Finding yourself
17.02.2024

Rudolf Abel: biography, photos and interesting facts. Brief biography of Rudolf Abel

Abel family and Fischer family in China.

The name of the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel first appeared in 1957, when he was arrested by the FBI in the United States. Sentence: 32 years in prison. In 1962, he was exchanged for American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers. However, in reality there were two Rudolf Abels. Both are scouts, friends. And one of them was born in Riga.

Chimney Sweep's Son

Rudolf Ioannovich Abel was a real European gentleman: he spoke six languages, looked like a thoroughbred Aryan nobleman - tall, fair-haired, friendly, well-mannered. Meanwhile, he was born into the family of a simple Riga chimney sweep, graduated from a city four-year school, after which he worked as a courier-delivery boy.
In 1915, the young man moved to St. Petersburg, entered general education courses, and passed exams as an external student for all four courses at a real school. Knowing German as a native language was a big plus for the future intelligence officer, and this knowledge is not surprising - after all, he was born into a German family. But he also spoke impeccable English and French!
Little has been written about Rudolf Abel. In particular, there is no information about how he came to the revolution. Most likely, the example was the elder brother Voldemar - a Latvian rifleman who guarded Smolny, a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) since 1917, a commissar of the Cheka of the Kronstadt Fortress. So, again, it is not surprising that Rudolf volunteered for the Baltic Fleet in 1917.
In 1924 he was demobilized and worked as an electrician and radio operator at Sovtorgflot in Vladivostok. His life changes dramatically in 1926. Rudolf is sent to Shanghai, one of the largest centers of Russian emigration, where he is appointed commandant of the Soviet mission. In 1927, Abel became an employee of the INO OGPU - as a radio operator-cipher operator at the USSR Embassy in Beijing.
Writer Nikolai Dolgopolov two years ago published the book “Abel Fisher”, where he describes Rudolf Abel as a real James Bond. From 1929 to 1936, Rudolf Abel became an illegal Soviet intelligence officer. According to Dolgopolov, in his personal file this is evidenced by a short entry: “Appointed to the position of authorized representative of the OGPU INO and is on a long-term business trip in different countries.” Was he sent to the Baltic states, taking into account his knowledge of local specifics? Alas, no specific countries are indicated in the official dossier. The writer was only able to establish that in October 1930, Abel appeared in Manchuria - under the guise of a Russian emigrant. He came there with his wife Asya, who was of noble origin. They had no children.

One step away from the “enemy of the people”

In the fall of 1936, Abel returned to Moscow, to the central apparatus of foreign intelligence. However, years of repression began. The NKVD, and then the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs from Yezhov passes into the hands of Beria, the apparatus is cleansed, and Abel, like many other intelligence officers, is dismissed from the agency. The reason was the arrest of brother Voldemar, who by the mid-1930s had become a major party worker in Leningrad, head of the political department of the Baltic Shipping Company.
In 1938, the red shooter, devoted revolutionary Voldemar Abel, and 216 other people were sentenced to death “for participation in the Latvian counter-revolutionary nationalist conspiracy” and “for espionage and sabotage activities in favor of Germany and Latvia.”

There is a version that Rudolf Abel survived during the years of repression due to the fact that during the trial of his brother he was in a tuberculosis sanatorium.

After his dismissal, the former intelligence officer works in unimportant positions - as a shooter for paramilitary security, then as a censor, and then goes on an early and meager retirement. They remembered him only in 1941, when the war began and professionals were needed: Abel was returned to the intelligence department and sent to the Caucasus.
From August 1942 to January 1943, he was sent to the Main Caucasus Ridge, where he was responsible for defense activities, being the head of an operational reconnaissance group.
And soon after the Victory, in September 1946, Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Abel was sent into retirement again, and finally - at the age of 46! - becomes a pensioner, albeit a well-deserved one: awarded the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, and several medals. In 1955, the intelligence officer unexpectedly died of a heart attack and was buried in Moscow at the German Cemetery.

Resurrection in the USA

And suddenly, 2 years after the death of Rudolf Abel, in the USA the FBI arrests a Soviet spy... Rudolf Abel!

The public trial was called: “US Government vs. Rudolf Abel.” The accused was charged not only with illegal stay in the United States as an agent of a foreign power, but also with sending particularly important materials on American nuclear development to the USSR. Sentence: 32 years in prison. However, in 1962 he was exchanged for the American pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose reconnaissance plane was shot down over the USSR.
So, is Rudolf Abel resurrected? Of course not. Ten years after the trial, the Americans found out that the Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher was hiding under this name. He specifically named himself after Rudolf Abel - signaling to the Lubyanka about his failure and silence. In Moscow, they learned about the arrest of the intelligence officer from information in the American press, but before that they could not understand why he did not get in touch.

