Rudolf Abel biography after the exchange. The fate of the resident: what was the legendary intelligence officer Rudolf Abel like. Didn’t wear a Wehrmacht uniform, didn’t take Kapitsa out

Legendary scouts Dolgopolov Nikolai Mikhailovich

THE SIX LIVES OF COLONEL ABE Rudolf Abel - William Fisher

THE SIX LIVES OF COLONEL ABEL

Rudolf Abel - William Fisher

Illegal intelligence officer William Genrikhovich Fischer, also known as Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, lived five other people's lives plus a sixth - his own.

Soviet citizens would probably never have known about the existence of Fischer-Abel if it had not been for the very high-profile case of his arrest in 1957 in the United States and exchange in 1962 for the American pilot Powers, shot down in Russian skies.

Fisher was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1903 and spoke English as well as his native Russian. He joined reconnaissance on May 2, 1927. The illegal immigrant successfully worked in many countries, but despite this, he was fired from the NKVD on December 31, 1938. It could have been worse; many of his friends and colleagues were shot, accused of espionage. As always happens in this life, absolutely the wrong people are under suspicion...

I have already told in this book how at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the few experienced security officers who survived in the camps or were dismissed from service were returned to service. Among them was Fischer. It was later, when he was arrested in the States, that he took the name of his old friend and colleague Rudolf Abel.

Fischer recalled that the calmest period of his life was when he worked at the factory, where he got a job in mid-1939. For two years and nine months he lived without intelligence, worked under his own name and did without any appearances or passwords.

Re-reading a thick stack of letters written by William Genrikhovich to his wife Ela, I came across a revelation that amazed me. He wrote to his beloved that he did not want to even think about his former job, that he was tired of its endless difficulties and would never return to the same. Was it a momentary weakness, or resentment? Or maybe the pure truth came from the pen of a person who had already known a lot?

It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, Fischer served in the administration of General Pavel Sudoplatov. He spoke German perfectly, was considered the best radio operator of the authorities and trained young intelligence officers and agents in sabotage.

There is a story connected with it, the true origins of which I have not yet been able to get to the bottom of: either the military archives have disappeared, or the turn has not yet reached the opening of a new chapter. There is a version that Fischer acted in the fascist rear under the guise of a German officer.

In the memoirs of another Soviet illegal immigrant, Konon Molodoy, I came across such an episode. The young man, abandoned behind German lines, was almost immediately caught and taken for interrogation to counterintelligence. The fascist who interrogated him did not torture Molodoy for long, but when left alone, he called the future star of Soviet espionage an “idiot” and kicked him out of the threshold. From then until the end of his days, Young’s tailbone ached. Molodoy met the “fascist” again, this time on the orders of the Center, on an illegal business trip to America. Both recognized each other instantly. Is this true or fiction? The young man was good at such hoaxes that cast doubt.

Even before returning to the Fourth Directorate of the NKVD, the modest engineer Fischer accomplished a feat on a Moscow scale. While traveling on a commuter train from the dacha in Chelyuskinskaya to the plant and back, early in the morning he heard a quiet conversation in the vestibule, where he went out to smoke. Two inconspicuous passengers were deciding where to get off. One suggested it at the station in Moscow, the other objected: it would be better to go early, otherwise the train would skip to another part of the city. And they were dressed in our style, and there was no accent, but William Genrikhovich called a patrol and the couple was arrested. They turned out to be German paratroopers.

How did he recognize these two as saboteurs? He was alarmed by the words: “the train will slip through to another part of the city.” This is exactly how the movement in Berlin is organized. But how could Fischer, who, according to the official biography, had not been to Berlin, know these Berlin subtleties and why did he react so quickly, sensing the falsehood? Or has he ever been to Berlin?

Vladimir Weinstock, who knew Abel-Fischer well, screenwriter of the cult “Dead Season” (if they were not friends with Abel, they were frank, visited each other), was sure: Rudolf Ivanovich served on the German headquarters. He even inserted into the picture a phrase from the main character, played by Banionis, confirming this - that first the headquarters into which he, a Soviet intelligence officer, made his way was commanded by Halder, and then by Jodl. That is, he even indicates a specific place of duty - the operational headquarters ground forces Germany. After the publication of Kozhevnikov’s then-famous book “Shield and Sword” (the intelligence officer did not like it), Abel told Weinstock that he could pull a wallet out of the pocket of Hitler, whom he saw on average once a month.

I was assured that this did not happen, no archival materials were preserved, there was no evidence. I tried to study by month and year where my hero visited during the Great Patriotic War. I read his letters to his loved ones, wrote down what his daughter Evelina Vilyamovna and adopted daughter Lidiya Borisovna told me. There were no such time intervals sufficient for deep implementation.

However, the topic of Berlin came up one day in a lecture that Colonel Abel gave to students - future illegal immigrants. I will quote the “lecturer” verbatim: “In his practical work, an intelligence officer needs not only sources of information, but also the services of people who can store materials, equipment, act as “mailboxes” and provide similar services to him. I'll tell you about a small incident where an accident helped our friend.

It happened in Berlin at the end of 1943. The city was fiercely bombed. Late at night, returning home, our comrade who worked there was overtaken by another raid. He took cover from the shrapnel in a passage leading to the basement of a destroyed house. Somewhere between the explosions of bombs and shells, the faint sound of a piano was suddenly heard. He listened and became convinced that they were playing a Chopin mazurka. Another person, perhaps, would not have paid attention to the sounds of the piano, especially to the fact that Chopin was being played. Our comrade remembered that the Nazis banned Chopin from playing. I thought that the player was looking for peace in music and must be a person who, during the nine years of Nazism, did not succumb to its influence. I found the entrance to the basement and found two women there. Mother and daughter. My daughter was playing the piano.

As a result of this “accidental” acquaintance, a reliable apartment was obtained, where our friend could calmly prepare his messages, store documents and other intelligence equipment. He spent in this apartment last days battles in Berlin and waited for the Center’s signal to leave the underground.

I hope this anecdote from our practice gives you an idea of ​​the nature of our work. Outwardly, it is not replete with very much drama. It is not necessary to have a minister as a source of information. It is quite enough to recruit a trusted servant. And I worked in the USA from 1948 to 1957. Then prison, arrest and in 1962 exchange.”

Which of “our comrades” did the colonel tell the listeners about? It is clear that he is an intelligent man, who, even under fire, managed to quickly realize that they were playing the forbidden Chopin. Was it not the illegal immigrant, a magnificent musician, who shared his own experience with his students? I'd like to believe so. But this is at odds with the facts and dates that have been precisely established.

