the intelligence network in the United States, transferring valuable strategic information to the USSR, including the enemy's nuclear secrets. He fell into the hands of the FBI after the betrayal of one of his intelligence colleagues. He denied belonging to the Soviet special services, refused to testify at the trial, and rejected all attempts to persuade him to cooperate. Abel-Fischer was sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Realizing the importance of the intelligence officer, the Americans for a long time did not agree to the options offered by the Soviet side to exchange him for Nazi criminals convicted in the USSR. Hope for liberation came after an American reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Powers was shot down over the Urals on May 1, 1960. Confident that the plane was completely destroyed, and the pilot was killed, the President of the United States said that the pilot was simply lost, and the purpose of the flight was peaceful - to collect information for meteorological scientists. In response, the Soviet leadership presented spy equipment from a downed plane, a living pilot and his recognition in work for the CIA. Powers' trial was no less loud than Abel's in the United States. Francis received 10 years in prison, after which there were calls in the American media to exchange a compatriot for a convicted Russian. After lengthy negotiations, it happened on the Gliniki bridge.

"The meeting place cannot be changed": or how the USSR exchanged Wynn for Molodoy on the Gliniki bridge

After 2 years, history repeated itself. In the same place, a new exchange took place - this time between the USSR and Great Britain. One of the most successful Soviet cadre intelligence officers, Konon Trofimovich Molodiy, appeared in England in 1955 under the name of Gordon Lonsdale. For several years, he managed not only to transfer a huge amount of top-secret information to his homeland, but also to become a successful businessman and make a million dollar fortune. After being exposed, the Soviet resident was threatened with the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars, since the court sentence was very strict - 25 years.

But fortune smiled at the courageous man, and after three years of imprisonment, in April 1964, he stood on the Gliniksky bridge awaiting an exchange. His counterpart on the Soviet side was the British intelligence officer Greville Wynn, who was arrested in Budapest, sentenced to 8 years in prison and served only 11 months of this term.

1985 exchange: 23 CIA agents for 4 KGB agents

It was the largest operation on the Gliniki Bridge during the Cold War. It was preceded by 8 years of negotiations. On June 11, several dozen intelligence officers and representatives of government organizations gathered there. In the morning, a bus with 25 unusual passengers arrived at the exchange zone from the GDR side. All of them - citizens of the GDR, Poland and Austria - were serving long (and some - life) sentences for spying for the CIA. On that day, they had a chance to find freedom in the West. Soon a line of American cars appeared from the direction of West Berlin. In one of the minibuses there were 4 former agents from the countries of the Eastern Bloc. They were Polish intelligence officer Marian Zakharski, sentenced to life imprisonment; former Trade Attaché of the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, DC Penya Kostadinov; the physicist from Dresden Alfred Zee; GDR citizen and KGB courier Alisa Michelson.

CIA agents were told that they could stay in the GDR if they wanted to. Two did so, citing personal reasons. The remaining 23 crossed the middle of the bridge and transferred to transport provided by the West German side. After that, the eastern spies were also allowed to cross the border. By 13 o'clock the operation was completed.

Exchange of Keher spouses for Sharansky - bargaining is appropriate

The perestroika that began in the USSR did not affect the old traditions. In February 1986, the bridge over the Havel became an exchange site again. This time, the event was not entirely ordinary: not only intelligence officers, but also a political prisoner took part in it. The secret services of the United States turned over the Keher spouses. Karel and Hana, career agents of Czechoslovak intelligence, have been collecting information of a political nature in America since 1965. In addition, they were tasked with infiltrating the structures of the CIA. Karel Kecher worked brilliantly and at the same time extremely accurately, which allowed him to pass on the most important information to the management for almost 12 years. The arrest of the Kekhers is the result of the activities of a "mole" who worked for the FBI.

After 11 months in prison, the husband and wife were able to return to their homeland. The Soviet Union gave dissident Anatoly (Nathan) Sharansky for Karel and Khan. Sharansky's activities (organizing the human rights "Helsinki Group", cooperation with Jewish activists who demanded free travel to Israel, informing foreign journalists about human rights violations in the USSR) was assessed as treason and anti-Soviet agitation. He was also charged with collaborating with the CIA. The verdict of the court is 13 years in prison. The arrest of the married couple Keher helped to get freedom. Sharansky and Keher were the main, but not the only characters in the operation. As a kind of "supplement" the United States received two citizens of the FRG and a dissident from Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union - its own, Polish and East German intelligence officers.

Petersburg has its own special bridge for kisses.