Arrest of agent Rudolf Abel.

Why did Fischer choose the name Rudolf Abel? But because they were friends - Rudolph and William. Both had German blood, only William (named after Shakespeare, whom his parents adored) was born in Great Britain, into a family of Bolshevik political emigrants who returned to Russia in 1920. Fischer's father knew Vladimir Lenin well since the 1890s - together with his wife they distributed Iskra. So William’s arrival in the revolution was natural.
Writer Nikolai Dolgopolov believes that William Fisher was a romantic and believed in social justice. And his biography is very similar to the biography of Rudolf Abel - with the exception of the “English period”, where he managed to graduate with honors from school and even enter the University of London. In Moscow, he was hired as a translator in the apparatus of the Comintern, and in 1924 he even entered the Indian department of the Institute of Oriental Studies. But then - the army, the radiotelegraph regiment, and in 1927 - joining the OGPU.

The fate of the resident

Rudolph and William met in China. Although Dolgopolov did not find official confirmation of this fact in the documents. Even Fisher’s daughter Evelina did not know that her father was in this country at that time!
“Grateful readers who read my books and articles back in the 90s suddenly began sending me photographs,” Dolgopolov said in an interview. — And in one photograph with the Chinese Wall, four people are depicted: this is Willy Fischer, his friend and also security officer Willy Martens and his wife, as well as a man named Abel, Rudolf Ivanovich, and his wife Asya. When I showed this photograph to Evelina Vilyamovna Fischer, it simply infuriated her.”
In China, they were links in one chain: the power of radio transmitters of that era was low, so intelligence reports from foreign territory to the Soviet side were transmitted along the chain. Abel transmitted information from Canton, and Fischer was the receiving telegraph operator in Beijing. In 1938, Fischer, like Abel, was fired from the NKVD - without explanation.

The real Rudolf Abel.

Afterwards he worked at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, at a factory. Repeatedly submitted reports about reinstatement in intelligence. They were restored, like Abel, in 1941.
Willy Fischer, unlike his friend Rudolf Abel, with whom they were family friends in Moscow, was short, thin, unathletic, reserved and reserved in English. He was interested in astronomy, drew beautifully, and played the guitar. It was not James Bond or even Stirlitz. It was said that when the film “Dead Season” about intelligence officers was being filmed, William Genrikhovich, who commented on the film, and the leading actor Donatas Banionis met on the set. Banionis exclaimed: “I would never have thought that you were a scout!” Fischer smiled and replied: “You are not alone.”

Agent Rudolf Abel, aka Fischer.

Forget your name

William Fisher was in demand until his last days and worked with young intelligence officers. Died in 1971. But someone else's name became not even a second name for Fischer, but a first one. After returning from the USA, only his family and close colleagues knew his real name. Everywhere and everywhere, including as a commentator for the film "Dead Season", he acted as Rudolf Abel!
Even a short obituary in the Red Star was also dedicated to Rudolf Abel. And they buried William Fisher in the Donskoy cemetery, just like Abel, although his wife and daughter raised a real uprising, trying to return the legendary intelligence officer to his own name, even after death.
“What my father was most worried about in his life was that someone else’s name stuck to him until the end of his days. The authorities did not allow me to part with him. He should have been known to the people only as Abel,” said his daughter Evelina.
Only many years later, on the monument next to the name Abel, although in parentheses, they added “William Genrikhovich Fischer.”

FBI Director Edgar Hoover once gave a kind of description of his professional qualities: “The persistent hunt for spymaster Abel is one of the most remarkable cases in our asset...” And the long-time head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, added another touch to this portrait, writing in his book “The Art of Intelligence”: “Everything that Abel did, he did out of conviction, and not for money. I would like us to have three or four people like Abel in Moscow.”

His biography is a ready-made script not even for a feature film, but for an exciting serial saga. And even if something has already formed the basis of individual film works, not in every film you will see what this person really went through, what he experienced. He himself is a cross-section of history, its living embodiment. A visible example of worthy service to his cause and devotion to the country for which he took mortal risks

Don't think down on seconds

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (real name William Genrikhovich Fischer) was born on July 11, 1903 in the small town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, into a family of Russian political emigrants. His father, a native of the Yaroslavl province, was from a family of Russified Germans, actively participated in revolutionary activities and was sent abroad as “unreliable.” In England, he and his chosen one, the Russian girl Lyuba, had a son, who was named William - in honor of Shakespeare. My father was well versed in natural sciences and knew three languages. This love was passed on to Willie. At the age of 16, he successfully passed the exam at the University of London, but at that time his family decided to return to Moscow.

