The father of our hero, Heinrich Matthaus Fischer, was born on the Andreevskoye estate in the Yaroslavl province into a family of German subjects who worked for the local prince Kurakin. The mother of the legendary agent, Lyubov Vasilievna Korneeva, was from Khvalynsk, in the Saratov province. The young couple were active in revolutionary activities and were personally acquainted with Krzhizhanovsky and Lenin. Soon the royal secret police became aware of their activities. Fleeing from arrest, a young couple of political emigrants went abroad and found shelter on the northeast coast of England, in the town of Newcastle. It was here that their son was born on July 11, 1903, who was named William in honor of the famous playwright.
Few people know that William Fisher had an older brother, Harry. He died tragically in the summer of 1921 on the Uche River near Moscow, saving a drowning girl.
At the age of sixteen, young William passed the exams at the University of London, but he did not have to study there. My father continued his revolutionary activities and joined the Bolshevik movement. In 1920, their family returned to Russia and accepted Soviet citizenship, while simultaneously retaining British citizenship. At first, Fischer worked as a translator for the Executive Committee of the Comintern in the department of international relations. A few years later he managed to enter the Indian department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies and even successfully completed the first year. However, then he was called up for military service.
The future intelligence officer did not have the chance to take part in the Civil War, but he willingly joined the ranks of the Red Army in 1925. He had the chance to serve in the first radiotelegraph regiment of the Moscow Military District. It was here that he became acquainted with the basics of the radio operator profession. The young man, who spoke English, German and French tolerably, had a clean biography, and had a natural inclination for technology, was noticed by personnel officers of the United State Political Administration. In May 1927, he was enrolled as a translator in the foreign department of this organization, which was at that time under the control of Artuzov and was engaged, among other things, in foreign intelligence.
On April 7, 1927, the wedding of William and Moscow Conservatory graduate Elena Lebedeva took place. Subsequently, Elena became a famous harpist. And in 1929, they had a child, a girl, whom they named Evelina.
After some time, Fischer was already working as a radio operator in the central office. According to unconfirmed reports, his first illegal business trip to Poland took place in the late twenties. And at the beginning of 1931, William was sent to England. He traveled “semi-legally”, under his own name. The legend was this: a native of England who came to Russia by his parents’ will quarreled with his father and wants to return back with his family. The British Consulate General in the Russian capital issued British passports, and the Fisher family went abroad. The special mission lasted for several years. The scout managed to visit Norway, Denmark, Belgium and France. Under the pseudonym "Frank", he successfully organized a secret radio network and transmitted radiograms from local stations.
The business trip ended in the winter of 1935, but in the summer the Fisher family went abroad again. William Genrikhovich returned to Moscow in May 1936, after which he was assigned to train illegal intelligence officers to work with communications equipment. In 1938, Soviet spy Alexander Orlov defected with his family to the United States. Everyone who worked with him (and Fischer was among them) was under threat of exposure. In connection with this, or perhaps because of the party leadership’s distrust of those who had connections with “enemies of the people,” at the very end of 1938, Lieutenant GB Fischer was transferred to the reserve. William was very lucky; during the ongoing army purges, there was no special ceremony with the intelligence officers; many of his friends were shot or thrown into prison. At first, the agent had to do odd jobs; only six months later, thanks to his connections, he managed to get a job at an aircraft factory. Even without higher education, he easily solved the assigned production tasks. According to the testimony of the company's employees, his main strength was his phenomenal memory. The scout also had an uncanny instinct that helped him find the right solution to almost any problem. While working at the plant, William Genrikhovich constantly sent reports to his father’s friend, Secretary of the Central Committee Andreev, asking him to reinstate him in intelligence. For two and a half years, Fischer was in civilian life, and finally, in September 1941, he returned to duty.