One curious and documented episode related to my hero was allowed to emerge from the declassified archives. In mid-1944, German Lieutenant Colonel Schorhorn was captured. They managed to convert him and start an operation to divert large forces of the German Wehrmacht. 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 attacked regular Soviet units and reported to Berlin about the movement of enemy troops. The attack on our troops is a complete fiction, which Germany nevertheless believed. But the small group of Germans wandering in the forests did maintain regular contact with Berlin. It was William Fisher, dressed in the uniform of a fascist officer, who started this game together with his radio operators. The group also included captured and converted Germans. This operation was called “Berezino”. Planes flew from Berlin to Belarus, the Germans dropped tens of tons of weapons, ammunition, and food for their group. More than two dozen saboteurs who arrived at the disposal of Schorhorn were arrested, partially recruited and included in the radio game. It is not difficult to imagine what kind of misinformation they conveyed. For all this, the Fuhrer personally promoted Schorhorn to colonel, Fischer was introduced to highest award Reich - Iron Cross. For the same operation and for his work during the war, William Genrikhovich Fischer was awarded the Order of Lenin.

The Germans were fooled in this way for more than eleven months. Hitler had already committed suicide, Berlin had been taken, and the radio game continued. Only on May 4, 1945, Fischer and his people received the last radiogram from somewhere in Germany, no longer from Berlin. They were thanked for their service, regretted that they could no longer provide assistance, and, trusting only in God’s help, offered to act independently.

Since 1948, he worked illegally in the United States. It is well known how Fischer led a network of Soviet “atomic” agents in the States. Much less is written about his connections with our illegal immigrants in Latin America. They, most of them front-line officers or partisans, quietly monitored American ships and were ready, if necessary, to commit sabotage. They recruited Chinese living in prosperous California. And they already knew how and by what signal to carry explosives onto US Navy ships delivering military cargo to Far East. Fortunately, there was no need. But sometimes illegal immigrants Filonenko and others, who worked for years in Latin America with their wives, sometimes went to the United States, met with Fischer and not at all in New York. Guerrilla and sabotage skills could be useful to both the resident and his people.

There was, according to my research, no more, and another intelligence network that Fisher controlled or collaborated with. And in America, his knowledge of German came in handy. On the East Coast of the United States, he was associated with German emigrants who fought Hitler before and during World War II. It was they who committed sabotage in various countries captured by the Nazis. Here the name of the militant Kurt Wiesel comes up, who during the war helped the famous anti-fascist saboteur Ernst Wollweber. In the States he made an excellent career, becoming an engineer at a shipbuilding company in Norfolk. At the end of 1949 and in the 1950s, Wiesel had access to the most secret information.

There are some, I emphasize, some reasons to believe that during the Great Patriotic War Fischer acted in certain episodes under the name of Rudolf Abel.

Rudolf Abel and Willy Fischer were friends. We even went to the dining room together. At Lubyanka they joked: “There the Abels have come.” They may have met in China, where both worked as radio operators. Maybe fate brought them together in 1937, as Fisher’s daughter Evelina believes.

During the war years, both lived in a small apartment in the center of Moscow. Wives and children were sent to evacuation. And in the evenings three people gathered in the kitchen. They were even dubbed, which was original and bold at that time, “the three musketeers.”

Who was the third? When, several decades after the war, people were allowed to travel abroad forever, the third, radio journalist Kirill Khenkin, who never became a security officer, packed up and left. To his surprise, he was released peacefully, without scandals, having promised to remain silent.

He may have remained silent, but he wrote the book “Upside Down Hunter” about William Fisher and his last moments. Well, God bless him, Kirill Henkin, who died at the age of about ninety in Germany. Some episodes from his book are interesting. Henkin, who left the USSR, was forced to comply with the laws of the emigrant genre, otherwise who would have published the book. But here is a moment that does not raise doubts. The purges began, and the office in which Rudolf Ivanovich Abel and four colleagues sat was emptying every day. One after another, colleagues were called somewhere, left and did not return. Personal belongings and glasses of tea remained on the tables, which were then sealed at night. And the Chekist cap hung on the chair for a long time. For some reason it was not removed, and it served as a menacing reminder of the fate of its owner.

I will venture to make a guess about the reasons for the true friendship of the two heroes of this story. There was something in common in the destinies of the two intelligence officers - Abel and Fischer - which, it seems to me, brought them closer. Both were not fortune's darlings. Fate beat them cruelly: mental wounds from their own blows are difficult to heal. And do they heal? William Fisher, as you know, was fired from the NKVD during the pre-war years of purges and executions. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, after the execution of his brother - an old Bolshevik - was also thrown out of the organs, and then returned. And although his wife came from the nobility, and relatives remained in occupied Riga, during the days of the war they did not touch him.

Apparently, they trusted Abel, since the matter was limited to only written excuses:

“To the personnel department of the NKVD of the USSR.

I would like to inform you that my parents and younger brother, who lived there, remained on the territory of the Latvian SSR temporarily occupied by the Germans in the city of Riga.

I know nothing about the fate of my relatives.

Deputy beginning 3rd department of the 4th directorate of the NKGB of the USSR, State Security Major R. Abel.”

Fortunately for the major, he was desperately needed: “...From August 1942 to January 1943, he was on the Caucasian Front as part of a task force for the defense of the Main Caucasus Range. During the period of the Fatherland. war, he repeatedly went out on special missions.”

And the key phrase that answers the question of what he was doing: “I carried out special missions to prepare and deploy our agents behind enemy lines.”

Everyone has their own war

Fischer's daughter Evelina told me about her father's friendship with Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, about how her family lived during the war.

I don’t dare to judge for sure, but they met Rudolf Abel, probably in 1937, when both served in the authorities. And he appeared with us, on Second Trinity, after our return from England, around December. And soon he began to come often.

Dad was taller than Uncle Rudolf. He is skinny, dark, and has a decent bald spot. And Uncle Rudolph is blond, stocky, smiling, with thick hair. The third friend appeared much later - Kirill Khenkin. During the war years, he studied with them at the school of radio operators, and his father and Uncle Rudolf became friends with him at that time. So Khenkin said that no one distinguished them there. They were completely different, but nevertheless they were confused. And because we spent a lot of free time together. They were Abel and Fischer or Fischer and Abel and usually went in pairs. Apparently they were doing the same thing. But I don’t know which one, it’s hard for me to judge, and it doesn’t concern me in any way. Their job is their job. And they were very friendly.

At first, before the war, they were friends with Willy Martens - they called him Little Willy. He was younger than Uncle Rudolf, so he was called Little. I even have a suspicion, but what kind of suspicion is there: Uncle Willie also worked on the Committee at one time. Then all my life, and during the war, in military intelligence. Uncle Willie's father and my grandfather, both old Bolsheviks, knew each other well. The Martens also had a dacha in Chelyuskinskaya. I also knew Martens Sr. - Ludwig Karlovich - quite well: a typical German personality with such a good belly. The three of them, even before Henkin, were friends.