Here William works as a translator in the international relations department of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, and studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies. There was also conscription military service - her future intelligence officer served in the radiotelegraph regiment of the Moscow Military District, as well as work at the Red Army Air Force Research Institute. In 1927, William Fisher was hired into the foreign department of the OGPU as an assistant commissioner. He performed illegal intelligence tasks in Europe, including acting as a station radio operator. Upon returning to Moscow, he received the rank of state security lieutenant, but after some time he was unexpectedly dismissed from intelligence. It is believed that this was Beria’s personal decision: he did not trust the personnel working with “enemies of the people,” and Fischer managed to work abroad for some time with the defector Alexander Orlov.

William got a job at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, later worked at an aircraft manufacturing plant, but at the same time bombarded his former “office” with reports of reinstatement. His request was granted in the fall of 1941, when the need arose for experienced, proven specialists. Fischer was enlisted in a unit that organized sabotage groups and partisan detachments behind enemy lines, in particular, he trained radio operators to be deployed behind the front line. During that period, he became friends with his workmate Abel, whose name he would later use when arrested.

After the war, William Fisher was sent to the United States, where, living on different passports, he organized his own photo studio in New York, which played the role of an effective cover. It was from here that he directed the vast intelligence network of the USSR in America. In the late 40s, he worked with the famous intelligence officers the Cohen couple. This activity was extremely effective - important documents and information were received into the country, including on missile weapons. However, in 1957, the intelligence officer ended up in the hands of the CIA. There was a traitor in his circle - it was radio operator Heikhanen (pseudonym “Vic”), who, fearing punishment from his superiors for drunkenness and waste of official funds, passed on information about the intelligence network to the American intelligence services. When the arrest occurred, Fischer introduced himself as Rudolf Abel, and it was under this name that he went down in history. Despite the fact that he did not admit his guilt, the court imposed a sentence of 32 years in prison. The intelligence officer also rejected persistent attempts by American intelligence officers to persuade him to cooperate. In 1962, Abel was exchanged for the American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Powers, who was shot down two years earlier in the skies over the Urals.

After rest and treatment, William Fisher - Rudolf Abel returned to work in the central apparatus of Soviet intelligence. He took part in the training of young specialists who were to go to the “front line” of foreign intelligence. The famous intelligence officer passed away on November 15, 1971. The SVR website notes that “Colonel V. Fischer for outstanding services in ensuring the state security of our country was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the Red Star, many medals, as well as badge “Honorary State Security Officer”.

They whistle like bullets at your temple

The name of Abel-Fisher is known to the general public, by and large, only from the final episode of his work in America and the subsequent exchange for a downed US pilot. Meanwhile, his biography had many bright pages, including those about which not everyone knows everything. Special services historian, journalist and writer Nikolai Dolgopolov, in his book “Legendary Intelligence Officers,” focused on only some facts from the life of the legendary intelligence officer. But they also reveal him as a real hero. It turns out that it was Fischer who conducted the radio game on behalf of the captured German Lieutenant Colonel Schorhorn.

“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 attacks regular Soviet units, while simultaneously reporting to Berlin about the movement of enemy troops, writes Nikolai Dolgopolov. - In Germany they believed this, especially since the small group of Germans wandering in the forests actually maintained regular contact with Berlin. It was William Fisher, dressed in the uniform of a fascist officer, who played this game together with his radio operators.”

The Germans were fooled in this way for almost a year. For this operation and for his work during the war in general, William Fisher was awarded the Order of Lenin. He received the military order of the Red Star in the very first years of his work in the USA. Then, not only from New York, where he lived (by the way, he allegedly settled in mockery at 252 Fulton Street - near the FBI office), but also from the coast, radiograms came from the coast about the movements of military equipment, information regarding the operational situation in major American port cities, delivery, transportation of military cargo from the Pacific coast. Fischer also led the network of Soviet “atomic agents” - this, as Nikolai Dolgopolov notes, “was his first and most important task.” In general, “Mark” - this was the pseudonym Fisher had in the USA - managed to quickly reorganize the illegal network that remained in the USA after World War II. The fact is that in 1948, Soviet intelligence suffered losses here: even before Fischer’s arrival, many Soviet agents were arrested due to betrayal, our consulates and official representative offices in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco were closed.

“Nine years of work, each of which counts to the illegal immigrant for two, several orders, and a promotion in rank. The colonel did not manage to accomplish even more, although he created all the conditions for successful work - his own and the agents’, notes Nikolai Dolgopolov. “The traitor Heihanen interfered.”

