He received the acclaimed Order of Lenin in 1966, and published his KGB-approved memoirs in 1968. On February 10, 1962 at around 8:50 a . Fisher, however, was arrested before he could adopt his new identity and leave the United States. They were to resurface in the United Kingdom using the identities of Peter and Helen Kroger. The Cohens were quickly spirited to Mexico before moving on to Moscow. [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. For example, during the fall of 1948, while en route to the United States from the Soviet Union, he had adopted the identity of Andrew Kayotis. Near the tavern, he was told, he would find a signpost marked Horse Carts, You will let Mikhail know of your arrival by placing a red thumb tack in this signpost, a Soviet official told him. [43] In January 1957, Hyhnen received a message from Moscow promoting him to Lieutenant Colonel and granting him leave in the Soviet Union. Fisher, or "Rudolf Ivanovich Abel", was to serve his sentence (as prisoner 80016-A) at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. Thus, 1957 agents confront Rudolf Abel and He intends to shred the note. They immediately noted that it bore a great similarity to the Jefferson nickel which the Brooklyn newsboy had discovered in 1953. [15][16] Though Fisher qualified for university, the costs prohibited him from attending. 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. Yet, the relentless search to identify the person who had brought the hollow nickel to New York, as well as the person for whom the coded message was intended, continued. Try again English: ("Willie") Vilyam Genrikhovich (August) Fisher ( ) (July 11, 1903-November 15, 1971) was a noted Soviet intelligence officer. [25], After rejoining the KGB in 1946, Fisher was trained as a spy for entry into the United States. He was, however, able to tell the FBI about Fisher's studio and its location. It was composed of copper-silver alloy, there being a shortage of nickel during World War II. From the outset, it was obvious that they had found no Utopia on the border of the Soviet Union. One of the coins seemed to have a peculiar ring. Abel returned to Moscow, where he was forced into retirement by the KGB, who feared that during his five years of captivity U.S. authorities had convinced him to become a double agent. This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 19:55. He served as a case officer for the "Volunteer" spy network, which was tasked with relaying atomic secrets, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1949. After their introduction at this theater, Hayhanen and Mark held frequent meetings in Prospect Park, on crowded streets, and in other inconspicuous places in the area of Greater New York. 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. . From July 1949 to October 1952, Hayhanen resided in Finland and established his identity as the American-born Eugene Maki. However, Hyhnen performed his duties poorly, and when he was recalled to the Soviet Union in 1957, he instead fled to the U.S. Embassy in Paris and revealed his secrets. Fisher was aware of the "tail" but, as he had no passport to leave the country, he devised a plan to be used upon his capture. NUMBER 1, 3RD OF DECEMBER.. IT IS TOO EARLY TO SEND YOU THE GAMMAS. [62] The jury retired for three and a half hours and returned on the afternoon of October 25, 1957, finding Fisher guilty on all three counts. display. The two ladies who had changed the newboys dollar on the evening of June 22 were located. [10] Having been adopted as a protg by Pavel Sudoplatov, he took part in Operation Scherhorn ( , Operatsiya Berezino) in August 1944. 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. Following his return to Russia what happened to Rudolf Abel? Subtract. On the evening of Monday, June 22, 1953, a delivery boy for the Brooklyn Eagle knocked on the door of one of his customers in the apartment building at 3403 Foster Avenue in Brooklyn. EVERYTHING IS ALL RIGHT WITH THE FAMILY. Khrushchev also canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR. (2001). Following his arrest, Mark was found to possess many false papers, including two American birth certificates. Questioned about the hollow bolt, Hayhanen said that trick containers such as this were often used by the espionage apparatus which he served. He passed America's atomic secrets to the KGB. Fisher was subsequently indicted to stand trial as a Russian spy. End of preview. I do recall, however, that we used the code name `Quebec in referring to him and that he was recruited for Soviet intelligence work while in Moscow., (An intensive investigation was launched to identify and locate Quebec. It quickly produced results when, in examining a hollow piece of steel from Hayhanens home, the FBI Laboratory discovered a piece of microfilm less than one-inch square. [27] Grigulevich gave Fisher a genuine birth certificate, a forged draft card and a forged tax certificate, all under the name of Emil Robert Goldfus, along with $1,000. William Ghenrihovici Fischer. Goldfus's birth certificate was obtained by the NKVD at the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the Centre would collect identity documents from International Brigades members for use in espionage operations. . Another was the base of a lamp post in Fort Tryon