When he resumed the mission, Moscow changed his liaison person. One of the missiles exploded close enough to Powers' plane to break it apart and send it careening toward the ground. Donovan is widely known for negotiating the 1960-1962 exchange of captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and for negotiating the 1962 release and return of 9,703 prisoners held by Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Rudolf Abel is the antithesis of everything you think when you hear the word spy. It had been hollowed out, and there was a small hole in the first a of the word Tasavalta which appeared on the tail side of this coin. Sudoplatov later described this operation as "the most successful radio deception game of the war". From the latter part of August 1952 until April 1954, he had served as the first secretary to the Soviet United Nations Delegation in New York. No, but in his book Strangers on a Bridge, James B. Donovan does refer to such incidents, where escaping East Germans were shot by VOPOs (East German police) at the Berlin Wall. The Soviet intelligence service had a new assignment for Hayhanenone which would require him to sever relations with his family, to study the English language, and to receive special training in photographing documents, as well as to encode and decode messages. As witnessed in the movie, the real James B. Donovan says that Schischkin spoke "impeccable" English. He was completely prepared for any difficult mission: he had profound knowledge in chemistry, physics, painting, photography and could even work as an electrician. No. [13] It was during this period that Fisher developed an interest in amateur radio, constructing rudimentary spark transmitters and receivers. Napalm Elegy / White Night, 1970. After he collected for the newspaper, Jimmy left the apartment house jingling several coins in his left hand. At 10:00 p.m., they saw the lights go on in Goldfus studio, and a man was observed moving in the room. When he picked it up, almost like magic, the coinsplit in half. Fishers liaison person with Moscow was Yuri Sokolov (Klod). Soviet spy Rudolf Abel was then swapped at Glienicke Bridge for downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. [56][57] Also discovered were photographs of the Cohens and recognition phrases to establish contact between agents who had never met before. Svirin was beyond reach of American justice. [27][29] The Volunteer network grew to include "Aden" and "Serb", nuclear physicists contacted by Hall, and "Silver". He couldnt burn the personal letters from his wife and daughter, written in Russian. Following his arrival in New York on May 10, 1957, Hayhanen was given a thorough physical examination, suitable quarters were found for him, and arrangements were made for him to be interviewed by FBI agents. On February 10, 1962 it was exchanged in Berlin. They then contacted James B. Donovan. [53] During this period Fisher stated that his "real" name was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel and that he was a Soviet citizen, although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities. He was given a modest pension and in 1968 published KGB-approved memoirs. Moments later, FBI agents saw him take a subway to 28th Street, and they stood by unnoticed as he emerged from the subway and walked to the Hotel Latham on East 28th Street. He came to the U.S. under the guise of a Lithuanian refugee named Andrew Kayotis and then lived in Brooklyn as a painter named Emile Goldfus, who ran a photo studio. James Britt Donovan was an American lawyer and United States Navy officer in the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Office of Strategic Services ultimately becoming general counsel of the OSS and an international diplomatic negotiator. Although he refused to discuss his intelligence activities, the photo studio and hotel room which he occupied were virtual museums of modern espionage equipment. The detective had received his information from another police officer whose daughter was acquainted with the newsboy. He died in 1971 at the age of 68. The hollow nickel found by the Brooklyn newspaper boy, The coded message contained in the hollow nickel. Although Abel was convicted and the case appealed up to the Supreme Court 1 Donovan was able to convince the court not to impose a death sentence. Hyhnen was able only to provide Fisher's codename, "MARK", and a description. Why, weve never seen a hollow coinor, for that matter, even heard of one before.. Count Three (Conspiracy to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government without notification to the Secretary of State), five years imprisonment and $1,000 fine. The movie seems to significantly shorten the time between Abel's sentencing and the Powers-Abel exchange. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. It is known he occasionally drew attention to himself by indulging in heavy drinking sessions and heated arguments with his Finnish wife Hannah. Art must be fun as it is intended to supply you with pleasure. He also must be identified. He wanted to defectto desert the Soviet camp. However, a CIA inquiry into the ordeal found that Powers had handled himself appropriately. The first showed that he was Emil R. Goldfus, born August 2, 1902 in New York City. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [16] In 1921, following the Russian Revolution, the Fisher family left Newcastle upon Tyne to return to Moscow. The way Donovan conducted his defence of Rudolf Abel set American constitutional principle against anxieties about subversion and national security in the Cold War. In 1990 the USSR released a stamp depicting Rudolf Abel as part of series: Damaskin, Igor with Elliott, Geoffrey. The radio game was conducted by Fisher, whose careful work never let the enemies discover the truth. His work at Nuremberg won him the Legion of Merit Medal and retirement as a Navy commander. Codenamed "VIK", Hyhnen arrived in New York on the RMS Queen Mary, under the alias Eugene Nikolai Maki. FBI Laboratory experts examined this Finnish coin on May 17, 1957. So, Moscow sent another liaison person. [27] Fisher, as Kayotis, then travelled aboard the RMSScythia from Le Havre, France, to North America, disembarking at Quebec. Using this passport, he sailed October 16, 1952 from Southhampton, England aboard the Queen Mary and arrived at New York City on October 21, 1952. It felt lighter than an ordinary nickel. Despite his modest background, Hayhanen was an honor student and, in 1939, obtained the equivalent of a certificate to teach high school. The story of a Soviet agent who operated in the UK and the U.S., was fired from the NKVD for a while and used in an exchange for an American pilot. His real identity and country of birth were only revealed after his death. William Fisher (second from the left) with the soldiers of his regiment. [43] Fisher checked his drop points only to find messages several months old, while Hyhnen's radio transmissions had routinely been sent from the same location using incorrect radio frequencies. "Our principles are engraved in the history and the law of this land," Donovan said in 1962. Rudolf Abels real name was William Fisher and he was hired by the OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate), the Soviet Unions intelligence service organization, in 1927. Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / Bridge of Spies begins and ends with a painting. Because he had served as a wartime counsel in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and had years of courtroom experience, the Bar Association believed Donovan was uniquely qualified to act as Fisher's defense lawyer. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 2.3.14 Share: This is a story about a man named Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. He described Mikhail as probably between 40 and 50 years old; medium build; long, thin nose; dark hair; and about five feet, nine inches tall. The organization bestowed upon him its highest honor, the Intelligence Star for bravery. Count One (Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union), 30 years imprisonment. During World War II, he again trained radio operators for clandestine work behind German lines. An official website of the United States government. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957..Rudolf AbelOperationsWorld War II (1944-1945) Soviet Cold War spy (1948-1957)17 more rows Letters subsequently received from him indicated that he was in a Lithuanian hospital. He also did not start with a cold in part due to not having his overcoat. He tried to busy himself with painting, learning silk-screening, playing chess, and writing logarithmic tables for the sheer enjoyment of it. Required fields are marked *. Rudolf Abel was a KGB agent who lived undercover in New York between 1948 and 1957. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel ( ), real name Vilyam "Willie" Genrikhovich Fisher (Russian: "" ) (July 11, 1903 - November 15, 1971) was a Soviet intelligence officer. Back in his studio apartment he opens up the coin unfolds a tiny piece of paper and reads the number-coded message. Watch a newsreel highlighting the U-2 controversy. The real James B. Donovan did develop a cold, but it was likely due to forgetting to turn the upstairs heat on in the place he was staying at in Berlin. His ashes were interred at the Donskoye Cemetery under his real name; next to Konon Molody, who had died the previous year. They were not convinced he might actually be a Russian spy until he produced a hollow Finnish 5-mark coin. Boris Kosarev/Maria Kosareva's family archive/russiainphoto.ru, The most sensational Western spy failures in the USSR, Meet the NOTORIOUS Soviet defector who single-handedly sparked the Cold War. There was five digits in each number and 21 numbers in most columns. He refused to cooperate at all. Theodore "Ted" Hall (codenamed "MLAD"), a physicist, was the most important agent in the network in 1945, passing atomic secrets from Los Alamos. It had been placed in the dead drop about two years previously, but, by a trick of fate, a repair crew had filled the hole in the stairs with cement, entombing the bolt and the message it contained. Fearing that he would be punished or at worst executed, Hyhnen fled to the U.S. Embassy in Paris where he revealed his identity as a KGB agent and alerted U.S. officials to the whereabouts of Rudolf Abel, which eventually led to Abel's capture by the FBI on June 21, 1957. Donovan did meet Abel's "daughter," his "wife," and his wife's "Cousin Drews" at the Soviet Consulate, and like in the film, he suspected they were impostors who the Soviets had brought in to butter him up. After working as a spy in America for approximately ten years, Abel had become unhappy with his assistant over his drinking, arguing with his wife, and hiring of prostitutes. [58], As Fisher was no longer considered an alleged illegal alien, but rather an alleged spy, he was flown from Texas to New York on 7 August 1957, to answer the indictment. Willim Fisher with a radio receiving station. 