Rudolf Abel biography. Rudolf Abel: legend of Soviet intelligence. Artist, engineer or scientist
Rudolf Abel - aka William Fischer
Dozens of books and thousands of newspaper articles have been written about this man. However, in last years From declassified archival documents of the KGB of the USSR, we learned that during the war, Rudolf Abel lived in Kuibyshev, where, on instructions from the leadership, he conducted secret radio games against the intelligence services of Nazi Germany. The house, the walls of which remember Abel’s family, still stands in Samara - this is house number 8 on Molodogvardeyskaya Street.
Rudolf Abel conducted secret radio games from Kuibyshev against the intelligence services of Nazi Germany.
Our man overseas
Those who have seen the film “Off Season” have probably noticed that there is a short performance before the start of the film. Rudolf Abel. He says that the Soviet intelligence officer shown in “Dead Season”, played by Donatas Banionis, has no real prototype in life. This is a collective image. However, by the time the film was released, Abel’s name was already familiar not only to film critics, but also to a wide audience.
And here is what the head of the museum of the history of the FSB administration in the Samara region says Sergey Khumaryan:
“You can imagine my surprise when, while collecting information in the archives for our museum, I quite unexpectedly found here materials about the stay of the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel in Kuibyshev. Now, after 70 years, I think some details can be told about his work in our city.”
In the 1960s, Soviet people already knew something about the history of the Soviet resident in the United States, and also heard about the vicissitudes of his exchange for the American pilot Powers. Therefore, despite Abel’s speech before the start of the film “Dead Season,” Soviet people for many years were still confident that he was the main prototype of the movie hero. But not so long ago it became known that in fact the film “Dead Season” was dedicated to another, no less legendary, Soviet intelligence officer - Konon Molodoy(aka Lonsdale, aka Ben). However, this circumstance cannot in any way change our attitude towards Abel.
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel(aka - William Genrikhovich Fisher) was born in 1903 in England. His father Heinrich Fischer was a German, a native of the Yaroslavl province, and at the beginning of the twentieth century he was expelled from Russia for revolutionary activities. On the shores of foggy Albion, Fisher met a Russian girl, Lyuba, a native of Saratov, and soon their son William was born. In 1920, the Fischer family returned to Russia and took Soviet citizenship. Soon after the move, William became a radiotelegraph operator. Fluent in not only Russian, but also English, German and French languages, in 1927 he became a career employee of the INO OGPU (foreign intelligence). During 1929-1936 he carried out command assignments in Poland, England and China.
During these same years, Fischer met the real Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a young Latvian who, since 1927, had also been an employee of the INO OGPU. In 1946, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and died nine years later. At the same time, the real Rudolf Abel never found out that his friend William Fischer, having been arrested in 1957 while working illegally in the USA, gave his name so as not to give away his affiliation with the KGB of the USSR. Subsequently, this name appeared in all official documents, and it was under this name that William Fisher subsequently entered the history of Soviet foreign intelligence.
In November 1957, a New York court sentenced Fischer-Abel to 30 years in prison. But in 1962 he was exchanged for American pilot Francis Powers. Upon returning home, Abel continued to serve in Soviet foreign intelligence. He died in Moscow in 1971.
School in Sernovodsk
In August 1941, when the German army was rapidly approaching Moscow, the evacuation of enterprises, institutions, and hundreds of thousands of Muscovites from the capital to the east began. At the same time, Abel’s family was sent to Kuibyshev, although the intelligence officer himself still remained in the capital. However, at the beginning of September 1941, Abel himself came to the Kuibyshev region in accordance with the order to send him to work at the Kuibyshev intelligence school, based in the village of Sernovodsk on the territory of the Sergievsky Mineral Waters resort. Here he taught radio business to young intelligence officers.
At this time, he regularly visited the regional center, and in January 1942, to complete a special assignment, he finally moved to Kuibyshev. Now two addresses have been identified where the family of the future legend of Soviet foreign intelligence lived in our city. The first building where the Abels moved in 1942 has not survived to this day. However, it is known that it was a private house in the village of Shchepnovka, in the vicinity of the elevator on the Volga embankment. But the second house, the walls of which still remember the family of Rudolf Ivanovich, still stands in Samara - this is house number 8 on Molodogvardeyskaya Street (in 1942 - Kooperativnaya Street).
The first building where the Abels moved in 1942 has not survived to this day. But the second house, the walls of which still remember the family of Rudolf Ivanovich, still stands in Samara - this is house number 8 on Molodogvardeiskaya Street (in 1942 - Kooperativnaya Street).
By the way, an interesting fact from the American period of Abel’s work is connected with this address. Already in a New York prison, our intelligence officer somehow miraculously managed to send a pencil drawing to his homeland through the Soviet ambassador, in which he depicted a house covered with snow, very similar to the one in which Abel once lived in Kuibyshev. Experts believe that some information was encoded in the drawing, understandable only to Abel himself and his immediate superiors from the KGB. Whether this is actually true, we will most likely never know.