During the war, when my mother and I lived in Kuibyshev, my father, uncle Rudolf and Kirill Khenkin lived together in our apartment. Because in Uncle Rudolf’s house, I think, number 3 on Markhlevsky Street, the windows were broken: a bomb fell opposite, it was impossible to replace the glass, and he moved to dad on Troitsky. And Kirill, who studied at their intelligence school, had nowhere to live at all. And he also came to dad’s apartment. I slept on these two chairs - they are 300 years old, probably from the middle of the 18th century. Kirill tied them with ropes and slept. But I don’t understand why I slept on armchairs; there were enough beds there. Maybe there weren’t enough mattresses, and the chairs were more or less soft. In any case, these three men lived as best they could and managed the household. They curtained the windows, and they remained curtained that way. Dad said that when they began to wait for us and removed the blackout, they were horrified by the color of the walls. Then there was adhesive paint, there was no wallpaper, and they washed the walls, Uncle Rudolf helped. And by that time, by March 1943, he had already returned to his place, on Markhlevsky. Uncle Rudolf’s wife, Aunt Asya, lived there even after his death, until in her declining years, when she could no longer care for herself, she moved to a boarding house. They didn't have children...

My father was returned to the authorities in September 1941. Later, already in 1946, there was talk in the house that Beria’s favorite, General Pavel Sudoplatov, had vouched for him. And this is what I am inclined to believe. Sudoplatov, who was described as a stern professional, needed experienced and trusted people. My father immediately went to work, disappeared from home, and did not show up for days. Mom wasn’t too worried; she probably knew where he was and what he was.

But on October 8, 1941, my mother, father, and I left Moscow for Kuibyshev. There was confusion about this. Some people claim that dad worked in Kuibyshev for a long time during the war. His current colleagues from Samara even credit his father with organizing a special intelligence school there. This is wrong.

We were leaving for evacuation. A whole train, families of security officers in the heated vehicles, and Spot with us. Absolutely wonderful, amazing sparkling fox terrier with typical English name. Dad said: if they don’t agree to take Spot into the car, then I’ll shoot him, because otherwise he’ll die. But they agreed, and our car turned out to be the only one that was not robbed along the entire long journey - thanks to the dog, no stranger could approach. Besides me, there were two other children traveling in the car; they were wildly delighted that we had a dog.

At the end of October, the train dragged itself to Kuibyshev, but we were not allowed to disembark, although my mother had an agreement with the local opera and ballet theater that she would remain working there as an artist. We landed in Sernovodsk - a small resort hole about a hundred kilometers away. Dad stayed with us, I think, for two days, went to Kuibyshev - and disappeared. We sat without anything - no cards, no money. They unloaded us and forgot about us.

And then my mother developed a vigorous activity. The wife of one of our employees, a professional singer, was traveling with us in the cab. And the two of them organized a concert for the flight unit that was nearby. Everyone who could took part in it. I played the cello, and my cousin Lida read the poem “On the Soviet Passport.” Lida grew up in our family as if she were her own.

The leadership of the unit was very pleased with the concert: they felt quite uncomfortable in Sernovodsk. In gratitude, they took my mother in their military vehicle to Kuibyshev, because by that time it was possible to get there only with passes. Mom was immediately taken to the theater. But she, the intelligence officer’s wife, immediately decided to find where the local authorities were: she wanted to find dad. Instead, she ended up in the police station, from where the theater director pulled her out. Even then we met brave people.

And then on the street my mother accidentally met Uncle Rudolf Abel. They were terribly happy because the Abels were leaving Moscow on their own. Uncle Rudolf told mom that he stayed in Kuibyshev, and dad was on a business trip: he went to Ufa to get some equipment. I gave my mother a bottle of alcohol and said that when Willie returns, we will drink it with him. There was little alcohol, and he went for something completely different. On the way back from Ufa or somewhere in those regions, my father fell through the ice of the Ufimka River. I arrived in Sernovodsk wet, dirty and covered in lice, because when we got out of the river, they let them warm up in the village hut. There they collected all these living creatures. He didn’t even let his mother come close to him. I have no idea what they were carrying, maybe you will find out in other places. Well, all the alcohol was used to give dad a sanitary treatment.

After that, my father stayed in Kuibyshev for another two weeks. Then he left for Moscow and never returned. And we stayed in Sernovodsk for a very short time. We lived mainly in Kuibyshev, first a little on Gorky Street, then on Kooperativnaya on the corner of Frunze and, in my opinion, Lev Tolstoy. But they didn’t stay there long. We returned to Moscow in March 1943, when my father managed to get us the pass required for this.

And Uncle Rudolf stayed in Kuibyshev longer than dad. And since both were doing the same thing - training partisans - then, I think, the Kuibyshev comrades got confused and attributed the organization of a special intelligence school to my dad. No, Rudolf Abel worked at a school in the village of Sernovodsk. Maybe his father, returning from his business trips, also helped him. They taught radio science, which they were both very familiar with. Then their students were thrown behind the German lines.

They were often confused. But for one of them to pretend to be the other, as is written in some books, is nonsense. Lord, what can they come up with? They say that dad used the name “Abel” back in the war years - this is not true. This is all nonsense.

In general, if you believe the rumors, then where only my father did not work during the war. He was even sent to England and Germany. No, during the war years my dad did not go to Great Britain or Berlin.

I know that dad was sent to a partisan detachment in Belarus, and their doctor was one of the brothers - the famous runners Znamensky. Dad had a boil, and my father really liked to tell him that the surgeon and athlete Georgy Znamensky opened it. Although my father was absolutely not interested in sports. But he rode a bicycle and roller skated. But he didn’t know how to ski.

After the war, I found out: my father took part in Operation Berezino, and even received an award for it, in my opinion, an order. But everything is quiet, without any timpani.

My father left quite often and for a long time. I didn’t calculate how much then, and now it’s hard for me to figure out, even though we lived. together, of course. And after the war, he spoke little about his military affairs.

What other war memories do I have? It somehow stuck: Dad had two students - two German brothers. And he worked with them, cooked. The only time we had them were handsome fair-haired men, twenty years old or younger. For some reason they came for a sewing machine - what did they do with it? Then I broke the unspoken family ban and asked my father how things turned out for them later. He was upset because things turned out very badly. Both died when they were dropped into Yugoslavia.

Another case involves military weapons. After returning from evacuation, I saw my father’s gun for the first and last time. I could be wrong, but it seems to be “TT”. My father was in a hurry somewhere at night and left the gun at home. He showed me how to assemble and disassemble it. And he was very proud that he could do it quickly and deftly. But my mother immediately took away this abandoned pistol from me. And so, I don’t know if my father ever fired a military weapon, no. The conversation never came up.

His whole real life was at work, outside the home. And there is silence about her.

Even May 9, 1945, we did not particularly celebrate. Dad, as almost always, was not at home - another business trip. Where he was, what he was, we didn’t know. And I didn’t want to sit down at the table without him and didn’t want to raise my glasses.

