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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 1 May 2023, at 09:12. After his father was executed, Andrei kept working for Novosti. Outwardly, Janet was an ordinary mother of four children. OConnor makes clear that The Courier is not a documentary, even as he explains that he took pains to stick to the facts as much as they could be ascertaineddrawing on works such as Jerrold L. Shecter and Peter S. Deriabins The Spy Who Saved the World: How a Soviet Colonel Changed the Course of the Cold War and other accounts that could be trusted more than Wynnes own inventions. . They made an odd contrastthe short, energetic, and thinly mustachioed Wynne alongside the military bearing of Penkovskybut there seemed to be genuine affection between the two, and this friendship is a central focus of The Courier. The Soviets had arranged for the apparent good news to reach his wife through a friend and former co-worker in Moscow, who wrote to her in Lagos. Corrections? Finally, in 1991, with the KGB in disarray after its chief led the failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the authorities let Alla and her daughter leave. He was arrested by the Soviets in October 1962, and tried and executed the following year. This information was decisive in allowing the US to recognize that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba before most of them were operational. Leila, his second wife, was a typist and was completely different from his first wife. No, he was told, theyre here for you.. Bokhans son, Alex, also made it to the U.S., in 1995. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? In 2021 in the UK, Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky's story was brought to the big screen, as the film The Courier was released. Wynne agreed, and during his visit to Moscow the following month he wound up connecting with Oleg Penkovsky, a lieutenant colonel in the GRU (the Soviet Unions foreign-intelligence agency) who was eager to leak high-level military information to Western powers. In the late 1960s, after he had been imprisoned for his spycraft and could no longer assist MI6 nor the CIA, the amateur spy authored a pair of books: The Man From Moscow: The Story of Wynne and Penkovsky and The Man From Odessa, that were riddled with falsehoods. Before Leonid Poleshchuk left Lagos, he had asked the CIA for $20,000 to buy the apartment that was supposedly waiting for him. In one of his biggest whoppers, Wynne explains that he and Penkovsky took a trip together in a private military jet from the U.K. to Washington, D.C. Peter Wright, a former British MI5 officer known for his scathing condemnation of the leadership of British intelligence during most of the Cold War, believed that Penkovsky was a fake defection. On this trip, Penkovsky submitted to hours of interviews with British and American intelligence officials about the Soviet Unions military and political developments. the courier avis. His father, Leonid Poleshchuk, was a senior KGB counterintelligence officer, most recently the deputy rezident for counterintelligence in Lagos, Nigeria. Not only was this account widely denied shortly after publication by members of the CIA and Kennedys staff, but it would have been against the way espionage is runkeeping heads of state a safe distance from the details of intelligence work. Russian Lt. Col. Oleg Penkovsky, portrayed by actor Merab Ninidze in the Benjamin Cumberbatch thriller The Courier (2020), is hailed as 'the spy who saved the world', the West's most valuable Cold War double agent, and the man who risked his life to stop a nuclear war between superpowers. He had been drugged. [12], Penkovsky's activities were revealed by Jack Dunlap, a National Security Agency (NSA) employee and Soviet spy working for the KGB. Why did Wynne make up so much, when the truths of his 18 months as a spy are already filled with astounding details? Was Oleg Penkovsky married? There were embraces, and everyone cried. Sooner or later they would arrest me.. in the Family, After being convicted Wynne was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment and Oleg Penkovsky was sentenced to death and was executed on 16th May 1963. Arkady Shevchenko, in the 70-ies, Deputy Secretary General of the UN, the most senior Soviet diplomat-defector during the cold war. [2] On Varentsov's recommendation, he studied at the Frunze Military Academy in 1945-48, then worked as a staff officer. uscgc confidence commanding officer. They had a sumptuous lunchBokhan knew it might be his last meal with his familyand Maria bought a stuffed Greek doll called a patatuff. so that everyone can know this useful information. The operation was the most productive classic clandestine operation ever conducted by the CIA or MI6 against the Soviet target, as Schecter and Deriabin put it, and key to its success was the mustachioed courier with no prior intelligence experience. He was best known as "the courier" who would provide top-secret information on the soviets. In April 1961, through Greville M. Wynne, a British businessman, he offered his services to British intelligence. "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan portrays CIA-contactEmily Donovan, who helps recruit Wynne in "The Courier." There she met her future husband, Ruari Chisholm, and began working for British Intelligence. The documents provided by Penkovsky showed that the Soviet Union was not prepared for war in the area, which emboldened Kennedy to risk the operation in Cuba. Joe said to his people, Keep the watch, I want to give it to his son. At a reception after the church ceremony, Joe gave Andrei the watch. What neither the CIA nor Poleshchuk knew was that the apartment was a KGB operation. But this Land Rovers driveshaft had been rerouted through one of the vehicles doors, the former CIA officer says, so that Gordievsky could fold himself into the hump, in effect hiding in plain sight. [19] Greville Wynne, in his book The Man from Odessa, claimed that Penkovsky killed himself. Greville Maynard Wynne (19 March 1919 - 28 February 1990) was a British spy famous for his involvement with, and imprisonment as a result of, the espionage activities of Oleg Penkovsky. 