The family of the famous Soviet intelligence officer lived in this house during the war.
Abel worked at the Sernovodsk intelligence school until January 1942, after which he was assigned to the central authorities of the NKVD. His family lived in Kuibyshev until February 1943. Abel's wife Elena Stepanovna, a musician, worked in the orchestra of the opera house. Her mother, niece and daughter Evelina lived with her in Kuibyshev.
Until the end of the war, Abel carried out special command assignments, working both in Kuibyshev and at the headquarters of Soviet intelligence, and at the end of the war - behind the front line. In particular, in 1944-1945, Abel was directly involved in Operation Berezina. Then, in order to confuse the Abwehr leadership in the Soviet rear, on the territory of Belarus, a pseudo-German group of troops was created, which was allegedly surrounded. During this operation, Rudolf Abel led a group of radio operators - both Soviet and German, working under our control.
His radio game turned out to be very successful. The Abwehr believed in the disinformation to such an extent that the German command diverted considerable forces to help its troops supposedly in trouble. In particular, the well-known German “saboteur No. 1” Otto Skorzeny then personally prepared special groups to be deployed to the Minsk region so that they would establish contact with the encircled group. It is clear that all the signalmen sent to our rear immediately fell into the hands of Soviet counterintelligence officers, and many of the prisoners subsequently agreed to work against their former masters.
"Deza" from Kuibyshev
In 1942-1943, when the People's Commissariat of State Security of the USSR was located in Kuibyshev, Soviet intelligence, with the direct participation of Rudolf Abel, conducted a radio game, which in documents was designated as “Monastery” or “Novice”. The Germans were given information that an anti-Soviet religious group was supposedly operating in Kuibyshev, which, according to legend, was supported by the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. This “underground” was led by Bishop Ratmirov from Kalinin, who allegedly went over to the German side during the occupation, but in fact carried out assignments from Soviet intelligence.
In 1942-1943, Soviet intelligence, with the direct participation of Rudolf Abel, conducted the radio game “Monastery”, or “Novice”. The Germans were given information that an anti-Soviet religious group was allegedly operating in Kuibyshev, which, according to legend, was supported by the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow.
The operation began with NKVD officers Ivanov and Mikheev being dropped into Kalinin under the guise of priests. Thanks to the guarantees of Ratmirov and Metropolitan Sergius, they quickly infiltrated the circle of churchmen who collaborated with the Germans in the occupied territory. After the liberation of Kalinin Soviet troops Ratmirov moved to Kuibyshev and, according to legend, led the local “religious underground”, and our officers, along with other sold-out clergymen, went to the West following the Germans. Now they were completely trusted, and therefore the intelligence officers, having in hand the recommendations of Bishop Ratmirov, under the guise of “novices” headed to Pskov.
Soon both intelligence officers came to the abbot of the Pskov monastery, who also allegedly worked for the Nazis. Since the “novices” were already well known to the Abwehr by the time they arrived in Pskov, they were easily believed here. As a result, the Germans sent radio operators from among Russian prisoners of war to Ratmirov in Kuibyshev, who were immediately detained and converted here. So, the security officers began a radio game with the German intelligence services, and Rudolf Abel was entrusted with providing communication channels.
Meanwhile, the “novice” officers, together with the abbot, began vigorous activity in the Pskov monastery, creating an intelligence bureau for the German command here. From here, radio information flowed to Berlin about the transfer of raw materials and ammunition from Siberia to one or another section of the Soviet front. The basis of this “misinformation” was intelligence reports from the Kuibyshev “religious underground,” which was “led” by Bishop Ratmirov, well known to the Germans. The group worked so meticulously that the Abwehr leadership throughout the entire operation was completely confident in the reliability and authenticity of the information coming from Kuibyshev. This misinformation played important role in preparation successful operations Red Army in 1943.
After the end of the war, Bishop Ratmirov, by order of Stalin, was awarded a battle medal and a gold watch. Foreign intelligence officers Ivanov and Mikheev, who directly supervised the bishop’s work and accompanied him in the German rear under the guise of clergy, also received military orders.
FBI Director Edgar Hoover once gave a kind of description of his professional qualities: “The persistent hunt for spymaster Abel is one of the most remarkable cases in our asset...” And the long-time head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, added another touch to this portrait, writing in his book “The Art of Intelligence”: “Everything that Abel did, he did out of conviction, and not for money. I would like us to have three or four people like Abel in Moscow.”
His biography is a ready-made script not even for a feature film, but for an exciting serial saga. And even if something has already formed the basis of individual film works, not in every film you will see what this person really went through, what he experienced. He himself is a cross-section of history, its living embodiment. A visible example of worthy service to his cause and devotion to the country for which he took mortal risks
Don't think down on seconds
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (real name William Genrikhovich Fischer) was born on July 11, 1903 in the small town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, into a family of Russian political emigrants. His father, a native of the Yaroslavl province, was from a family of Russified Germans, actively participated in revolutionary activities and was sent abroad as “unreliable.” In England, he and his chosen one, the Russian girl Lyuba, had a son, who was named William - in honor of Shakespeare. My father was well versed in natural sciences and knew three languages. This love was passed on to Willie. At the age of 16, he successfully passed the exam at the University of London, but at that time his family decided to return to Moscow.