During the arrest, Fischer showed fantastic composure and composure. When people from the FBI called him a colonel, he immediately realized that the traitor was “Vic”: only the radio operator knew what officer rank “Mark” had. Our intelligence officer also behaved courageously during the trial: his lawyer James Donovan later recalled with what admiration he watched his client. But the sentence for a 54-year-old man looked almost like death - 32 years in prison... By the way, in Steven Spielberg’s recent film Bridge of Spies, the image of the Soviet intelligence officer was talentedly portrayed by British actor Mark Rylance, showing the character of his hero without the usual Hollywood cliches and current anti-Russian hysteria . The role was so successful that the artist even received an Oscar for her performance. It is worth noting that Rudolf Abel himself took part in the creation of the feature film “Dead Season,” which was released in 1968. The plot of the film, in which Donatas Banionis played the main role, turned out to be connected with some facts from the intelligence officer’s biography.

To whom is infamy, and to whom is immortality

In his memoirs, set out in the book “Notes of the Chief of Illegal Intelligence,” the former head of department “C” (illegals) of the First Main Directorate of the KGBSSR, Major General Yuri Drozdov, spoke about some of the details of the exchange of Rudolf Abel for the American pilot Powers. In this operation, the security officer played the role of Abel’s “cousin,” a petty employee of Drives who lived in the GDR.

“Painstaking work was carried out by a large group of Center employees. In Berlin, in addition to me, the department’s leadership also dealt with these issues,” writes General Drozdov. - A relative of Drives was “made”, correspondence between Abel’s family members and his lawyer in the USA, Donovan, was established through a lawyer in East Berlin. At first, things developed sluggishly. The Americans were very careful and began checking the addresses of the relative and lawyer. Apparently they felt insecure. In any case, this was evidenced by the data that came to us from their office in West Berlin, and by monitoring the actions of their agents on the territory of the GDR.”

On the eve of the exchange, as Yuri Drozdov recalled, the head of the Office of the Commissioner of the USSR KGB in the GDR, General A. A. Krokhin, had his last meeting. “Early in the morning I woke up from a knock on the door. The car was already waiting for me below. I arrived at the exchange place without sleep. But the exchange went well - R.I. Abel returned home.”

By the way, Yuri Ivanovich remembered this detail - Powers was handed over to the Americans in a good coat, a winter fawn hat, physically strong and healthy. Abel crossed the exchange line in some kind of gray-green prison robe and a small cap that barely fit on his head. “On the same day, we spent a couple of hours buying him the necessary wardrobe in Berlin stores,” General Drozdov recalled. - I met him again in the late 60s, in the dining room of our building on Lubyanka, during my visit to the Center from China. He recognized me, came up, thanked me, and said that we should still talk. I couldn't because I was flying out that evening. Fate decreed that I visited Abel’s dacha only in 1972, but already on the anniversary of his death.”

The former deputy head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, Lieutenant General Vadim Kirpichenko, emphasized in one of his interviews that only the most famous episodes of Abel’s work are still named in open sources.

“The paradox is that many other, very interesting fragments still remain in the shadows,” the general noted. - Yes, the classification of secrecy has already been removed from many cases. But there are stories that, against the backdrop of already known information, look routine and inconspicuous, and journalists, understandably, are looking for something more interesting. And some things are completely difficult to restore. The chronicler didn’t follow Abel! Today, documentary evidence of his work is scattered across many archival folders. Bringing them together, reconstructing events is painstaking, long work, who will get around to it? But when there are no facts, legends appear..."

Perhaps Rudolf Abel himself will forever remain the same legendary man. A real intelligence officer, patriot, officer.

Exactly 55 years ago, on February 10, 1962, on the bridge separating the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, an exchange took place between the illegal Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel (real name William Genrikhovich Fischer) and the American pilot Francis Powers, who was shot down over the USSR. Abel behaved courageously in prison: he did not reveal to the enemy even the smallest episode of his work, and he is still remembered and respected not only in our country, but also in the USA.

Shield and sword of the legendary scout

Steven Spielberg's film Bridge of Spies, released in 2015, which told about the fate of a Soviet intelligence officer and his exchange, was recognized by film critics as one of the best in the work of the famous American director. The film was made in the spirit of deep respect for the Soviet intelligence officer. Abel, played by British actor Mark Rylance, is a strong-willed person in the film, while Powers is a coward.

In Russia, the intelligence colonel was also immortalized on film. He was played by Yuri Belyaev in the 2010 film “Fights: The US Government vs. Rudolf Abel”; his fate is partly told in the cult film of the 60s “Dead Season” by Savva Kulish, at the beginning of which the legendary intelligence officer himself addressed the audience from the screen with a small commentary .