Another episode from the war. Since there were all sorts of problems with the light and matches had also become a major shortage, and besides, everyone in the house was smoking, my father brought a lighter. I didn’t smoke at that time, but my grandmother, my mother, my father himself... The lighter was a source of pride for him; it had a platinum spiral.

The history of this lighter turned out to be quite interesting.

One of the employees came and said: “Oh, Willie, what a nice lighter you have. You should do the same for our boss.” To which dad objected: “Why on earth? Our boss knows how to do all this himself. He also has much more opportunities to get the necessary parts than I do.” The next day dad comes to work - there is no lighter. He quickly realized what was going on. I went to the boss - and she was there on the table. Father immediately: “Hello, you got my lighter by mistake.” He took her and left. And then he brought it home.

In general, management is a special category. To be completely honest, dad didn’t like his bosses. I tried not to contact him. Why and wherefore - I don’t know. Did not love. Surname Korotkov (after the war, the head of all Soviet illegal immigrants. - N.D.), Of course, it sounded in our house, but to say that my father had some kind of relationship with Korotkov outside of service is not. Sakharovsky (headed the department responsible for illegal immigrants longer than others. - N.D.) was mentioned even less often. But the last name is Fitin (the head of foreign intelligence during the war years. - N.D.) was pronounced - but in war time. Before the war, Spiegelglass was the main one there. But apart from last names - nothing...

And when dad had already returned (not once during our meetings did Evelina say “returned from the USA” or “went to the States.” - N. D), such a story happened. He was drawn to literary activity. Then they just started publishing the Krugozor magazine. And in the first issues he wrote a story. Instead of the author's name - Colonel three stars.

It described that same radio game (“Berezino.” - N.D .), which they fought with the Germans. If I'm not mistaken, the plot is as follows: it seems that a captured German officer ends up in a partisan detachment. And they persuade him to play a radio game with his people. And as a result, our people receive weapons, parcels, and German troops are landed on them.

But the story turned out badly. Then a certain person wrote a script based on it and a film was made on television. And without any father's knowledge. Dad tried to be indignant. But they told him: just think, colonel three stars, also for me, a pseudonym. And with that the question was closed. The father was very unhappy. Of course it's a shame. I think it was a slap in the face and completely impudent. If I came across this screenwriter, I would say a few words to him, and with great pleasure. That theft is a bad and arrogant activity.

But getting into quarrels, proving something to swindlers... All this was beneath fatherly dignity. And he always had a lot to do.

Then in the magazine “Border Guard” there was another story by my father - “The End of the Black Knights”. But a completely different plot, different stories.

(N.D.: I’ll briefly outline the plot of the story. A Soviet intelligence officer tracks down Nazis hiding in various countries. In the end, a winding path leads him to Paris, where he, with the help of French communist friends, destroys the Nazi network.

The image of a scout is completely autobiographical. There is a certain specificity in the dialogues in the protagonist's reasoning about illegal intelligence. It is clear that the pen was handled by a professional.

The editors of “Border Guard” appreciated the story and published it. And they also said: the author, of course, is from the authorities, “but not Abel.” When they found out that it was him, they were embarrassed.

William Genrikhovich put a lot of personal war memories into “Black Knights”. In addition to the passages about intelligence, I liked the Paris that Abel saw, where I lived for many years. And travel through wine cellars with tastings, episodes in Parisian restaurants, descriptions of food, seasonings, sauces and smells - this is just an encyclopedia of French life.

And again the question arose: how does Abel know all this? Only a person who knew and loved the changeable city, which is not open to everyone, can give a vivid picture in such detail. But again, if you believe the colonel’s biography, he never set foot in Paris.

Means what? Do not believe? I'm all about small and mysterious nooks and crannies. Even inquisitive biographers of Abel-Fisher cannot get out of them.

Family chronicles

Abel Fischer's adopted daughter Lydia Borisovna Boyarskaya allowed me to publish several letters from William Genrikhovich. They are simple. They have the atmosphere of the war years.

Letter from William Fisher to Kuybyshev, where the family lives while waiting for a pass to return to Moscow.

“...About coming to Moscow... I was waiting, hoping that I would be able to send you a pass, but so far everything is delayed. On this issue, we have created a partnership with Misha Yarikov (colleague in intelligence. - N.D.) and another friend. I have a good reason to speed up your arrival - this is the illness of Evuni (Evelina’s daughter. - N.D.). I do and will do everything that is possible. I want to see you at home.

It’s not for nothing that I’ve already lived as a monk for a year and am not looking for another family or connection…. You must prepare too. We need to think about how to pack the harp. You can’t move without a harp...

I got it for Valya Martens (Willy Martens’s wife. - N.D.) some firewood and a Christmas tree, and she lent me felt boots, so my feet are warm. In an apartment (Moscow - N.D.) It's cold here, the gas doesn't work. When you arrive, I will get a stove and some firewood, and you will immediately have a working kitchen. Rudolph (Abel. - N.D.) haven't arrived yet...

I am making plans to leave the People's Commissariat. Either go to the factory or take up painting. I’ll sit on your neck for a year and teach you. I will be no worse, if not better, than these assholes who have taken over power in this area. Or you can do work in a factory. Not the People's Commissariat. Enough!.."

William Fisher directs a radio game with the Germans during Operation Berezino. He writes to his wife from a distant partisan detachment.

“...I wrote to you that there is a nice doctor here, a famous athlete Znamensky (runner). He is from a simple peasant family, and through his perseverance he achieved a doctorate and considerable results as an athlete. There is also Ermolaev - a photographer, hunter and fisherman. He will be able to arrange passes to the Uchinskoye Reservoir - tell Yasha Schwartz about this - we will have fish, and in the fall - ducks.

We live here primitively. My working day starts at 3 am. This is only recently, due to changes in the situation. I'm on duty. Since 10 I have been working intermittently and sleeping periodically. We eat at 10, 16.00 and 21.00, and lunch is very good, but breakfasts and dinners are rather weak. Mainly for fats. Due to the heavy workload, I received additional rations.

We live in peasant fur coats and heavily feed fleas. There are kerosene stains on the paper, the lamp is leaking... The fur coats here are good quality and large, but very dirty. You can find all sorts of rubbish on the shelves, in nooks and attics - whole and broken, necessary and unnecessary - everything is dumped together ... "

Letter from a partisan detachment

“...Apparently, on December 12 there will be a car to Moscow. Our hunter Ermolaev is traveling with her, who will obviously bring you this letter... What about my salary? I gave Ermolaev a power of attorney and maybe he will be able to get money for December mc and give it to you. In general, the issue of communication with you needs to be resolved, because by all indications the matter has taken the form of a lengthy operation, and how long it will drag on is difficult to predict. It seems that New Year I will meet you in the wilds of Belarus. The workload has decreased somewhat, there is nothing to do, there are no books. If you can, send me 3 books on the radio (lists books. - N.D.)… I want to remember the old and also the history of the CPSU (b). Ermolaev will tell you about our life in more detail...”