Here William works as a translator in the international relations department of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, and studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies. There was also conscription military service - her future intelligence officer served in the radiotelegraph regiment of the Moscow Military District, as well as work at the Red Army Air Force Research Institute. In 1927, William Fisher was hired into the foreign department of the OGPU as an assistant commissioner. He performed illegal intelligence tasks in Europe, including acting as a station radio operator. Upon returning to Moscow, he received the rank of state security lieutenant, but after some time he was unexpectedly dismissed from intelligence. It is believed that this was Beria’s personal decision: he did not trust the personnel working with “enemies of the people,” and Fischer managed to work abroad for some time with the defector Alexander Orlov.
William got a job at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, later worked at an aircraft manufacturing plant, but at the same time bombarded his former “office” with reports of reinstatement. His request was granted in the fall of 1941, when the need arose for experienced, proven specialists. Fischer was enlisted in a unit that organized sabotage groups and partisan detachments behind enemy lines, in particular, he trained radio operators to be deployed behind the front line. During that period, he became friends with his workmate Abel, whose name he would later use when arrested.
After the war, William Fisher was sent to the United States, where, living on different passports, he organized his own photo studio in New York, which played the role of an effective cover. It was from here that he directed the vast intelligence network of the USSR in America. In the late 40s, he worked with the famous intelligence officers the Cohen couple. This activity was extremely effective - important documents and information were received into the country, including on missile weapons. However, in 1957, the intelligence officer ended up in the hands of the CIA. There was a traitor in his circle - it was radio operator Heikhanen (pseudonym “Vic”), who, fearing punishment from his superiors for drunkenness and waste of official funds, passed on information about the intelligence network to the American intelligence services. When the arrest occurred, Fischer introduced himself as Rudolf Abel, and it was under this name that he went down in history. Despite the fact that he did not admit his guilt, the court imposed a sentence of 32 years in prison. The intelligence officer also rejected persistent attempts by American intelligence officers to persuade him to cooperate. In 1962, Abel was exchanged for the American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Powers, who was shot down two years earlier in the skies over the Urals.
After rest and treatment, William Fisher - Rudolf Abel returned to work in the central apparatus of Soviet intelligence. He took part in the training of young specialists who were to go to the “front line” of foreign intelligence. The famous intelligence officer passed away on November 15, 1971. The SVR website notes that “Colonel V. Fischer for outstanding services in ensuring the state security of our country was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, Patriotic War I degree, Red Star, many medals, as well as the badge “Honorary State Security Officer”.
They whistle like bullets at your temple
The name of Abel-Fisher is known to the general public, by and large, only from the final episode of his work in America and the subsequent exchange for a downed US pilot. Meanwhile, his biography had many bright pages, including those about which not everyone knows everything. Special services historian, journalist and writer Nikolai Dolgopolov, in his book “Legendary Intelligence Officers,” focused on only some facts from the life of the legendary intelligence officer. But they also reveal him as a real hero. It turns out that it was Fischer who conducted the radio game on behalf of the captured German Lieutenant Colonel Schorhorn.
“According to the legend planted on the Germans by Pavel Sudoplatov’s department, a large Wehrmacht unit operated in the Belarusian forests and miraculously escaped capture. It allegedly attacks regular Soviet units, while simultaneously reporting to Berlin about the movement of enemy troops, writes Nikolai Dolgopolov. - In Germany they believed this, especially since the small group of Germans wandering in the forests actually maintained regular contact with Berlin. It was William Fisher, dressed in the uniform of a fascist officer, who played this game together with his radio operators.”
The Germans were fooled in this way for almost a year. For this operation and for his work during the war in general, William Fisher was awarded the Order of Lenin. He received the military order of the Red Star in the very first years of his work in the USA. Then, not only from New York, where he lived (by the way, he allegedly settled in mockery at 252 Fulton Street - near the FBI office), but also from the coast, radiograms came from the coast about the movements of military equipment, information regarding the operational situation in major American port cities, delivery, transportation of military cargo from the Pacific coast. Fischer also led the network of Soviet “atomic agents” - this, as Nikolai Dolgopolov notes, “was his first and most important task.” In general, “Mark” - this was the pseudonym Fisher had in the USA - managed to quickly reorganize the illegal network that remained in the USA after World War II. The fact is that in 1948, Soviet intelligence suffered losses here: even before Fischer’s arrival, many Soviet agents were arrested due to betrayal, our consulates and official representative offices in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco were closed.