He also worked as a consultant on another famous Soviet spy film, “Shield and Sword” by Vladimir Basov, where the main character, played by Stanislav Lyubshin, was named Alexander Belov (A. Belov - in honor of Abel). Who is he, a man who is known and respected on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean?

An American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by Francis Powers, was shot down near the city of Sverdlovsk 55 years ago, on May 1, 1960. Look at the archive footage to see what consequences this incident caused.

Artist, engineer or scientist

William Genrikhovich Fischer was a very talented and versatile person with a phenomenal memory and a very developed instinct that helped him find the right solution in the most unexpected situations.

Since childhood, he, born in the small English town of Newcastle upon Tyne, spoke several languages, played various musical instruments, was an excellent painter, sketcher, understood technology and was interested in the natural sciences. He could have turned out to be a wonderful musician, engineer, scientist or artist, but fate itself predetermined his future path even before birth.

More precisely, the father, Heinrich Matthaus Fischer, a German subject who was born on April 9, 1871 on the estate of Prince Kurakin in the Yaroslavl province, where his parent worked as a manager. In his youth, after meeting the revolutionary Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, Heinrich became seriously interested in Marxism and became an active participant in the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class created by Vladimir Ulyanov.

Named after Shakespeare

The secret police soon drew attention to Fischer, which was followed by an arrest and many years of exile - first to the north of the Arkhangelsk province, then a transfer to the Saratov province. Under these conditions, the young revolutionary proved himself to be an extraordinary conspirator. Constantly changing names and addresses, he continued to fight illegally.

In Saratov, Henry met a young like-minded person, a native of this province, Lyubov Vasilievna Korneeva, who received three years for her revolutionary activities. They soon married and left Russia together in August 1901, when Fischer was faced with a choice: immediate arrest and deportation in shackles to Germany or voluntary departure from the country.

The young couple settled in Great Britain, where on July 11, 1903, their youngest son was born, who received his name in honor of Shakespeare. Young William passed the exams at the University of London, but he did not have to study there - his father decided to return to Russia, where the revolution took place. In 1920, the family moved to the RSFSR, receiving Soviet citizenship and retaining British citizenship.

The best of the best radio operators

William Fisher entered VKHUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Workshops), one of the leading art universities in the country at the time, but in 1925 he was drafted into the army and became one of the best radio operators in the Moscow Military District. His primacy was also recognized by his colleagues, among whom were the future participant of the first Soviet drifting station "North Pole-1", the famous polar explorer and radio operator Ernst Krenkel and the future People's Artist of the USSR, artistic director of the Maly Theater Mikhail Tsarev.

© AP Photo


After demobilization, Fischer seemed to have found his calling - he worked as a radio technician at the Red Army Air Force Research Institute (now the State Flight Test Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense named after Valery Chkalov). In 1927, he married harpist Elena Lebedeva, and two years later their daughter Evelina was born.

It was at this time that political intelligence, the OGPU, drew attention to a promising young man with an excellent knowledge of several foreign languages. Since 1927, William has been an employee of the Foreign Department of Foreign Intelligence, where he worked first as a translator and then as a radio operator.

Dismissal due to suspicions

In the early 30s, he asked the British authorities to issue him a passport, because he allegedly quarreled with his revolutionary father and wanted to return to England with his family. The British willingly gave Fischer documents, after which the intelligence officer worked illegally for several years in Norway, Denmark, Belgium and France, where he created a secret radio network, transmitting messages from local stations to Moscow.

How the American U-2 piloted by Francis Powers was shot downOn May 1, 1960, an American U-2 aircraft, piloted by pilot Francis Powers, violated Soviet airspace and was shot down near the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).

In 1938, to escape large-scale repressions in the Soviet intelligence apparatus, NKVD resident in Republican Spain Alexander Orlov fled to the West.

After this incident, William Fisher was recalled to the USSR and at the end of the same year was dismissed from the authorities with the rank of state security lieutenant (corresponding to the rank of army captain).

This change in attitude towards the quite successful intelligence officer was dictated only by the fact that the new head of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, Lavrentiy Beria, openly did not trust the employees who worked with previously repressed “enemies of the people” in the NKVD. Fischer was also very lucky: many of his colleagues were shot or imprisoned.

Friendship with Rudolf Abel

Fischer was brought back into service by the war with Germany. From September 1941, he worked in the central intelligence apparatus at Lubyanka. As head of the communications department, he took part in ensuring the security of the parade that took place on November 7, 1941 on Red Square. He was involved in the training and transfer of Soviet agents to the Nazi rear, led the work of partisan detachments and participated in several successful radio games against German intelligence.

It was during this period that he became friends with Rudolf Ivanovich (Ioganovich) Abel. Unlike Fischer, this active and cheerful Latvian came to reconnaissance from the fleet, in which he fought during the civil war. During the war, they and their families lived in the same apartment in the center of Moscow.