Letter from Belarusian forests

“Dear Elechka! Today I received your parcel and letters... I conveyed this letter of mine through a friend who will not return here. This is my old friend from school in 1937, handsome, old man Belov Alexey Ivanovich. After Rudolf, he taught Morse... We’ll start moving soon, but don’t think that we’re somewhere near the front. The nearest point of the front is at least 400 km away and there are no other dangers other than ordinary everyday ones. I can catch a cold in Moscow, so don’t worry about me... I’m sending you a night light that I found in the rubbish abandoned by the Germans. If you add more wax, the wick is almost eternal. Try using liquid paraffin, it should burn. Here we also conjure with all sorts of light sources. But we are still better - we have kerosene, but there are no glasses for light bulbs, and we invent wicks from pieces of blankets or rags...

They brought breakfast - cards, mashed potatoes and smoked herring, 2 lumps of sugar and tea. I'll make coffee. Coffee! The dream is coming true.

I’m very glad that you finally made it to the orchestra, even if it was in the circus. This will be just the beginning, especially since there are some good conductors there. The circus also has the advantage that it stands still, and Igor Moiseev, although of a higher brand, does not sit still. But you shouldn’t have gotten involved with knitting, think about the fact that you need to take care of your health.”

Lydia Borisovna Boyarskaya told me how William Genrikhovich left:

On October 8, 1971, guests came to Evuna’s dacha for her birthday. I was there too and didn’t even notice that with my uncle

Something bad is happening to Willy. He was as friendly as always, nothing directly indicated his illness. There is concentration and an iron will here. But soon he became ill and was admitted to an oncology hospital.

And the day before his death, November 14, Evunya and I were on duty in his room. Uncle Willie lay alone, and an intelligence officer was constantly near him. Uncle Willie was unconscious, his condition was terrible. Apparently, he was tormented by terrible dreams. It seemed to us - moments of arrest, interrogation, trial... He kept thrashing about, moaning, clutching his head and trying to get up. He even fell to the floor, and the three of us could not hold him. He never regained consciousness. Died on November 15, 1971.

GODWIN WILLIAM (b. 1756 - d. 1836) English writer who had a significant influence on the formation of anarchism. The son of a provincial pastor, William Godwin was born on March 3, 1756 in England near Cambridge. His father, John Godwin, was an independent minister

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Lessons from Abel Wolf woke up and saw a handsome man in a white robe bending over him. The men were silent, as if looking closely at each other. And then Wolf said: “Professor Abel, I beg you very much: do not send me to the police or to the shelter... I don’t want that, well.”

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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 we can tell some details 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 not only in Russian, but also in English, German and French, in 1927 he became a staff member 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 Sergievskie resort mineral water" 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 Molodogvardeyskaya 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 disinformation played an important role in preparing the successful operations of the 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.

Professional revolutionary, German Heinrich Fischer, by the will of fate, turned out to be a resident of Saratov. He married a Russian girl, Lyuba. For revolutionary activities he was expelled abroad. He could not go to Germany: a case was opened against him there, and the young family settled in England, in Shakespeare's places. On July 11, 1903, in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Lyuba had a son, who was named William in honor of the great playwright.

Heinrich Fischer continued his revolutionary activities, joined the Bolsheviks, met with Lenin and Krzhizhanovsky. At the age of sixteen, William entered the university, but did not have to study there for long: in 1920, the Fisher family returned to Russia and accepted Soviet citizenship. Seventeen-year-old William fell in love with Russia and became its passionate patriot. On Civil War I didn’t have a chance to get into it, but I joined the Red Army willingly. He acquired the specialty of a radiotelegraph operator, which was very useful to him in the future.

The OGPU personnel officers could not help but pay attention to the guy, who spoke Russian and English equally well, and also knew German and French, who also knew radio and had an unblemished biography. In 1927, he was enrolled in the state security agencies, or more precisely, in the INO OGPU, which was then headed by Artuzov.

For some time, William Fisher worked in the central office. According to some reports, during this period he went on an illegal business trip to Poland. However, the police refused to renew the residence permit, and his stay in Poland was short-lived.

In 1931, he was sent on a longer business trip, so to speak, “semi-legally,” since he traveled under his own name. In February 1931, he applied to the British Consulate General in Moscow with a request to issue a British passport. The reason is that he is a native of England, came to Russia at the behest of his parents, now he has quarreled with them and wants to return to his homeland with his wife and daughter. Passports were issued, and the Fisher couple went abroad, presumably to China, where William opened a radio workshop. The mission ended in February 1935.

But already in June of the same year, the Fisher family found themselves abroad again. This time William used his second specialty - a freelance artist. Perhaps he was sketching something that the local intelligence service did not like, or perhaps for some other reason the business trip lasted only eleven months.

In May 1936, Fischer returned to Moscow and began training illegal immigrants. One of his students turned out to be Kitty Harris, a liaison to many of our outstanding intelligence officers, including Vasily Zarubin and Donald McLane. In her file, stored in the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service, several documents written and signed by Fischer were preserved. From them it is clear how much work it cost him to teach students who were incapable of technology. Kitty was a polyglot, well versed in political and operational issues, but proved to be completely immune to technology. Somehow making her a mediocre radio operator, Fischer was forced to write in the “Conclusion”: “in technical issues gets confused easily...” When she ended up in England, he did not forget her and helped her with advice.

And yet, in his report, written after her retraining in 1937, detective William Fisher writes that “although “Gypsy” (alias Kitty Harris) received precise instructions from me and Comrade Abel R.I., she did not work as a radio operator Maybe…"

Here we first meet the name under which William Fisher would become world famous many years later.

Who was “t. Abel R.I.”?

Here are lines from his autobiography:

“I was born in 1900 on 23/IX in Riga. Father is a chimney sweep (in Latvia this profession is honorable; meeting a chimney sweep on the street is a harbinger of good luck. - I.D.), mother is a housewife. He lived with his parents until he was fourteen years old and graduated from the 4th grade. elementary school... worked as a delivery boy. In 1915 he moved to Petrograd.”

Soon the revolution began, and the young Latvian, like hundreds of his compatriots, sided with the Soviet regime. As a private fireman, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel fought on the Volga and Kama, and went on an operation behind white lines on the destroyer “Retivy”. “In this operation, the death barge with prisoners was recaptured from the whites.”

Then there were battles near Tsaritsyn, a class of radio operators in Kronstadt and work as a radio operator on our most distant Commander Islands and on Bering Island. From July 1926 he was commandant of the Shanghai consulate, then radio operator of the Soviet embassy in Beijing. Since 1927 - an employee of the INO OGPU.