“Nine years of work, each of which counts to the illegal immigrant for two, several orders, and a promotion in rank. The colonel did not manage to accomplish even more, although he created all the conditions for successful work - his own and the agents’, notes Nikolai Dolgopolov. “The traitor Heihanen interfered.”
During the arrest, Fischer showed fantastic composure and composure. When people from the FBI called him a colonel, he immediately realized that the traitor was “Vic”: only the radio operator knew what officer rank “Mark” had. Our scout behaved courageously and trial: His lawyer James Donovan later recalled with what admiration he watched his client. But the sentence for a 54-year-old man looked almost like death - 32 years in prison... By the way, in Steven Spielberg’s recent film Bridge of Spies, the image of the Soviet intelligence officer was talentedly portrayed by British actor Mark Rylance, showing the character of his hero without the usual Hollywood cliches and current anti-Russian hysteria . The role was so successful that the artist even received an Oscar for her performance. It is worth noting that Rudolf Abel himself took part in the creation of the feature film “Dead Season,” which was released in 1968. The plot of the film, in which Donatas Banionis played the main role, turned out to be connected with some facts from the intelligence officer’s biography.
To whom is infamy, and to whom is immortality
In his memoirs, set out in the book “Notes of the Chief of Illegal Intelligence,” the former head of department “C” (illegals) of the First Main Directorate of the KGBSSR, Major General Yuri Drozdov, spoke about some of the details of the exchange of Rudolf Abel for the American pilot Powers. In this operation, the security officer played the role of Abel’s “cousin,” a petty employee of Drives who lived in the GDR.
“Painstaking work was carried out by a large group of Center employees. In Berlin, in addition to me, the department’s leadership also dealt with these issues,” writes General Drozdov. - A relative of Drives was “made”, correspondence between Abel’s family members and his lawyer in the USA, Donovan, was established through a lawyer in East Berlin. At first, things developed sluggishly. The Americans were very careful and began checking the addresses of the relative and lawyer. Apparently they felt insecure. In any case, this was evidenced by the data that came to us from their office in West Berlin, and by monitoring the actions of their agents on the territory of the GDR.”
On the eve of the exchange, as Yuri Drozdov recalled, the head of the Office of the Commissioner of the USSR KGB in the GDR, General A. A. Krokhin, had his last meeting. “Early in the morning I woke up from a knock on the door. The car was already waiting for me below. I arrived at the exchange place without sleep. But the exchange went well - R.I. Abel returned home.”
By the way, Yuri Ivanovich remembered this detail - Powers was handed over to the Americans in a good coat, a winter fawn hat, physically strong and healthy. Abel crossed the exchange line in some kind of gray-green prison robe and a small cap that barely fit on his head. “On the same day, we spent a couple of hours buying him the necessary wardrobe in Berlin stores,” General Drozdov recalled. - I met him again in the late 60s, in the dining room of our building on Lubyanka, during my visit to the Center from China. He recognized me, came up, thanked me, and said that we should still talk. I couldn't because I was flying out that evening. Fate decreed that I visited Abel’s dacha only in 1972, but already on the anniversary of his death.”
The former deputy head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, Lieutenant General Vadim Kirpichenko, emphasized in one of his interviews that in open sources Only the most famous episodes of Abel's work have been named so far.
“The paradox is that many other, very interesting fragments still remain in the shadows,” the general noted. - Yes, the classification of secrecy has already been removed from many cases. But there are stories that, against the backdrop of already known information, look routine and inconspicuous, and journalists, understandably, are looking for something more interesting. And some things are completely difficult to restore. The chronicler didn’t follow Abel! Today, documentary evidence of his work is scattered across many archival folders. Bringing them together, reconstructing events is painstaking, long work, who will get around to it? But when there are no facts, legends appear..."
Perhaps Rudolf Abel himself will forever remain the same legendary man. A real intelligence officer, patriot, officer.
Exactly 55 years ago, on February 10, 1962, on the bridge separating the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, an exchange took place between the illegal Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel (real name William Genrikhovich Fischer) and the American pilot Francis Powers, who was shot down over the USSR. Abel behaved courageously in prison: he did not reveal to the enemy even the smallest episode of his work, and he is still remembered and respected not only in our country, but also in the USA.
Shield and sword of the legendary scout
Steven Spielberg's film Bridge of Spies, released in 2015, which told about the fate of a Soviet intelligence officer and his exchange, was recognized by film critics as one of the best in the work of the famous American director. The film was made in the spirit of deep respect for the Soviet intelligence officer. Abel, played by British actor Mark Rylance, is a strong-willed person in the film, while Powers is a coward.
In Russia, the intelligence colonel was also immortalized on film. He was played by Yuri Belyaev in the 2010 film “Fights: The US Government vs. Rudolf Abel”; his fate is partly told in the cult film of the 60s “Dead Season” by Savva Kulish, at the beginning of which the legendary intelligence officer himself addressed the audience from the screen with a small commentary .