They were brought together not only by their common service, but also by the common features of their biography. For example, like Fischer, Abel was dismissed from service in 1938. His older brother Voldemar was accused of participating in a Latvian nationalist organization and was shot. Rudolf, like William, found himself in demand at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, carrying out important tasks in organizing sabotage behind the lines of German troops.

And in 1955, Abel died suddenly, never knowing that his best friend was sent to work illegally in the United States. The Cold War was at its height.

The enemy's nuclear secrets were required. Under these conditions, William Fisher, who, under the guise of a Lithuanian refugee, managed to organize two large intelligence networks in the United States, turned out to be an invaluable person for Soviet scientists. For which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Failure and paint

The volume of interesting information was so great that over time Fischer needed another radio operator. Moscow sent Major Nikolai Ivanov as his assistant. It was a personnel error. Ivanov, working under the agent name Reino Heihanen, turned out to be a drinker and a lover of women. When they decided to recall him back in 1957, he turned to the US intelligence services.

They managed to warn Fischer about the betrayal and began to prepare to flee the country through Mexico, but he recklessly decided to return to the apartment and destroy all evidence of his work. FBI agents arrested him. But even in such a stressful moment, William Genrikhovich was able to maintain amazing composure.

He, who continued to paint in the United States, asked American counterintelligence officers to erase the paint from the palette. Then he quietly threw a crumpled piece of paper with a coded telegram into the toilet and flushed it. When detained, he identified himself as Rudolf Abel, thereby making it clear to the Center that he was not a traitor.

Under someone else's name

During the investigation, Fischer resolutely denied his involvement in Soviet intelligence, refused to testify at trial, and suppressed all attempts by American intelligence officers to work for them. They got nothing from him, not even his real name.

But Ivanov’s testimony and letters from his beloved wife and daughter became the basis for a harsh sentence - more than 30 years in prison. In prison, Fischer-Abel painted oil paintings and worked on solving mathematical problems. A few years after this, the traitor suffered punishment - a huge truck crashed into a car driven by Ivanov on a highway at night.


Five Most Famous Prisoner SwapsNadezhda Savchenko was officially handed over to Ukraine today, Kyiv, in turn, handed over Russians Alexander Alexandrov and Evgeny Erofeev to Moscow. Formally, this is not an exchange, but it is an occasion to recall the most famous cases of transfer of prisoners between countries.

The intelligence officer's fate began to change on May 1, 1960, when the pilot of the U-2 spy plane, Francis Powers, was shot down in the USSR. In addition, the newly elected President John Kennedy sought to ease tensions between the United States and the USSR.

As a result, it was decided to exchange the mysterious Soviet intelligence officer for three people at once. On February 10, 1962, at the Glienicke Bridge, Fischer was handed over to Soviet intelligence services in exchange for Powers. Two American students previously arrested on espionage charges, Frederic Pryor and Marvin Makinen, were also released.


The future intelligence officer was born in Newcastle, England, where his parents settled, expelled from Russia in 1901 for revolutionary activities. The intelligence officer's father was closely acquainted with many prominent revolutionaries, including Vladimir Lenin. According to some reports, he took part in organizing the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, held in London in the summer of 1903. Shortly before the start of the congress, where the Bolshevik faction took shape, on July 11, 1903, a second child was born into the family of Heinrich Matveyevich Fischer, named William in honor of Shakespeare. Willie's father spoke several languages, and his sons followed him. Well, the language environment helped. So Willie spoke three languages ​​from early childhood. He also showed a keen interest in the natural sciences and had a very good understanding of chemistry and physics. But besides this, Willie drew well and played the piano and guitar. In general, I grew up as a versatile boy.
At the age of 15, William Fisher got a job as a draftsman's apprentice at a shipyard. A year later he passed the exams for admission to the University of London. But there is no reliably confirmed data about studying at the university. In 1920, the Fishers returned to Russia and took Soviet citizenship. For some time they lived together with other families of prominent revolutionaries on the territory of the Kremlin.
At first, William worked as a translator in the Executive Committee of the Comintern, then he entered VKHUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops). In 1924, Fischer entered the Institute of Oriental Studies and began studying India. But a year later he was drafted into the army, and had to leave his studies. William ended up serving in the 1st Radiotelegraph Regiment of the Moscow Military District. Where he served together with the future famous polar explorer Ernst Krenkel.
After demobilization, he worked at the Research Institute of the Red Army Air Force as a radio technician, giving up attempts to become an artist. He came to the INO (foreign department) of the OGPU in May 1927. At first he worked as a translator and radio operator, but quickly became a deputy resident. He worked illegally in Europe until 1938. And then the purges began in the OGPU, and Fischer ended up under a steamroller. Fortunately, he was not imprisoned, but only fired from the authorities.
Fischer was able to return to intelligence only in 1941. Participated in the training of radio operators for partisan detachments and reconnaissance groups. It was then that he met and worked with Rudolf Abel for quite some time. The fates of the two intelligence officers were very similar: both were dismissed from special forces in 1938 and called up for service in 1941.
After the war, Fischer worked for some time in Eastern Europe, establishing connections between the newly created intelligence services of socialist countries and the security agencies of the USSR. And then the colonel
It was decided to send Fischer to the United States, where he was to head a significant part of the Soviet station involved in the extraction of American atomic and nuclear secrets.
The intelligence officer arrived in the United States with documents in the name of Emil Robert Goldfus, an amateur artist and professional photographer, at the end of 1948. The main contacts of Mark (the intelligence officer's code name) were the Cohen couple, whom we wrote about earlier. But the fruitful work with the Cohen couple lasted only two years. A “witch hunt” has begun in America, and the leadership decides to remove the spy spouses from the United States. Fisher was again left alone, and several dozen agents were in touch with him.
Mark's work in the USA turned out to be so successful that already in August 1949, less than a year after his arrival, the intelligence officer was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his enormous success in intelligence activities.