Park. In 2008, Yuri Linkevich shot the documentary "Unknown Abel". A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. [7] While living in the United Kingdom, Fisher's father, a keen Bolshevik, took part in gunrunning, shipping arms from northeast England to Russia's Baltic coast. Alternate titles: Emil R. Goldfus, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, William August Fisher. [44] Upon hearing he was due to return to Moscow, Hyhnen was fearful that he would be severely disciplined or even executed. And both coins had a small hole in one printed letter so that a sharp-pointed instrument, such as a needle, could be used to open them. Roughly halfway through his journey, he was shot down over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. [28] Members of the network had stopped cooperating after postwar security was tightened at Los Alamos. The newsboy rested this coin, a nickel, on the middle finger of his hand. Full information concerning Rhodes involvement in Russian espionage was disseminated to the Army; and following a court-martial, he was sentenced to serve five years at hard labor.). He refused to cooperate at all. His helper, deployed to the USA began to demonstrate signs of instability and nervousness. The newsboy accidentally dropped the nickel and it broke in half, revealing a microphotograph containing a series of numbers. How did the Supreme Court rule in Rudolf Abel's Case? However, on 21 October 1952, as instructed by Moscow, Reino Hyhnen left a thumbtack on a signpost in New York's Central Park. During his eight years as an illegal resident he appears not to have recruited, or even identified, a single potential agent. [32][69], After his return to Moscow, Fisher was employed by the Illegals Directorate of the KGB's First Chief Directorate, giving speeches and lecturing school children on intelligence work, but became increasingly disillusioned. [] R. I. Abel resolutely expressed his firm reluctance to associate his name with such a hero "(V. G. Pavlov, Operation Snow, Moscow: BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, FBI: Rudolph Ivanovich Abel (Hollow Nickel Case), "Mark Rylance wins Best Supporting Actor in the most high profile British win of Oscars 2016", "BAFTA Film Award Nominations and Winners 2016", A memorial plaque to the legendary Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher was put up in Samara, A True Story of the Cold War: Bridge of Spies, Universal News reporting Capture Of Soviet Spy Col. Rudolph Abel (1957), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rudolf_Abel&oldid=1150189193. Genrich Fischer (or Fisher), Abels father and a friend of Lenins, emigrated to Britain around 1901, where he spent 20 years attempting to organize and indoctrinate his fellow factory workers before returning to Russia. The first showed that he was Emil R. Goldfus, born August 2, 1902 in New York City. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. While efforts were being made to decode the message on the microphotograph, FBI agents in New York launched an investigation to find the source of the hollow coin. Hayhanen became a respected expert in Finnish intelligence matters and in May 1943 was accepted into membership in the Soviet Communist Party. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, as head of a school that trained radio operators destined for duty in illegal residences. As the search for the source of the hollow nickel expanded across the United States, hollow subway tokens, trick coins, and similar objects were submitted to the FBI Laboratory by agents in various parts of the country. His parents were peasants. Two months later, however, he was conscripted by the Communists secret police, the NKVD. After decorated service as an intelligence operative during World War II, Abel assumed a false identity and entered an East German refugee camp where he successfully applied for the right to immigrate to Canada. Why does the Government what James Donovan to negotiate the Trade? In exchange for asylum, he promised CIA agents he could help expose a major Soviet spy network in the United States and identify its director. In Abel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction by a vote of 5-4. Investigation was to establish that the Emil Goldfus whose birth certificate Mark displayed had died in infancy. During World War II, he again trained radio operators for clandestine work behind German lines. Afterward, Fisher sent Donovan two rare manuscripts as a show of his appreciation. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Svirin had been in and out of the United States on several occasions between 1939 and 1956. Count One (Conspiracy to transmit defense information to the Soviet Union), 30 years imprisonment. The myth of the master spy Rudolf Abel replaced the reality of Fisher's illegal residency, even as the party hierarchy was well aware that Fisher had achieved nothing of real significance. On May 7, the United States acknowledged that the U-2 had probably flown over Soviet territory but denied that it had authorized the mission. Less than three weeks later, acting on Hyhnen's information, surveillance was established near Fisher's photo studio. In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. Hyhnen, Fisher's former assistant, testified against him at the trial. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel . 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. In order to establish contact with Mikhail in the United States, Hayhanen was instructed that after arriving in New York he should go to the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Early in May 1957, he telephoned the United States Embassy in Paris and subsequently arrived at the embassy to be interviewed. Corrections? However, private treatment by the agency he had served for decades was not as warm. On May 16, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met in Paris for a long-awaited summit meeting. On June 21, 1957, he was arrested in Manhattans Latham Hotel. discuss how the story is a trade in the film. [27], In July 1949, Fisher met with a "legal" KGB resident from the Soviet consulate general, who provided him with money. One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the $5,000 embezzled by Hyhnen. On February 10, 1962 it was exchanged in Berlin. Answer (1 of 4): Rudolf Abel fell victim to poor selection of a helper, if it was not enemy conspiracy in Moscow. Then, in the summer of 1949, he entered Finland as Eugene Nicolai Maki, an American-born laborer. To exchange messages and intelligence data, they used dead dropsinconspicuous hiding placesin the New York area. In particular, he became a friend of Burton Silverman. Rudolf Abel was the most important Soviet agent the FBI ever got on the net. Theodore "Ted" Hall (codenamed "MLAD"), a physicist, was the most important agent in the network in 1945, passing atomic secrets from Los Alamos. Was Rudolf Abel actually a spy? In 1962, he was. He appeared before Judge Mortimer W. Byers on November 15, 1957 and was sentenced as follows (the three sentences to be served concurrently): Colonel Abel appealed his convictions, claiming that rights guaranteed to him under the Constitution and laws of the United States had been violated. The four powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and negotiate new disarmament treaties. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), The Spy Who Kept the Cold War From Boiling Over, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spies-swapped, Iconic child star Shirley Temple dies at 85, Laura Ingalls Wilder, chronicler of American frontier life, dies, World chess champion Garry Kasparov loses game to computer, Final episode of Arrested Development airs on Fox, Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress. [52] Upon opening the door, he was confronted by FBI agents who addressed him as "colonel" and stated that they had "information concerning [his] involvement in espionage." The microfilm bore a typewritten message which identified Quebec as Army sergeant Roy Rhodes and stated the Soviet agents had recruited him in January 1952. Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957. He was sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. Using the alias Emil Goldfus, he set up an artist's studio. If thats `Mark, hell return, they correctly surmised. What happened to Gary Powers in 1977? The hollowed-out area is too small to hide anything aside from a tiny piece of paper. In examining the nickel, agents of the FBIs New York Office noted that the microphotograph appeared to portray nothing more then ten columns of typewritten numbers. Rudolf Abel, was convicted of espionage in the United States in 1957 and later exchanged for imprisoned American Francis Gary Powers. During this period, Fisher posed as a photographer and painter named Emil R. Goldfus and immersed himself in a Brooklyn artistic community. 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. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials at the Paris embassy did not find Hyhnen's story credible. [45] Escape was complicated because, if "MARK" had been compromised by Hyhnen, Fisher's other identities could have been compromised as well. Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957. A search of his Brooklyn studio uncovered a hollow pencil used for concealing messages, a code book, radio transmitting equipment and phony identifications. What sentence does Francis Gary Powers receive from the Soviet Court? At Donovan's initial meeting with Fisher, the latter accepted Donovan as his defense counsel. In September 1939, Hayhanen was appointed to the primary school faculty in the Village of Lipitzi. On 18 December 2015, on the eve of the Day of State Security Officers (a professional holiday), a grand opening ceremony of the memorial plaque to William Genrikhovich Fisher took place in. [14], Fisher became an apprentice draughtsman at Swan Hunter, Wallsend, and attended evening classes at Rutherford College before being accepted into London University in 1920. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. On May 5, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced that the American spy aircraft had been shot down and two days later revealed that Powers was alive and well and had confessed to being on an intelligence mission for the CIA. While it is not known for certain where Fisher went or what he did, it is believed he travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the collection point for stolen diagrams from the Manhattan Project. 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