He also worked as a consultant on another famous Soviet spy film, “Shield and Sword” by Vladimir Basov, where the main character, played by Stanislav Lyubshin, was named Alexander Belov (A. Belov - in honor of Abel). Who is he, a man who is known and respected on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean?
Artist, engineer or scientist
William Genrikhovich Fischer was a very talented and versatile person with a phenomenal memory and a very developed instinct that helped him find the right solution in the most unexpected situations.
Since childhood, he, born in the small English town of Newcastle upon Tyne, spoke several languages, played in different musical instruments, drew and sketched beautifully, understood technology and was interested in the natural sciences. He could have turned out to be a wonderful musician, engineer, scientist or artist, but fate itself predetermined his future path even before birth.
More precisely, the father, Heinrich Matthaus Fischer, a German subject who was born on April 9, 1871 on the estate of Prince Kurakin in the Yaroslavl province, where his parent worked as a manager. In his youth, after meeting the revolutionary Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, Heinrich became seriously interested in Marxism and became an active participant in the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class created by Vladimir Ulyanov.
Named after Shakespeare
The secret police soon drew attention to Fischer, which was followed by an arrest and many years of exile - first to the north of the Arkhangelsk province, then a transfer to the Saratov province. Under these conditions, the young revolutionary proved himself to be an extraordinary conspirator. Constantly changing names and addresses, he continued to fight illegally.
In Saratov, Henry met a young like-minded person, a native of this province, Lyubov Vasilievna Korneeva, who received three years for her revolutionary activities. They soon married and left Russia together in August 1901, when Fischer was faced with a choice: immediate arrest and deportation in shackles to Germany or voluntary departure from the country.
The young couple settled in Great Britain, where on July 11, 1903, their youngest son was born, who received his name in honor of Shakespeare. Young William passed the exams at the University of London, but he did not have to study there - his father decided to return to Russia, where the revolution took place. In 1920, the family moved to the RSFSR, receiving Soviet citizenship and retaining British citizenship.
The best of the best radio operators
William Fisher entered VKHUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Workshops), one of the leading art universities in the country at the time, but in 1925 he was drafted into the army and became one of the best radio operators in the Moscow Military District. His primacy was also recognized by his colleagues, among whom were the future participant of the first Soviet drifting station "North Pole-1", the famous polar explorer and radio operator Ernst Krenkel and the future People's Artist of the USSR, artistic director of the Maly Theater Mikhail Tsarev.
© AP Photo
After demobilization, Fischer seemed to have found his calling - he worked as a radio technician at the Red Army Air Force Research Institute (now the State Flight Test Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense named after Valery Chkalov). In 1927, he married harpist Elena Lebedeva, and two years later their daughter Evelina was born.
It was at this time that a promising young man with excellent knowledge of several foreign languages political intelligence - the OGPU - drew attention. Since 1927, William has been an employee of the Foreign Department of Foreign Intelligence, where he worked first as a translator and then as a radio operator.
Dismissal due to suspicions
In the early 30s, he asked the British authorities to issue him a passport, because he allegedly quarreled with his revolutionary father and wanted to return to England with his family. The British willingly gave Fischer documents, after which the intelligence officer worked illegally for several years in Norway, Denmark, Belgium and France, where he created a secret radio network, transmitting messages from local stations to Moscow.
In 1938, to escape large-scale repressions in the Soviet intelligence apparatus, NKVD resident in Republican Spain Alexander Orlov fled to the West.
After this incident, William Fisher was recalled to the USSR and at the end of the same year was dismissed from the authorities with the rank of state security lieutenant (corresponding to the rank of army captain).
This change in attitude towards the quite successful intelligence officer was dictated only by the fact that new chapter People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria openly did not trust the employees who worked with previously repressed “enemies of the people” in the NKVD. Fischer was also very lucky: many of his colleagues were shot or imprisoned.
Friendship with Rudolf Abel
Fischer was brought back into service by the war with Germany. From September 1941, he worked in the central intelligence apparatus at Lubyanka. As head of the communications department, he took part in ensuring the security of the parade that took place on November 7, 1941 on Red Square. He was involved in the training and transfer of Soviet agents to the Nazi rear, led the work of partisan detachments and participated in several successful radio games against German intelligence.
It was during this period that he became friends with Rudolf Ivanovich (Ioganovich) Abel. Unlike Fischer, this active and cheerful Latvian came to reconnaissance from the fleet, in which he fought during the civil war. During the war, they and their families lived in the same apartment in the center of Moscow.
They were brought together not only by their common service, but also by the common features of their biography. For example, like Fischer, Abel was dismissed from service in 1938. His older brother Voldemar was accused of participating in a Latvian nationalist organization and was shot. Rudolf, like William, found himself in demand at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, carrying out important tasks in organizing sabotage behind the lines of German troops.
And in 1955, Abel died suddenly, never knowing that he was best friend sent to work illegally in the United States. The Cold War was at its height.