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. Wynne dutifully passed the images to his contacts with British intelligence, who established their legitimacy. In fact, his contribution to U.S. intelligence and policymaking is exaggerated, distorted, and in several instances falsified. Everything to know about their son and daughter. They married in 1993, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he worked for an independent newspaper in Moscow for a time. Never formally acknowledged by the British government, Wynnewrote about his experiences in two self-aggrandizingbooks, "The Man From Moscow" (1967) and "The Man From Odessa" (1981). It said Bokhans son, Alex, 18, was having trouble in military school and suggested the deputy take his vacation now, three months early, and return to the Soviet Union to deal with him. When Bokhan escaped from Athens, the KGB hustled his wife back to Moscow, searched her apartment and began a series of interrogations. "Greville Wynne was anordinary mandoing an extraordinary thing," Cumberbatch says. [Wynne], bless him, for all his wonderful work, was a menace and a fabricator, says Nigel West, who has written numerous books on British and American intelligence organizations, including two books specifically about fabricators in the intelligence arena. In extended CIA and FBI debriefings, he talked about his nine years of spying for Moscowincluding the day when he turned over, in his words, the identities of virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA and other American and foreign services known to me.. Including Janet Chisholm, who was the wife of a British officer stationed in Moscow who reportedly served as one of Penkovsky's handlers there. He is considered one of the most valuable double agents during the Cold War because the information he provided was critical to the United States throughout the Cuban Missile Crisis 1.The political race of the Soviet Union and the United States began after the end of the . For months, Andrei had been hoping his father would find him an apartment. But the chummy interactions between the agents and Penkovskys prolific, even reckless, acquisition of materials grew increasingly perilousand finally caught the KGBs attention. The Spy Who Saved the World, by Jerrold L. Schecter and Peter S. Deriabin, pp. 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. By 1993 their marriage was over. Thanks to his priceless information the Cuban crisis was not transformed into a last World War". While most information was gained during extensive debriefings (he would ultimately spend more than 140 hours being debriefed), Penkovsky also passed information to U.S. agents, including Wynne and also Janet Chisholm, a former MI6 secretary and wife of a MI6 intelligence officer. [9] While the weight of opinion seems to be that Penkovsky was genuine, the debate underscores the difficulty faced by all intelligence agencies of determining information offered from the enemy. Arrested? When it comes to espionage, its hard to know who to trust. Your Privacy Rights [3] When the US Embassy in Moscow refused to cooperate, fearing an international incident, the CIA contacted MI6 for assistance. Did Oleg Penkovsky have a wife? [10], The Soviet leadership began the deployment of nuclear missiles, in the belief that Washington would not detect the Cuban missile sites until it was too late to do anything about them. In 1961, jet travel did not allow someone to fly from the U.K. to the U.S. and back again in 24 hours, says West. Wynne died of throat cancer in 1990 at a London hospital. What only emerged long after his death was his connection to the Cuban missile crisis. harvp error: no target: CITEREFSchecterDeriabinPenkovskij1992 (. The Spy Who Saved the World, by Jerrold L. Schecter and Peter S. Deriabin, pp. Hed been back at headquarters only four months earlier, and all seemed well. I was 18 years old. He sees that episode differently now. [11] Former GRU captain Viktor Suvorov, who defected to the UK in 1978, later wrote in his book on Soviet intelligence, "historians will remember with gratitude the name of the GRU Colonel Oleg Penkovsky. He asked for a fictitious Greek employee. 27349 Jefferson Avenue, Suite 104 - Temecula, California 92590 - Phone (951) 551-4484. 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. They have two children, and he works as an independent research analyst for business and government contractors in Northern Virginia. Penkovsky was ultimately undone by a mole within the British government. We had neighbors that were very close. In 1944, he was assigned to the headquarters of Colonel-General Sergei Varentsov, commander of artillery on the 1st Ukrainian front, who became his patron. Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Janet_Chisholm&oldid=1119755453, Articles needing additional references from May 2021, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 November 2022, at 07:01. Starring Benedict Cumberbach as Greville Wynne and Merab Ninidze as Oleg Penkovsky, the film explores the Cold War spy story in its entirety and focuses a lot on the relationship held between British spy Wynne and Soviet militant Penkovsky. When Oleg Penkovsky offered Soviet military secrets to MI6, she became the go-between. He was flown to Moscow, imprisoned, and tried alongside Penkovsky, who it would later be learned had been arrested the week before Wynne entered Hungary. When I came to Moscow, she left, he says, taking the children with her on a vacation. Penkovsky was portrayed by Merab Ninidze in the 2020 British film The Courier, in which Benedict Cumberbatch played Greville Wynne. Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky, (born April 23, 1919, Vladikavkaz, Russiadied May 1963?, U.S.S.R.), senior Soviet military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for the United Kingdom and the United States. Controversy surrounds Penkovsky's death, with many believing that MI6 put him in danger after Blake confessed all to the Soviet officials. As the deputy chief, Bokhan was privy to all GRU spy operations aimed at Greece, the United States and the other NATO countries. This is quite shocking, since their countries are nearly at war. