It dealt with capabilities and intentions. Wynne dutifully passed the images to his contacts with British intelligence, who established their legitimacy. I could sense he had been tortured. Leonid was executed on July 30. 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. The programme featured original covert KGB footage showing Penkovsky photographing classified information and meeting up with Janet Chisholm, a British MI6 agent stationed in Moscow. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. This information was decisive in allowing the US to recognize that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba before most of them were operational. | READ MORE. They married in 1993, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he worked for an independent newspaper in Moscow for a time. This photograph was taken in the hotel room at the Mount Royal in London in April 1961, after one of our meetings, where Oleg Penkovsky on the left and yours truly on the right enjoying a small glass of wine. Oleg Penkovsky was arrested in October 1962. He succeeded in transferring to the West 111 Minox films with 5,500 top-secret military documents, totaling 7,650 pages, as well as revealing the identities of hundreds of Soviet agents in the West. The Spy Who Saved the World, by Jerrold L. Schecter and Peter S. Deriabin, pp. It was scary.. The FBI declined to comment on whether the search Wiser began is continuing. 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. On October 29 of that year, just hours after the Soviets stood down during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Wynne went to Soviet-occupied Budapest with a traveling exhibition of British industrial goods, against the advice of his MI6 handlers. Never before had there been a Soviet spy like him.. His MI6 handlers assured him theyd picked up no sign anything was wrong. "He did make a life for himself, but Greville Wynne did pay a big price for his service. Penkovsky was executed the following year and Wynne was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. [3] When the US Embassy in Moscow refused to cooperate, fearing an international incident, the CIA contacted MI6 for assistance. In 1949 Penkovsky transferred from the regular army to the Soviet army intelligence directorate (GRU). Penkovsky either was shot or killed himself in prisonthere are disputing accounts. After months of interrogation at Lefortovo, Andrei Poleshchuk told his captors he wouldnt answer any more questions unless they told him who his father worked for. He has two daughters. When I found a job, the KGB called and they fired me. That day was June 13, 1985, by Ames account. But unlike other famous characters, his personality, the role he played and what . [12], Penkovsky's activities were revealed by Jack Dunlap, a National Security Agency (NSA) employee and Soviet spy working for the KGB. In June 1986, Leonid was tried and, predictably, convicted. Inside was an offer to work as a 'soldier-warrior' for the free world. 445 & 35. Wynne had worked as both Penkovsky's contact and courier; both men were arrested by the Soviets in October 1962. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The agents he betrayed that day, he has said, included Oleg Gordievsky, whose CIA code name was GTTICKLE; Sergei Bokhan, or GTBLIZZARD; and Leonid Poleshchuk, or GTWEIGH. Oleg Penkovsky, then a colonel in Russia's military intelligence service known as the GRU, had already passed along intelligence about the shoot-down of American satellite planes in Soviet territory and information on his own GRU graduating class. "And Greville played a big part in that.". Gordievsky was told his London posting was over, but he would be allowed to remain in a non-sensitive KGB department in Moscow. They worked hard, shadowing British diplomats, to build up a "discovery case" against Penkovsky so that they could arrest him without throwing suspicion on their own moles. Upon servicing the dead drop, the American handler was arrested, signaling that Penkovsky had been apprehended by Soviet authorities. Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel of the USSR Central Intelligence Agency, a distinguished officer in the Second World War, who has a close relationship with many high-ranking military personnel, is also USA and Great Britain was a spy working for the intelligence agency. Though a former colonel of the 'KGB' by designation, who was appointed "resident-designate" at the . For the following 18 months, Penkovsky supplied a tremendous amount of information to the CIAMI6 team of handlers, including documents demonstrating that the Soviet nuclear arsenal was much smaller than Nikita Khrushchev claimed or the CIA had thought and that the Soviets were not yet capable of producing a large number of ICBMs. He was free. Advertising Notice Top KGB officers had known for more than a year that Penkovsky was a British agent, but they protected their source, a highly placed mole in MI6. 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, David Wise The 23-year-old journalist had been working late for Novosti, the Soviet press agency. No, he was told, theyre here for you.. In his fourth-floor office at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, he wrapped up five to seven pounds of secret documents and walked out of the building. Benedict Cumberbatch is known for bringing outlandish, extraordinary characters, from Marvel's "Dr. Cookie Policy 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. It was pathological with him.. During their visits, Penkovsky and Wynne would get out on the town, visiting restaurants, nightclubs and shops under the cover of talking business, with each man proudly showing the other around his home country. Thus began their fruitful relationship, one that involved Wynne hosting Penkovsky in London, who was visiting under the pretense of cultivate new opportunities in the West. "But you have a responsibility to honor the essence of what happened," says director Dominic Cooke. He is known as one of the greatest spies in the world. A few days after Oleg Gordievsky was recalled to Moscow, the KGB flew his wife, Leila, and their two daughters there, and he broke the unwelcome news that they would not be posted back to London. The year 1985 was a catastrophe for U.S. and British intelligence agencies. The information he provided on the Soviets . Penkovsky joined the Soviet Red Army in 1937 and served as an artillery officer in World War II, being severely wounded in 1944. Oleg Penkovsky was born in Russia in 1919. In 1965 his journal, The Penkovskiy Papers, was published in the United States, though the books authenticity has been questioned by some. "Think about going back to life after that intense drama," Cooke says. You have the wrong number, he was told. Bokhan assumed that both the KGB and the GRU were watching him. Because his father opposed the Communist revolution, Penkovsky was routinely denied promotions. "The Courier" has compressed the real-life story and changed some facts. Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky born 23 April 1919 died 16 May 1963, USSR codenamed HERO, was a colonel with Soviet military intelligence (GRU) during the late . Seeking ways to parlay the notoriety he received, he became what Duns calls a rent-a-spokesperson for all kinds of espionage stuff, making appearances in the media about anything related to spycraft, whether or not it was anything he had experience with. His dining companion, Dickie Franks, revealed himself to be an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, and asked Wynne for his help. He divorced his first wife Sheila after his return before entering a second failed marriage. [4], Greville Wynne, a British salesman of industrial equipment to countries behind the Iron Curtain, was recruited by MI6 to communicate with Penkovksy. Wynne died of throat cancer in 1990 at a London hospital. When it came to writing the screenplay, OConnor laments that the true story of Wynnes experiences may never be known. She did, in 1991, but the strain caused by six years of separation proved too much to repair. The mere belief that theres another mole, whether correct or not, can cause chaos inside an intelligence agency. [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. No products in the cart. He decided to leave Athensbut not for Moscow. Intelligence agencies cannot tolerate unsolved mysteries and loose ends. The Cuban Missile Crisis. He walked down the steps and shook hands with the waiting CIA officers. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine He was thin, pale and obviously sick. Within two weeks after his flight to the United States, he had a new name, a fake background, a Social Security number and a 9-millimeter Beretta. When Wynne visited Moscow in July 1962, his hotel room and luggage were searched, and he was tailed during his travels. The KGB surveilled Janet and witnessed her meeting with Penkovsky. His escape plan was bound under the flyleaf of a novel; he had to slit the cover open to read the instructions. He asked it be given to Joe, with a message, Here is something from Leo. By the time Joe learned of the gift, Andrei said, his father had been arrested. In Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky. The daughter of a Russian mother . I had no job. It is possible that Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk fell under KGB suspicion through some operational error or communications intercept. A large man let him in and flashed a badge. 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.