Table of contents:
- How the daughter of a border guard commander got a job at the Information Center
- How was the American trip to Kosovo
- What information was transferred to the Center
- Why Kosova left intelligence and how she became a famous sculptor
Video: How a Soviet scout from the UN and became a world-famous sculptor: Elena Kosova
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The phrase "if a person is talented, then he is talented in everything" undoubtedly applies to Elena Aleksandrovna Kosova. The daughter of the commander, who became a scout with a perfect knowledge of the language, later turned into a sculptor of world renown. At the same time, being engaged in work and creativity, she lived almost her entire life in love with the only man with whom she started a family in her youth.
How the daughter of a border guard commander got a job at the Information Center
Elena was born into the family of a career soldier on June 6, 1925. Even during the Great Patriotic War, she managed to complete courses in sniper shooting in order to go to the front, but she failed to fulfill her desire - the war ended. Then the girl decided to enter the Higher School of the Ministry of State Security (MGB) - to study English to work as a professional intelligence officer: the period of the Cold War was approaching, and the country needed specialists in this particular field.
Having successfully passed the qualifying round, for two years, for 7-8 hours daily, Elena studied the subtleties of writing and pronunciation of a foreign language. However, when it was necessary to apply it in practice, it turned out that linguistic phrases and turns of speech had long been outdated - in real life, colloquial English was in use, and classical literary remained only in the works of writers of past centuries. However, it was not difficult to retrain: after a short time, the girl spoke no worse than modern native speakers.
Having passed the final exams, Elena almost immediately became an employee of the "American" department, created in 1947 by the Committee of Information, which was engaged in military, political, scientific and technical intelligence. In the same year, she married Nikolai Kosov, a young man whom Elena met while studying at the MGB school. The handsome blonde, who graduated from the language faculty a little earlier, worked in the department of the MGB, performing the functions of an interpreter for high-ranking officials of the country who make business visits to the United States.
How was the American trip to Kosovo
In 1947, Elena, having received the operational pseudonym "Anna", went with her husband on a business trip to the United States. Officially in Moscow, they were listed as TASS employees in New York, in fact, the young woman worked in residency, hiding behind activities in the UN office as an interpreter for Soviet delegations.
A lively, quick-witted woman, who does an excellent job with her duties, was soon noticed and recommended to a large international organization. While working there, she received her first operational assignment - to ensure a constant secret communication with a UN employee from a representative office of a European country. All the information transmitted by the source, Elena processed in the residency, which was located in the Soviet Consulate General. The scout came there after her main job: she was listed in the economic department, responsible for archival data and this was her second cover - this time in front of the embassy workers.
Once "Anna" was instructed to urgently fly to another state to cancel the meeting of the operative with the agent. She brilliantly completed the task, warning the Americans to arrest an illegal resident, as she was always above suspicion and was not subject to surveillance by counterintelligence officers. Exhibiting extreme caution, Elena did not even speak aloud at home about her secret work, in this case doing with gestures or an expressive look.
What information was transferred to the Center
During the seven years that Kosova spent on an American "business trip", many large assignments were completed and not one of them failed! How important they were for the country is evidenced by the fact that information about some of the data obtained by the intelligence officer is still classified. From what Elena Aleksandrovna shared with the press, it is known that she worked as a liaison in the group of Vladimir Borisovich Barkovsky, the future Hero of Russia, who collected information that played a significant role in the implementation of plans for nuclear development in the USSR. According to Kosova, her duties included meeting with foreign agents, printing conspiratorial letters and delivering them to a specific location. Everything happened as needed, and at the same time, "Anna" was in constant contact with two or three agents, receiving secret information related to the plans of NATO countries to resolve global problems.
In an environment where strict control was established over almost every person from the Union, Elena remained above suspicion. Kosova managed to carry out tasks without attracting the attention of the FBI: she was able to freely move around the country at a time when the reduced to a minimum Soviet diplomats were forbidden to leave even the boundaries of one city. The activity of the intelligence officer in the conditions of the cold war of the two world powers was highly appreciated by the Center, since the data transmitted by her actually contributed to the protection and strengthening of the foreign policy interests of the USSR.
Why Kosova left intelligence and how she became a famous sculptor
Upon learning of her pregnancy, Elena decided to return to Moscow - she did not want to give birth in the States - and leave the intelligence service. In Russia, she asked for a "vacation" for three years, but she heard an offer to quit and get back to work at any time convenient for her. The expectant mother quit, but having given birth to a child, she gave preference to the family, putting an end to her career as a scout. However, being the wife of an illegal resident, she quite often helped her husband in his work, meeting or starting conversations at diplomatic receptions with the right people.
Elena Aleksandrovna became interested in creativity at the age of 50: being with her husband, who had a long business trip in Hungary, Kosova suddenly became interested in creating sculptural busts. The works were so successful that she was accepted as a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, and after a personal exhibition, journalists and professional art critics started talking about the former intelligence officer. They noted the sculptor's unusual handwriting and the ability to convey not only external features, but also the internal state of a person. After a meeting with Margaret Thatcher, at which Elena Aleksandrovna presented a bust of the British Prime Minister created by her, the name of Kosovoy appeared in the world press.
Today, the works of E. A. Kosova are on display in museums in different countries. Among those, whose sculptural faces she created, are Brezhnev, de Gaulle, Kennedy, as well as fellow intelligence officers familiar from their youth.
And to another Soviet intelligence officer even a posthumous monument was erected in Poland.
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