"Bad" assistant

William Fisher was a very careful intelligence officer who strictly followed the rules of secrecy. In those days it became very relevant. With the trial of the Rosenbergs, the US authorities showed the whole world that they are not going to mess around with spies. So the failed intelligence officer most likely faced the same path as the Rosenbergs: arrest, trial, death by electric chair. Illegal intelligence activity was again (as during World War II) transformed from an intellectual intelligence duel into a deadly activity.
To ordinary Americans, Emil Goldfuss was a respectable photography studio owner and amateur artist who often painted landscapes in city parks. And no one knew that during such drawings, secret information was often exchanged. For such exchanges, Fischer used the most unexpected hiding places. In particular, he was once painting a landscape in Fort Tryon and noticed an ordinary bolt that had almost fallen out of a street lamp. Fisher took it with him, personally drilled a cavity into it, and then returned it to its place. The agent took the bolt, put microfilm in it and inserted it back. A couple of weeks later, secret documents from Los Alamos were already being studied at the Kurchatov Institute.
According to some reports, Fisher was so well versed in the information he obtained that he often accompanied the encryption with his own comments. Once Kurchatov directly asked a KGB officer who provided comments on the information he was obtaining. Of course, he didn’t receive an answer, but he chuckled and said:
- When this commentator retires from you, I will take him to my institute.
It became more difficult for Fischer to cope alone with the ever-expanding intelligence network. In 1952, an assistant was sent to him in the USA. It was State Security Lieutenant Colonel Reino Heihanen. According to the recollections of the American resident, he did not immediately like the new assistant (code name Vic). But Heikhanen had high patrons in Moscow and he was trained for almost six months to work in the USA. So there was no need to wait for another assistant. Vic behaved extremely irresponsibly in the USA, summoned his common-law wife from Finland, where he had lived for the last few years, led a riotous lifestyle, often drank, beat his wife, even managing to attract the attention of the police. He completely refused to improve his language skills; I spent almost a year doing renovations in a small shop that was bought with money from the residency. In general, he's still a typical guy. And Fischer treated him accordingly. Assigning only small tasks. Heihanen didn't even know his real name.
In 1953, Vic, while drunk, managed to pay with about a nickel. It was not just a coin, but a real spy container for transferring microfilms. On June 22, this coin fell into the hands of a 13-year-old newspaper seller. And he dropped it on the pavement, causing the coin... to break into two halves. The boy showed the unusual coin to his girl neighbors, and they told their policeman father about the coin. A couple of days later, FBI specialists were already studying the spy container. They were unable to decipher the microfilm, but they were convinced that a deeply secret spy network was operating in New York. The FBI tried to trace the path of the coin, but this turned out to be impossible. The coin passed through different hands for at least six months and it was not possible to establish who the real owner of the container was. So this coin lay in the FBI bins for four long years.