The enemy's nuclear secrets were required. Under these conditions, William Fisher, who, under the guise of a Lithuanian refugee, managed to organize two large intelligence networks in the United States, turned out to be an invaluable person for Soviet scientists. For which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Failure and paint
The volume of interesting information was so great that over time Fischer needed another radio operator. Moscow sent Major Nikolai Ivanov as his assistant. It was a personnel error. Ivanov, working under the agent name Reino Heihanen, turned out to be a drinker and a lover of women. When they decided to recall him back in 1957, he turned to the US intelligence services.
They managed to warn Fischer about the betrayal and began to prepare to flee the country through Mexico, but he recklessly decided to return to the apartment and destroy all evidence of his work. FBI agents arrested him. But even in such a stressful moment, William Genrikhovich was able to maintain amazing composure.
He, who continued to paint in the United States, asked American counterintelligence officers to erase the paint from the palette. Then he quietly threw a crumpled piece of paper with a coded telegram into the toilet and flushed it. When detained, he identified himself as Rudolf Abel, thereby making it clear to the Center that he was not a traitor.
Under someone else's name
During the investigation, Fischer resolutely denied his involvement in Soviet intelligence, refused to testify at trial, and suppressed all attempts by American intelligence officers to work for them. They got nothing from him, not even his real name.
But Ivanov’s testimony and letters from his beloved wife and daughter became the basis for a harsh sentence - more than 30 years in prison. In prison, Fischer-Abel painted oil paintings and worked on solving mathematical problems. A few years after this, the traitor suffered punishment - a huge truck crashed into a car driven by Ivanov on a highway at night.
The intelligence officer's fate began to change on May 1, 1960, when the pilot of the U-2 spy plane, Francis Powers, was shot down in the USSR. In addition, the newly elected President John Kennedy sought to ease tensions between the United States and the USSR.
As a result, it was decided to exchange the mysterious Soviet intelligence officer for three people at once. On February 10, 1962, at the Glienicke Bridge, Fischer was handed over to Soviet intelligence services in exchange for Powers. Two American students previously arrested on espionage charges, Frederic Pryor and Marvin Makinen, were also released.
The Glienicke Bridge over the Havel River, dividing Berlin with Potsdam, does not stand out as anything special today. However, tourists are attracted to it not by today, but by history. During times cold war it was not just a bridge, but a border separating two political systems- capitalist West Berlin and the socialist German Democratic Republic.
Since the early 1960s, the bridge received the unofficial name “Spy”, since it was here that exchanges of arrested intelligence officers between warring parties to the conflict began to take place regularly.
Of course, sooner or later the story of the bridge was bound to attract the attention of Hollywood. And in 2015 the film premiered directed by Steven Spielberg“Bridge of Spies” is the story of the very first and most famous exchange of intelligence officers between the two countries. On December 3, 2015, the film “Bridge of Spies” was released in Russia.
As usual, the fascinating story told in the film is an American view of events, multiplied by the artistic imagination of the creators of the film.
Mark's failure
The real story of the exchange of Soviet illegals Rudolf Abel on an American reconnaissance aircraft pilot Francis Powers was devoid of bright colors and special effects, but no less interesting.
Since 1948, a Soviet intelligence agent under the pseudonym Mark began illegal work in the United States. Among the tasks assigned by management to Mark was obtaining information about the US nuclear program.
Rudolf Abel. USSR stamp from the issue “Soviet Intelligence Officers”. Photo: Public Domain
Mark lived in New York under the name of an artist Emil Robert Goldfus and, as a cover, owned a photography studio in Brooklyn.
Mark worked brilliantly, supplying invaluable information to Moscow. Just a few months later, management nominated him for the Order of the Red Banner.
In 1952, another illegal immigrant, operating under the pseudonym Vic, was sent to help Mark. This was a serious mistake by Moscow: Vic turned out to be morally and psychologically unstable and, as a result, not only informed the US authorities about his work for Soviet intelligence, but also betrayed Mark.
Under someone else's name
Mark, despite everything, denied his affiliation with Soviet intelligence, refused to testify at the trial and rejected attempts by American intelligence agencies to persuade him to cooperate. The only thing he revealed during interrogation was his real name. The illegal's name was Rudolf Abel.
It was clear to the Americans that the man they detained and denied his involvement in intelligence was a top-class professional. The court sentenced him to 32 years in prison for espionage. Abel was kept in solitary confinement, without abandoning attempts to persuade him to confess. However, the intelligence officer rejected all American proposals, spending time in prison solving mathematical problems, studying art theory and painting.
In fact, the name that the intelligence officer revealed to the Americans was false. His name was William Fisher. Behind him was illegal work in Norway and Great Britain, training radio operators for partisan detachments and reconnaissance groups sent to countries occupied by Germany during the Second World War. It was during the war that Fischer worked together with Rudolf Abel, whose name he used after his arrest.
The real Rudolf Abel died in Moscow in 1955. Fischer named his name in order, on the one hand, to give the leadership a signal about his arrest, and on the other, to indicate that he was not a traitor and did not tell the Americans any information.