2613 Yates Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, US 323-724-8102. https://www.abell.com. [68] For the sake of its own reputation it suited the KGB to portray "Abel's" nine years of being an undetected agent in the United States as a triumph by a dedicated NKVD member. He quickly obtained a passport of the United Kingdom for a fictional reason that he didnt agree with his fathers communist ideas and wanted to return to his motherland. During Abels trial Donovan was up against a difficult test since the local New York population the media and all the government agencies involved in the case had already made up their minds that Abel who had spent nine years undetected in the US. [27] The only visitors to Fisher's studio were artist friends with whom he felt safe from suspicion. -The Milwaukee Journal. -History.com, Believing that the CIA's spy plane had been destroyed and that its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was most likely dead, the Eisenhower administration tried to cover up the incident by telling the press that the pilot of a weather plane had experienced oxygen difficulties and drifted off course. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957.. Svirin, however, had returned to Moscow two years previously. The newsboy quickly counted the coins in his pocket. [26] His new passport bore the name Andrew Kayotis, the first of Fisher's false identities. Available in standard sizes. Lona Cohen (codenamed "LESLE") and her husband Morris Cohen (codenamed "LUIS" and "VOLUNTEER") had run the Volunteer network and were seasoned couriers. Investigation in Detroit disclosed that several persons there considered Kayotis to be in poor physical condition at the time of his departure from the United States. In Moscow, however, plans were being made for a new Eugene Maki, one thoroughly grounded in Soviet intelligence techniques, to enter the scene. Sokolov remembered that Fisher knew him and mourned [him] very much, bitterly. Through March 19, 2023 Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff. [28] Members of the network had stopped cooperating after postwar security was tightened at Los Alamos. Find an Event; Learn & Create Submenu. As a member of a Soviet spy ring operating on American soil, Hyhnen came under the FBI's jurisdiction and they began verifying his story. In April 1957 (the same month Hayhanen boarded a ship for Europe under instructions to return to Moscow), Goldfus had told a few persons in the Fulton Street building that he was going South on a seven-week vacation. Yes. This spy, Reino Hayhanen, stated that he had just been ordered to return to Moscow. According to the lieutenant general of the Foreign Intelligence V. G. Pavlov: The very first chapter of the novel, called The Shield and the Sword, aroused categorical objections from me and R. I. Abel. The Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel, has written a note to James B. Donovan, his courtappointed defender in a 1957 espionage trial, thanking the lawyer for a copy of the book, "Stranger on a Bridge . a i, How To Paint Window To Look Like Stained Glass, cho c nh , After Mr. However, during his defense of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, Donovan and his family did receive vindictive letters and threatening phone calls, to the point that he had to have the phone line switched to an unlisted number until the trial was over. He aint no James Bond. On October 25, 1957, the jury announced its verdictAbel was guilty of all counts. He also checked a dead-drop location he had memorized. Come and say .MOCHA His primary objective was to identify anti-Soviet elements among the intelligentsia. Four days later, instead of continuing his journey to the Soviet Union he entered the American embassy in Paris, announcing that he was a KGB officer and asking for asylum. Rudolf Abel was the most important Soviet agent the FBI ever got on the net. His parents were peasants. -It's History (YouTube), As stated in the Bridge of Spies movie, despite being a civilian for more than a decade, Donovan had experience from working at the Nuremberg war crime trials as an associate prosecutor on the personal staff of Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. Mikhail, the Soviet with whom Hayhanen maintained contact from the fall of 1952 until early 1954, was yet to be identified. Shortly afterwards Fisher was ordered to reactivate the "Volunteer" network to smuggle atomic secrets to Russia. Months of determined probing by the FBIs scientists and investigative staff had led merely to one blind alley after another. Donovan is widely known for negotiating the 19601962 exchange of captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Donovan had pulled off the swap. Among the tenants was one Emil R. Goldfus, a photographer who had operated a studio on the fifth floor since January, 1954and who also had formerly rented a fifth-floor storage room there. Please check.. In the modest home of Hayhanen and his wife on Dorislee Drive in Peekskill, New York, FBI agents found such items as a 50 Markka coin from Finland. Collection; Search the Collection; Public Art; Exhibitions; Publications; Sarah Braman: Finding Room. Mark made another admissionthat he was a Russian citizen, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, born July 2, 1902 in the Soviet Union. After leaving the United States, the Maki family settled in Estonia. In the spring of 1955, Fisher and Hyhnen visited Bear Mountain Park, and buried $5,000, (equivalent to $50,578 in 2021), destined for the wife of the Soviet spy Morton Sobell, who in 1951 was sentenced to thirty years in jail. The newsboy handed the nickel to a New York detective, who in turn forwarded it to the FBI. Art Submenu. [2][37][38], Late in 1953, Fisher moved to Brooklyn and rented a room in a boarding house on Hicks Street. [33][34][35] The thumbtack signaled to Fisher that Hyhnen, his new assistant, had arrived. He occupied himself with painting learning silk-screening playing chess and writing logarithmic tables for the sheer enjoyment of it. One of the nations most fascinatingand ultimately significantspy cases began in the summer of 1953, when a Brooklyn newspaper boy dropped a nickel he had just earned. The character Rudolf Abel was an amazing artist in real life and enjoyed painting.
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