Two years later, “in 1929, he was sent to illegal work outside the cordon. He was at this job until the fall of 1936.” There are no details about this business trip in Abel’s personal file. But let us pay attention to the time of return - 1936, that is, almost simultaneously with V. Fischer. Did R. Abel and V. Fischer cross paths for the first time then, or did they meet and become friends earlier? More likely the second.

In any case, from that time on, judging by the above document, they worked together. And the fact that they were inseparable is known from the memories of their colleagues, who, when they came to the dining room, joked: “There, Abeli ​​has arrived.” They were friends and families. V. G. Fischer’s daughter, Evelyn, recalled that Uncle Rudolf visited them often, was always calm, cheerful, and knew how to get along with children...

R.I. Abel did not have his own children. His wife, Alexandra Antonovna, came from the nobility, which apparently interfered with his career. Even worse was the fact that his brother Voldemar Abel, head of the political department of the shipping company, in 1937 turned out to be “a participant in the Latvian counter-revolutionary nationalist conspiracy and was sentenced to VMN for espionage and sabotage activities in favor of Germany and Latvia.”

In connection with the arrest of his brother, in March 1938, R.I. Abel was dismissed from the NKVD.

After his dismissal, Abel worked as a rifleman for the paramilitary guard, and on December 15, 1941, he returned to serve in the NKVD. His personal file states that from August 1942 to January 1943 he was part of a task force for the defense of the Main Caucasus Ridge. It is also said that: “During the Patriotic War, he repeatedly went out to carry out special missions... carried out special missions to prepare and deploy our agents behind enemy lines.” At the end of the war he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and two Orders of the Red Star. At the age of forty-six he was dismissed from the state security agencies with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The friendship of the “Abels” continued. Most likely, Rudolph knew about his friend William’s business trip to America, and they met when he came on vacation. But Rudolf never knew about Fischer’s failure and the fact that he impersonated Abel. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel died suddenly in 1955, never knowing that his name had gone down in intelligence history.

Pre-war fate also did not spoil William Genrikhovich Fischer. On December 31, 1938, he was dismissed from the NKVD. The reason is unclear. It’s good that at least they didn’t imprison and shoot. After all, this happened to many intelligence officers at that time. William spent two and a half years in civilian life, and in September 1941 he was returned to duty.

In 1941-1946, Fischer worked in the central intelligence apparatus. However, this does not mean that he sat at the table in his office at Lubyanka all the time. Unfortunately, all materials about his activities during that period are still unavailable. It is known so far that he, like his friend Abel, was then engaged in preparing and deploying our agents behind enemy lines. On November 7, 1941, Fischer, who held the position of head of the communications department, was in a group of intelligence officers serving the security of the parade on Red Square. It is reliably known that in 1944-1945 he took part in the Berezino radio game and supervised the work of a group of Soviet and German (working under our control) radio operators. More details about this operation are described in the essay about Otto Skorzeny.

It is possible that Fischer personally carried out the task behind German lines. The famous Soviet intelligence officer Konon Molodoy (aka Lonsdale, aka Ben) recalled that, having been thrown behind the front line, he was almost immediately caught and taken for interrogation to German counterintelligence. He recognized the officer who interrogated him as William Fisher. He superficially interrogated him, and when left alone, he called him an “idiot” and practically pushed him out of the threshold with his boots. Is this true or false? Knowing Young’s habit of hoaxes, one can rather assume the latter. But there may have been something.

In 1946, Fischer was transferred to a special reserve and began to prepare for a long business trip abroad. He was then already forty-three years old. His daughter was growing up. It was very difficult to leave my family.

Fischer was fully prepared for illegal work. He had an excellent understanding of radio equipment, had a specialty as an electrical engineer, and was familiar with chemistry and nuclear physics. He drew at a professional level, although he never studied this anywhere. And about his personal qualities, perhaps, it was best said by “Louis” and “Leslie” - Maurice and Leontine Cohen (Kroger), with whom he had the opportunity to work in New York: “It was easy to work with Mark - Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. After several meetings with him, we immediately felt how we were gradually becoming operationally more competent and experienced. “Intelligence,” Abel liked to repeat, “is a high art... It is talent, creativity, inspiration...” That’s exactly what he is - an incredibly rich spiritually person, with high culture and knowledge six foreign languages ​​and there was our dear Milt - that’s what we called him behind his back. Consciously or unconsciously, we completely trusted him and always looked for support in him. It couldn’t be otherwise: as a person in highest degree educated, intelligent, with a highly developed sense of honor and dignity, integrity and commitment, it was impossible not to love him. He never hid his high patriotic feelings and devotion to Russia.”

At the beginning of 1948, freelance artist and photographer Emil R. Goldfus, aka William Fisher, aka illegal immigrant “Mark,” settled in the Brooklyn borough of New York. His studio was at 252 Fulton Street.

It was a difficult time for Soviet intelligence. In the United States, McCarthyism, anti-Sovietism, “witch hunts,” and spy mania were in full swing. Intelligence officers who worked “legally” in Soviet institutions were under constant surveillance and expected provocations at any moment. Communication with agents was difficult. And from her came the most valuable materials related to the creation of atomic weapons.

Contact with agents who directly worked at secret nuclear facilities - "Perseus" and others - was maintained through "Louis" (Cohen) and the "Volunteers" group led by him. They were in touch with “Claude” (Yu. S. Sokolov), but circumstances were such that he could no longer meet with them. The directive from Moscow indicated that “Mark” should take over the leadership of the “Volunteers” group.

On December 12, 1948, "Mark" first met "Leslie" and began working with her regularly, obtaining through her valuable information on weapons-grade plutonium and other atomic projects.

Along with this, “Mark” was in touch with a career American intelligence officer, Agent “Herbert.” From him, through the same “Leslie,” a copy of Truman’s bill on the formation of the Council was received national security and the creation of the CIA under him. “Herbert” handed over the Regulations on the CIA, listing the tasks assigned to this organization. Attached was also a draft presidential directive on the transfer to the FBI from military intelligence of the protection of the production of secret weapons - atomic bombs, jet aircraft, submarines, etc. From these documents it was clear that the main goal of the reorganization of the US intelligence services was to strengthen subversive activities against the USSR and intensifying the development of Soviet citizens.

Excited and concerned about the escalation of the “witch hunt,” the “Volunteers” sought to communicate more often with their leader “Louis,” putting not only themselves and him at risk, but also “Mark.” Under these conditions, it was decided to terminate the connection between “Louis” and “Leslie” and take them out of the country. In September 1950, the Cohen couple left the United States. The measures taken made it possible to extend William Fisher's stay in the United States for seven years.

Unfortunately, there is no access to materials about what William Fisher did and what information he transmitted to his homeland during this period. One can only hope that someday they will be declassified.