"Family ties
After it became clear that Mark was in the hands of the Americans, careful work began in Moscow to free him. It was not conducted through official channels - the Soviet Union refused to recognize Rudolf Abel as its agent.
Contacts with the Americans were established on behalf of Abel’s relatives. GDR intelligence officers organized letters and telegrams addressed to Abel from a certain aunt of his: “Why are you silent? You didn’t even wish me a Happy New Year or Merry Christmas!”
So the Americans were made to understand that someone had an interest in Abel and was ready to discuss the conditions for his release.
Abel’s cousin joined the correspondence Jurgen Drives, who was actually a KGB officer Yuri Drozdov, and also an East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, who will continue to often act as a mediator in such sensitive matters. Abel's lawyer James Donovan became a mediator on the American side.
The negotiations were difficult, first of all, because the Americans were able to appreciate the importance of the figure of Abel-Fisher. Proposals to exchange him for prisoners in the USSR and other countries Eastern Europe Nazi criminals were rejected.
The main trump card of the USSR fell from the sky
The situation changed on May 1, 1960, when an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Powers was shot down near Sverdlovsk. The first reports of the destruction of the plane did not contain information about the fate of the pilot, so US President Dwight Eisenhower officially stated that the pilot got lost while carrying out a meteorological mission. It turned out that the cruel Russians shot down the peaceful scientist.
The trap set by the Soviet leadership slammed shut. The Soviet side presented not only the wreckage of a plane with spy equipment, but also a living pilot detained after landing by parachute. Francis Powers, who simply had nowhere to go, admitted that he was on a spy flight for the CIA.
On August 19, 1960, Powers was sentenced by the Military College Supreme Court USSR under Article 2 “On criminal liability for state crimes” to 10 years of imprisonment with the first three years in prison.
Almost as soon as it became known that the American pilot of the spy plane had fallen into the hands of the Russians, there were calls in the American press to exchange him for the convicted Abel, whose trial was widely covered in the United States.
Now the USSR has taken revenge by holding an equally high-profile trial of Powers.
The American pilot really became a significant bargaining chip in the negotiations for Abel’s release. Still, the Americans were not ready for a one-for-one exchange. As a result, an American student from Yale was offered to join Powers. Frederick Pryor, arrested for spying in East Berlin in August 1961, and a young American Marvin Makinen from the University of Pennsylvania, who was serving an 8-year sentence for espionage in the USSR.
Strange “fishermen” and an “ambush regiment” in a van
Finally, the parties reached an agreement in principle. The question arose as to where the exchange should take place.
Of all possible options They chose the Glienicke Bridge, exactly in the middle of which the state border between West Berlin and the GDR ran.
The dark green steel bridge was about a hundred meters long; the approaches to it were clearly visible, which made it possible to take all precautions.
Both sides did not really trust each other until the very end. So, on this day, under the bridge it was discovered a large number of fishing enthusiasts who suddenly lost interest in such a hobby after the operation was completed. And in a covered van with a radio station, which approached from the direction of the GDR, a detachment of East German border guards was hiding, ready for any surprises.
On the morning of February 10, 1962, Abel was delivered to the bridge by the Americans, and Powers by the Soviets. The second point of exchange was the Checkpoint Charlie checkpoint in Berlin, on the border between the eastern and western parts of the city. It was there that the American side was handed over Frederick Pryor.
Once word of Pryor's transfer was received, the bulk of the exchange began.
Glienicke Bridge. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
"Rarity" from President Kennedy
Before Rudolf Abel was taken to the bridge, the American accompanying him asked: “Are you not afraid, Colonel, that you will be sent to Siberia? Think, it’s not too late!” Abel smiled and replied: “My conscience is clear. I have nothing to fear."
Official representatives of the parties were convinced that the persons delivered were indeed Abel and Powers.
When all the formalities were completed, Abel and Powers were allowed to go to their own.
One of the participants in the exchange operation from the Soviet side Boris Nalivaiko described what was happening this way: “And after that, Powers and Abel begin to move, the rest remain in place. And so they go towards each other, and here I must tell you, the climax. I still... I have this picture before my eyes, how these two people, whose names will now always be mentioned together, walk and literally glare at each other - who is who. And even when it was already possible to go to us, but, I see, Abel turns his head, accompanies Powers, and Powers turns his head, accompanies Abel. It was a touching picture."
At parting, the American representative handed Abel a document, which is now kept in the foreign intelligence history room at the SVR headquarters in Yasenevo. This is a document signed US President John Kennedy And Attorney General Robert Kennedy and sealed with the large red seal of the Ministry of Justice. It reads, in part: “Be it known that I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, guided by... good intentions, hereafter decree that the term of imprisonment of Rudolf Ivanovich Abel on the day that Francis Harry Powers, an American citizen , currently imprisoned by the government Soviet Union, will be released... and placed under the arrest of a representative of the United States Government... and on the condition that the said Rudolf Ivanovich Abel will be expelled from the United States and will remain outside the United States, its territories and possessions."