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Moreover, Wynne was an engineer and businessman who was recruited by the MI6 due to his travel in eastern Europe. Your fathers been arrested, the man said. Spy novelist Jeremy Duns turns his attention to Oleg Penkovsky, the Soviet military intelligence officer who spied for Britain and the United States in the 1960s in his latest book "Dead Drop:. He knew instantly that the cable was a ruse. Penkovsky would. It was apparent that Soviet counterintelligence agents did not yet have enough evidence to arrest him. He later died of throat cancer in London. 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. Penkovsky was wounded in action in 1944, at about the same time as Varentsov, who appointed him his Liaison Officer. When US intelligence received information on him from Vitaly Yurchenko in 1985, the FBI placed surveillance on him. 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. Either one of ours or theirs., When the FBI Spent Decades Hunting for a Soviet Spy on Its Staff, Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America. [17] A similar description was later included in Ernest Volkman's popular history book about spies, Tom Clancy's novel Red Rabbit, and in Viktor Suvorov's book Aquarium. Wynne had worked as both Penkovsky's contact and courier; both men were arrested by the Soviets in October 1962. A drink-lovingbon vivante as portrayed onscreen, Wynne'sreal-life salesmanship and genuine naivet made him perfect for throwing off serious suspicion. Suman Bhandari The Courierdescribes the story with proper details and a wonderful cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch portraying Greville Wynne. He did so, he said, to prove his bona fides as a potential KGB mole. He traveled frequently, to the United States, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia, South America and the Middle East. I will never forget the day when I got home and she was singing songs, melodies, no words, and looking insane. Upon servicing the dead drop, the American handler was arrested, signaling that Penkovsky had been apprehended by Soviet authorities. Some of the documents provided were originals, which Wright thought could not have been easily taken from their sources. Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (Russian: ; 23 April 1919 16 May 1963), codenamed HERO,[1] was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) colonel during the late 1950s and early 1960s. An Extraordinary Bond: Dominic Cooke on The Courier. what reasons would you fail a pre employment physical; what happened to joe cooper referee; florida gators gymnastics meets 2022; intramuscular injection sites in dogs and cats terry mcdonough aerodata. Like Popov, Penkovsky volunteered his services and Kissevalter was called in to handle the spy, in league with two counterparts from the British Secret . I knew many heads in the KGB had rolled again, as they had after Stalin". He drove around Athens in his BMW for close to an hour to make certain he wasnt being followed, then walked into a 100-foot pedestrian tunnel under a highway. The CIA would want to debrief him at length to try to determine the full extent of his treachery. In his autobiography, Wynne says that he was carefully developed by British intelligence over many years with the specific task of making contact with Penkovsky.[5]. Privacy Statement At 4PM on the afternoon of July 19, 1985, Oleg Gordievsky dressed in a thin green sweater, faded green corduroy trousers and old brown shoes clothes he'd selected from the back of the wardrobe in. At first I couldnt even recognize him, Andrei said. When Wynne visited Moscow in July 1962, his hotel room and luggage were searched, and he was tailed during his travels. Unlike in the film, MI6 didn't immediately turn over the information they received from Penkovsky to the CIA, but when they did, the evidence proved vital. Terms of Use On 20th October, 1962, Russian intelligence officers raided Penkovsky's apartment and discovered a Minnox camera that had been used to photograph secret documents. Greville Wynne And Oleg Penkovsky were both arrested by the Soviets in 1962. Soviet intelligence colonel Oleg Penkovsky stopped at nothing in pursuit of his dream to live in the United States. 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. No question.". Penkovskys dynamism and enthusiasm, his wide-ranging and passionate denunciations of the Soviet system and its leaders illustrated with anecdotes, fascinated and captivated the American and British teams, write Schecter and Deriabin. Greville Wynne: It's really not the same thing. It shortened her life, he said. Just watched 'The Courier' True story about 2 men who helped prevent Nuclear was between USA and Russia in 1962. Theres a fair amount of source material from all different kinds of authors, so by reading everybodynot just Wynnes books, but other historians, and the official history put out by the American side and the Soviet side I was able to try and work out what made the most sense and what seemed liked disinformation, says OConnor. In 1945, Penkovsky married the teenage daughter of Lieutenant-General Dmitri Gapanovich, thus acquiring another high-ranking patron. By Then the car started up again, and the radio, which had been playing pop music, suddenly boomed out SibeliusFinlandia. He always hoped Leila would join him in England. Cookie Policy Gordievsky decided to risk his life and go. I had no job. I talked to some old MI6 friends, and they say they are sure there is. Penkovsky was portrayed by Christopher Rozycki in the 1985 BBC Television serial Wynne and Penkovsky. The women fed the dogs potato chips to distract them. Wynnes fabrications range from small to huge. Thankfully, the police officers, who had the gut to feel that something was wrong with the teenager, stopped him in time, thus saving the lives of people.&nbs A shooting occurred in Field's shopping mall in Copenhagen, Denmark.