William Fisher's intelligence career ended when his signalman and radio operator, Reino Heihanen, betrayed him. Having learned that Reino was mired in drunkenness and debauchery, the intelligence leadership decided to recall him, but did not have time. He got into debt and became a traitor.

On the night of June 24-25, 1957, Fischer, under the name Martin Collins, stayed at the Latham Hotel in New York, where he conducted another communication session. At dawn, three people in civilian clothes burst into the room. One of them said: “Colonel! We know that you are a colonel and what you are doing in our country. Let's get acquainted. We are FBI agents. We have in our hands reliable information about who you are and what you do. Your best option is cooperation. Otherwise, arrest."

Fischer flatly refused to cooperate. Then immigration officials entered the room and arrested him for illegal entry into the United States.

William managed to go to the toilet, where he got rid of the code and telegram received at night. But FBI agents found some other documents and items that confirmed his intelligence affiliation. The arrested man was taken out of the hotel in handcuffs, put into a car, and then flown to Texas, where he was placed in an immigration camp.

Fischer immediately guessed that Heyhanen had betrayed him. But he did not know his real name. So, you don't have to name him. True, it was useless to deny that he came from the USSR. William decided to give his name to his late friend Abel, believing that as soon as information about his arrest became known, people at home would understand who he was talking about. He feared that the Americans might start a radio game. By taking a name known to the Center, he made it clear to the service that he was in prison. He told the Americans: “I will testify on the condition that you allow me to write to the Soviet Embassy.” They agreed, and the letter actually arrived at the consular department. But the consul did not understand the point. He opened a “case”, filed a letter, and answered the Americans that such a fellow citizen was not listed among us. But I didn’t even think to inform the Center. So our people only learned about the arrest of “Mark” from the newspapers.

Since the Americans allowed the letter to be written, Abel had to testify. He stated: “I, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a citizen of the USSR, accidentally found a large sum of American dollars in an old barn after the war and moved to Denmark. There he bought a fake American passport and entered the United States through Canada in 1948.”

This version did not suit the American side. On August 7, 1957, Abel was charged with three counts: 1) conspiracy to transfer atomic and military information to Soviet Russia (carrying a death sentence); 2) conspiracy to collect such information (10 years in prison); 3) staying in the United States as an agent of a foreign power without registration with the State Department (5 years in prison).

On October 14, the hearing of case No. 45,094 “United States of America v. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel” began in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The American publicist I. Esten wrote about Abel’s behavior in court in the book “How the American Secret Service Works”: “For three weeks they tried to convert Abel, promising him all the benefits of life... When this failed, they began to scare him with the electric chair... But even this did not make the Russian more pliable. When asked by the judge whether he pleaded guilty, he answered without hesitation: “No!” Abel refused to testify.” To this it must be added that both promises and threats were made to Abel not only during, but also before and after the trial. And all with the same result.

Abel's lawyer, James Britt Donovan, a knowledgeable and conscientious man, did a lot both for his defense and for the exchange. On October 24, 1957, he delivered an excellent defense speech, which largely influenced the decision of the “ladies and gentlemen of the jury.” Here are just a few excerpts from it:

“...Let's assume that this person is exactly who the government says he is. This means that while serving the interests of his country, he was performing an extremely dangerous task. In our country's armed forces, we send only the bravest and smartest people on such missions. You have heard how every American who knew Abel involuntarily gave a high assessment of the moral qualities of the defendant, although he was called for a different purpose...

... Heihanen is a renegade from any point of view... You saw what he is: a good-for-nothing type, a traitor, a liar, a thief... The laziest, most inept, most unlucky agent... Sergeant Rhodes appeared. You all saw what kind of man he was: a dissolute, a drunkard, a traitor to his country. He never met Heyhanen... He never met the defendant. At the same time, he told us in detail about his life in Moscow, that he sold us all for money. What does this have to do with the defendant?..

And on the basis of this kind of testimony, we are asked to make a guilty verdict against this person. Possibly sent to death row... I ask you to remember this when you consider your verdict..."

The jury found Abel guilty. According to American laws, the case was now up to the judge. There is sometimes a long delay between the jury's verdict and sentencing.

On November 15, 1957, Donovan asked the judge not to impose the death penalty because, among other reasons, “it is quite possible that in the foreseeable future an American of his rank will be captured by Soviet Russia or a country allied with it; in this case, an exchange of prisoners organized through diplomatic channels could be considered to be in the national interests of the United States."

Both Donovan and the judge who sentenced Abel to thirty years in prison turned out to be far-sighted men.

The most difficult thing for him in prison was the ban on correspondence with his family. It was allowed (subject to strict censorship) only after Abel’s personal meeting with CIA chief Allen Dulles, who, saying goodbye to Abel and turning to lawyer Donovan, dreamily said: “I would like us to have three or four people like Abel, in Moscow".

The fight for Abel's release began. In Dresden, intelligence officers found a woman, allegedly a relative of Abel, and Mark began to write to this Frau from prison, but suddenly, without explanation, the Americans refused to correspond. Then the “cousin of R.I. Abel,” a certain J. Drivs, a petty employee who lived in the GDR, got involved. His role was played by a then young foreign intelligence officer, Yu. I. Drozdov, the future head of illegal intelligence. The painstaking work went on for several years. Drives corresponded with Donovan through a lawyer in East Berlin, and members of Abel's family also corresponded. The Americans behaved very carefully, checking the addresses of the “relative” and the lawyer. In any case, we were in no hurry.

Events began to unfold at a more accelerated pace only after May 1, 1960, when an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the Sverdlovsk area and its pilot Francis Harry Powers was captured.

In response to the Soviet accusation that the United States was carrying out espionage activities, President Eisenhower invited the Russians to remember the Abel case. The New York Daily News was the first to suggest trading Abel for Powers in an editorial.

Thus, Abel’s surname was again in the spotlight. Eisenhower was under pressure from both the Powers family and public opinion. Lawyers became active. As a result, the parties came to an agreement.

On February 10, 1962, several cars approached the Glienicke Bridge, on the border between West Berlin and Potsdam, from both sides. Abel came from the American one, Powers from the Soviet one. They walked towards each other, stopped for a second, exchanged glances and quickly walked to their cars.

Eyewitnesses recall that Powers was handed over to the Americans wearing a good coat, a winter fawn hat, physically strong and healthy. Abel turned out to be wearing a gray-green prison robe and cap, and, according to Donovan, “looked thin, tired and very old.”

An hour later, Abel met his wife and daughter in Berlin, and the next morning the happy family flew to Moscow.

The last years of his life, William Genrikhovich Fischer, aka Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, aka “Mark,” worked in foreign intelligence. Once he acted in a movie with the opening speech for the film “Low Season”. Traveled to the GDR, Romania, Hungary. He often spoke to young workers, trained and instructed them.