The best place
The last participant in the exchange, Marvin Makinen, as previously agreed, was transferred to the American side a month later.
William Fisher really did not end up in Siberia, as the Americans predicted. After rest and treatment, he continued to work in the central intelligence apparatus, and a few years later he spoke with introductory remarks to the Soviet film "Dead Season", some of the plot twists of which were directly related to his own biography.
Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Vladimir Semichastny (1st from left) receives Soviet intelligence officers Rudolf Abel (2nd from left) and Conan the Young (2nd from right). Photo: RIA Novosti
Francis Powers experienced many unpleasant moments in the United States, listening to accusations of treason. Many believed that he should have committed suicide rather than fall into the hands of the Russians. However, the military inquiry and the investigation of the Senate Subcommittee on armed forces All charges against him were dropped.
After finishing his intelligence work, Powers worked as a civilian pilot; on August 1, 1977, he died in a helicopter crash he was piloting.
And the Glienicke Bridge, after the successful exchange on February 10, 1962, remained the main place for such operations until the fall of the GDR and the collapse of the socialist bloc.
(real name - William Genrikhovich Fisher)
(1903-1971) Soviet intelligence officer
For many decades, the true name of this legendary intelligence officer was hidden under an impenetrable veil of secrecy. Only after his death did it become known that the name Abel, which he gave when arrested in the United States, belonged to his deceased friend and colleague.
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was born into a German family, several generations of which lived in Russia. William's father, Heinrich Fischer, was born on the Mologa estate of the Kurakin princes, located near Yaroslavl. The prince took his ancestors out of Germany, inviting them to work. Abel's grandfather was a cattle breeder and veterinarian, and his grandmother was a specialist in chicken breeding. They worked all their lives in Russia, which became their second homeland.
However Heinrich Fischer did not follow in the footsteps of his parents. He became an engineer, joined the Bolshevik Party, and then left with his wife for England, where he was engaged in business and at the same time carried out party work. There in Newcastle his son William was born. He went to school and soon began helping his father: he ran to turnouts, then became an activist in the “Hands Off Russia!” movement.
In 1921, the family returned to Russia, where William Fisher entered college and in 1927, while still studying, began working in Soviet intelligence. After graduating from college and undergoing special training, he was again sent to England, where he worked under his real name for almost ten years.
In 1938, when purges began in intelligence, Fischer, who had by then returned to the USSR, was stripped of his military rank and fired. For several years he worked as an engineer at a Moscow plant. Already during the Finnish war, Fischer was remembered. His rank was returned to him and he was sent to a special radio battalion, where he served together with the famous polar explorer E. Krenkel.
Shortly before the start of the war, Fischer was again returned to foreign intelligence and was soon transferred to Germany. There he spent the entire war, reporting information to Moscow. Fischer continued to work in intelligence after the war.
On instructions from the Center, in 1947 he moved to Canada, and from there in 1948 he moved to the USA. Fisher crosses the border under the name of an American of Lithuanian origin, Andrew Kayotis. In the USA, he was legalized under a different name - Emil Goldfus.
Officially, he became a photographer-retoucher by profession, but in fact he was involved in organizing the receipt and transmission of intelligence information to the USSR. The unremarkable photographer lived in Brooklyn for many years, becoming the organizer and leader of an extensive network of agents.
In 1955, Fischer came to Moscow briefly for a vacation. This was his only visit, because 2 years after returning to the USA he was arrested on June 21, 1957. The scout was betrayed by one of his team members. None of Fischer's colleagues were exposed or harmed.
Unlike other intelligence officers, Fischer did not remain silent, but during the first interrogation he stated that he was a Soviet intelligence officer and his real name and rank was Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. He made this statement to check how complete information the American intelligence services had. When they believed him, it became obvious that American counterintelligence officers had no other data other than operational information. A few months later, Fischer was given letters addressed to him from his daughter and wife. Now he knew that Moscow understood his move and entered the game. The trial of Rudolf Abel was a great success and was widely covered in the American press.
The court sentenced him to thirty years in prison. But he did not serve until the end of his sentence. Five years later, in February 1962, in East Berlin, Rudolf Abel was exchanged for the American pilot F. Powers, who was shot down over the territory of the USSR, and for two other detained agents.
Returning to the USSR, Rudolf Abel continued his intelligence activities. He was awarded the rank of general. He supervised the work of the Anglo-American intelligence network, trained young employees, and went on business trips to socialist countries several times. For his services, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
The famous intelligence officer led a rather secluded and solitary life, and did not speak anywhere with stories about his activities, as many older generals liked to do. But one day he finally appeared on the silver screen, starring in S. Kulish’s film “Dead Season,” where an episode of an exchange of intelligence officers was shown.
In 1971, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel retired and soon died of lung cancer. For the first time, two surnames of the intelligence officer were placed together on his tombstone - Fischer and Abel.