The country has not forgotten

The last straw for Fisher was that Vic drank away five thousand dollars intended to pay for the lawyer of one of the agents arrested in the “Rosenberg spouses case.” Fischer was furious and demanded that Moscow recall his assistant. Soon Heyhanen received orders to arrive in Europe. However, the lieutenant colonel categorically did not want to return. Otherwise, I would have to answer for a lot. In May 1957, he arrived in France, from where he was to be transported to the socialist sector of Europe. But Vic went straight to the American embassy, ​​gave his real name and asked for political asylum.
A few days later, the traitor was flown back to the United States on a military plane. He was supposed to help arrest the mysterious Mark, who, according to Heyhanen, was the head of the entire American residency tour. On June 21, 1957, a mysterious resident was arrested at the Latham Hotel in New York.
But that's where the Americans' luck ended. Heyhanen helped decipher the encryption that was found in the nickel. But this didn't help much. The encrypted message congratulated Vic on his legalization and wished him good luck. And no other encryption was intercepted. So only the arrested Mark could lead to the agents working for Soviet intelligence.
To let Moscow know about his failure, Fischer called himself Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. The scout knew that his colleague and friend had died suddenly a year and a half ago. But in Moscow, having received a request from the US State Department, they refused to recognize Abel as a citizen of the Soviet Union. At that time, the leadership of our country loudly declared that it was not involved in espionage. What Abel was happily informed about by the FBI. But the scout was sure that he would not be forgotten.
FBI employees tried to apply psychological methods to the arrested spy. They did not dare force testimony out of him. The head of the CIA (from 1953 to 1961), Allen Dulles, in a personal conversation with the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, strongly advised against using violence against Abel. The American intelligence officer had a very high opinion of the tenacity of Soviet intelligence officers and was confident that nothing could be achieved from them by force. There were only methods of persuasion, which were not always so harmless.
Rudolf Abel was threatened with the electric chair, kept in solitary confinement, promised mountains of gold, and claimed that only a bullet or the Gulag could await him in Moscow. But Abel did not split and did not betray anyone. On November 15, 1957, one of the most famous spy trials of the Cold War ended. Which was covered by all significant Western media. The jury found Abel guilty of espionage for the USSR and illegal stay in the United States. But the Americans did not dare to sentence the Russian intelligence officer to execution. They understood perfectly well that if in the case of the Rosenberg spouses they seemed to be excused by the fact that they were Americans, and therefore betrayed their country, then with a career Soviet intelligence officer the situation was different. No one doubted that if they executed Abel, then the failed American spies would try en masse to escape from custody, and at this time the guards would be forced to use weapons, or die from apoplexy. A log to the head.
Rudolf Abel was sentenced to 32 years in prison, which for the 54-year-old intelligence officer meant life imprisonment. To serve his sentence, Abel was sent to prison in Atlanta, where they again tried to turn his life into hell. But thanks to the American press, Abel was widely known among all segments of the population. Among criminals, he was openly admired: after all, the entire state machine of America could not break him. So in prison Abel enjoyed serious authority.
The Soviet intelligence officer spent almost five years in prison, solving mathematical problems, studying art history, and painting in oils. According to some reports, after John Kennedy came to power in 1961, Abel drew his portrait from photographs and sent it to the White House. Let us remember that it was under Kennedy that the first steps were taken to equalize the rights of black and white Americans. So Kennedy was popular among the communists. Kennedy, having received his portrait, hung it in his own office, which was written about by almost all newspapers in America.
Rudolf Ivanovich was still unaware that his return to his homeland would take place very soon. On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down near Sverdlovsk. It flew at an altitude of 20 thousand meters and, according to the Americans, was inaccessible to Soviet missiles. They were wrong. The pilot of the plane, Francis Gary Powers, waited until the disintegrating plane dropped to an altitude of 10 thousand meters and got out of the plane. At an altitude of five kilometers, he opened his parachute and landed near the village of Kosulino. Where he was detained by local residents.
In August 1960, Powers was sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. In the USA, through the efforts of the pilot’s relatives, a real campaign was launched to bring the pilot home. The Russians agreed to exchange the spy pilot for Rudolf Abel. According to rumors, when Nikita Khrushchev was informed about the Americans’ consent, he asked:
- Abel, is this the one who painted Kennedy's portrait? Can Powers draw? No? Well then, let's change it.
On February 10, 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge (it separated West and East Berlin and served as the main place for the exchange of spies), Rudolf Abel and Francis Powers moved towards each other. In his memoirs, CIA chief Allen Dulles called Abel the most productive illegal intelligence officer of the 20th century. William Fisher was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Labor, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree and the Red Star. He died on November 15, 1971 and was buried with military honors at the Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow. The traitor Reino Heihanen died in a car accident in 1964 under mysterious circumstances. The FBI is still confident that these “mysterious circumstances” were created by KGB agents.

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 illegal immigrants 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 immigrant'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-Fischer. Proposals to exchange him for Nazi criminals convicted in the USSR and Eastern European countries 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 Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under Article 2 “On criminal liability for state crimes” to 10 years in prison, with the first three years to be 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 stare into 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 office 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.
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