He died at the age of sixty-eight in 1971.

His daughter Evelina told journalist N. Dolgopolov about his funeral: “It was such a scandal when they decided where to bury dad. If at the Novodevichy cemetery, then only as Abel. Mom snapped: “No!” I performed here too. And we insisted that dad be buried under his own name at the Donskoye Cemetery... I believe that I can always be proud of the name of William Genrikhovich Fischer.”

(11 July 1903, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK - 15 November 1971). German. Born into a family of professional revolutionaries. Member of the Komsomol since August 1922, member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) since 1931.

In 1919 he entered the university in London, but in May 1920, without completing his studies, he left for Moscow with his parents. From May 1921 he worked as a translator in the international relations department of the ECCI, from September 1921 as a draftsman in the Northern Sea Route Committee of the NKVT, then again as a translator in the ECCI.

He entered VKHUTEMAS, and in 1924 he moved to the Indian department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. After completing his first year, he was drafted into the army.

In the Red Army: from October 1925. Served in the 1st radiotelegraph regiment of the Moscow Military District, Vladimir. Demobilized in November 1926, he worked at the Research Institute of the Red Army Air Force.

In state security agencies: on May 2, 1927. He began his service in the 8th department (scientific and technical intelligence) of the INO OGPU as an assistant commissioner. Then he moved to the 1st department (illegal intelligence). In the early 30s. sent on his first trip abroad to Norway using his own English documents (operational pseudonym “Frank”). In January 1935 he returned to Moscow for a short time, after which he went to London. He was a radio operator of the illegal station "Shveda" (A.M. Orlov, aka L.L. Nikolsky, aka L.L. Feldbin). In 1937 he was again recalled to Moscow. He worked in the central apparatus of the 7th (foreign) department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR, on December 31, 1938 he was dismissed from the NKVD.

In 1939, after a letter to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, A.A. Andreev, he got a job at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, then as an engineer at an aircraft plant.

In September 1941, he returned to serve in the NKVD, senior detective officer of the 2nd Department of the NKVD of the USSR, then worked in the 4th Directorate of the NKVD-NKGB. Since the summer of 1942 he studied technical support radio games "Monastery". In 1944, he was in Belarus to participate in the radio game Berezino, portraying one of the officers of Lieutenant Colonel Scherhorn's unit operating in the Soviet rear.

After the war, he transferred to the illegal intelligence service of the PGU MGB (since 1947 - the 4th Directorate of CI under the Council of Ministers of the USSR). Until 1947 he worked in France. The leadership of KI and the MGB considered various options for its use in illegal work abroad (in the USA, Western Europe or Norway); at the end of 1947, a decision was made to withdraw it to the USA.

In 1948, V.G. Fisher was appointed an illegal resident of the CI (then MGB-MVD-KGB) in the USA, operational pseudonym “Arach”, since 1952 - “Mark”. In October 1948, he left for Europe under the name Andrew Kayotis (according to legend, Lithuanian, born in 1895, returning home to Detroit), on November 14, 1948, he arrived by ship in Quebec, Canada, then traveled by train to New York. Once in the USA, he changed his documents and legend and subsequently acted under the name of Emil Robert Goldfus, born in 1902, American German origin. As a cover, he opened a workshop where he studied photography, painting and invention.

On May 30, 1949, Arach reported to the Center that it was ready to begin work. Illegal immigrants Maurice and Leontine Cohen ("Volunteers"), who were mainly engaged in intelligence on the atomic problem, were transferred to his subordination. Also, the illegal station managed to collect information on the West Coast of the United States about American military supplies to China, using newly recruited American agents and illegal immigrants hiding under the guise of Czechoslovak emigrants in Latin America: “Firina” (M.I. Filonenko), “Claude” (V.V. Grinchenko) and “Patria” (M. de las Heras). The second network of agents was deployed on the East Coast of the United States and consisted mainly of German immigrants.

In July 1950, due to the increased risk of failure, the Volunteers were recalled to Moscow. They were replaced in October 1952 by a new station radio operator who arrived in the USA - Major GB, since 1957 - Lieutenant Colonel N.K. Ivanov, aka R. Heikhanen (operational pseudonym "Vic", according to legend Eugene Maki, an American of Finnish origin , lived in New Jersey).

In June–December 1955, Mark was on vacation in the USSR. By this time, “Vic” had become drunk and embezzled $5,000 of operational funds. At the end of 1955, Mark demanded that the Center replace him. In the spring of 1957, he was summoned to Moscow, but stopping on the way in Paris, he appeared at the American embassy and asked for political asylum. During interrogations by the FBI, he reported that the Soviet illegal resident “Mark” was operating in New York (he did not know Fischer’s real name), his rank and approximate address.

After Heikhanen's departure, "Mark" left for Daytona Beach, Florida, preparing, in case of danger, to flee to Mexico. On May 6, having received a message that Heyhanen had arrived in Paris, he returned to New York, where he rented a hotel room under the name Martin Collins. He returned to his old apartment several times to destroy incriminating materials and on one visit, on June 20, he was spotted by FBI agents monitoring the apartment. The next morning, he was arrested by FBI agents in his hotel room, on an arrest warrant issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

During interrogation, Fischer admitted that he was a citizen of the USSR, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, which was reported to the Soviet embassy. United States v. Abel was tried in New York federal court in August–October 1957. He was charged with conspiracy to collect and transmit defense information to the USSR and remaining on U.S. soil as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the State Department. He was found guilty on all charges. On November 15, 1957, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and a $3,000 fine. Held in prison in Atlanta, Illinois.

In June 1960, negotiations began on a possible exchange of Fisher for the pilot of the downed American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft F. G. Powers. On February 10, 1962, Powers was exchanged for Abel-Fischer on the Glieniker-Brücke bridge between West and East Berlin. At the same time, two more Americans arrested on charges of espionage were released: F. Pryor and M. Makkinen.

After returning, he worked in the 5th department of Directorate “S” of the KGB PGU under the USSR Council of Ministers. He retired in 1971 and soon died of cancer.

Ranks:

• Lieutenant GB (November 19, 1936);
• Major (as of 1948)
• Colonel (1957)

Awards: Order of Lenin (40s), 3 Orders of the Red Banner (60s), Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Patriotic War, 1st degree and Red Star (1949), badge “Honorary State Security Officer” (March 1 1962), medals.

Other photos:

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 the Cold War, it was not just a bridge, but a border dividing 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 in prison with the first three years served 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 the 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, a large number of fishing enthusiasts were discovered under the bridge, 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 , now imprisoned by the Government of the Soviet Union, be released... and placed under the arrest of a representative of the Government of the United States... and provided that the said Rudolf Ivanovich Abel be expelled from the United States and 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 made an opening statement for 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, a military inquiry and an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee cleared him of all charges.

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.