Who was “Comrade Rudolf Abel”, under whose name William Fischer became world famous? It is known that he was born in Riga in 1900 (that is, he was three years older than Fischer) in the family of a chimney sweep. The young Latvian ended up in Petrograd in 1915. When the revolution began, he took the side of the Soviet regime and volunteered to join the Red Army. During the Civil War, he served as a fireman on the destroyer "Retivy", fought near Tsaritsyn, was retrained as a radio operator in Kronstadt and was sent to the distant Commander Islands. In July 1926, Abel was already the commandant of the Shanghai consulate, and later a radio operator at the embassy in Beijing. The INO OGPU took him under its wing in 1927, and in 1928 Rudolf was sent abroad as an illegal intelligence officer. Before 1936, there is no information about his work. It is not entirely clear when Abel and Fischer met. A number of historians suggest that they first met on a mission in China in 1928-1929. In 1936, the two intelligence officers were already strong friends, and their families were also friends. Fischer's daughter, Evelina, recalled that Rudolf Abel was a calm, cheerful man, and, unlike her father, knew how to find a common language with children. Unfortunately, Rudolf did not have any children of his own. And his wife, Alexandra Antonovna, was from a noble family, which greatly interfered with the career of a talented intelligence officer. But the real tragedy was the news that Abel’s brother, Voldemar, who worked as the head of the political department of the shipping company, was included in the Latvian counter-revolutionary conspiracy of 1937. For espionage and sabotage activities, Voldemar was sentenced to death, and Rudolf was fired from the authorities. Like Fischer, Abel worked in various places, including as a shooter for paramilitary security. On December 15, 1941, he was returned to service. In his personal file, you can find a mention that in the period from August 1942 to January 1943, Rudolf was part of a task force in the direction of the Main Caucasus Range and carried out special tasks to prepare and deploy sabotage detachments behind enemy lines. By the end of the war, his award list included the Order of the Red Banner and two Orders of the Red Star. In 1946, Lieutenant Colonel Abel was again, this time finally, dismissed from the state security agencies. Despite the fact that William Fisher continued to serve in the NKVD, their friendship did not end. Rudolf knew about his comrade's departure to America. In 1955, Abel died suddenly. He never learned that Fischer impersonated him and that his name was forever etched in the annals of intelligence.
Until the end of the war, William Genrikhovich Fischer continued to work in the central intelligence apparatus at Lubyanka. Many documents about his activities are still not available to the public. It is only known that on November 7, 1941, as head of the communications department, he took part in ensuring the security of the parade that took place on Red Square. Like Rudolf Abel, William was involved in organizing and sending our agents to the German rear, led the work of partisan detachments, taught radio science at the Kuibyshev intelligence school, participated in the legendary operation “Monastery” and its logical continuation - the radio game “Berezino”, supervising the work of a number of Soviet and German radio operators.
Operation Berezino began after Soviet intelligence officers managed to create a fictitious German detachment allegedly working behind Soviet lines. Otto Skorzeny sent more than twenty spies and saboteurs to help them, and they all fell into the trap. The operation was based on a radio game, which was masterfully conducted by Fischer. A single mistake by William Genrikhovich and everything would have fallen apart, and Soviet residents would have paid with their lives for the terrorist attacks of saboteurs. Until the very end of the war, the Wehrmacht command never realized that they were being led by the nose. The last message from Hitler’s headquarters in May 1945 read: “We can’t help, we trust in God’s will.”
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, Fischer was transferred to a special reserve, gradually beginning to prepare for a long assignment. He was already forty-three years old and possessed truly enormous knowledge. Fischer was well versed in radio equipment, chemistry, physics, had a specialty as an electrician, painted professionally, although he had never studied this anywhere, knew six foreign languages, played the guitar wonderfully, and wrote stories and plays. He was a fantastically gifted person: he worked as a carpenter, a carpenter, a metal worker, and was engaged in silk-screen printing and photography. Already in America he patented a number of inventions. In his free time, he solved mathematical problems and crosswords, and played chess. Relatives recalled that Fischer did not know how to be bored, hated wasting time, was demanding of himself and those around him, but was absolutely indifferent to a person’s status, respecting only those who had thoroughly mastered their work. He said about his profession: “Intelligence is a high art…. This is creativity, talent, inspiration.”
Maurice and Leontine Cohen, with whom William Genrikhovich worked in New York, spoke of his personal qualities as follows: “An incredibly highly cultured, spiritually rich man…. Highly educated, intelligent, with a developed sense of dignity, honor, commitment and integrity. It was impossible not to respect him."
The intelligence officer’s daughter was growing up, it was very difficult to say goodbye to his family, but Fischer went on his main mission voluntarily. He received the last instructions before departure personally from Vyacheslav Molotov. At the end of 1948, in New York City in the Brooklyn area, an unknown photographer and artist Emil Goldfus moved into house number 252 on Fulton Street. At the end of the forties, Soviet intelligence in the West was going through far from the best times. McCarthyism and the “witch hunt” reached their apogee; the intelligence services saw spies in every second inhabitant of the country. In September 1945, Igor Guzenko, a cryptographer for the Soviet attaché in Canada, defected to the enemy’s side. A month later, representatives of the American Communist Party Bentley and Budenz, associated with Soviet intelligence, testified to the FBI. Many illegal agents had to be immediately recalled from the United States. Intelligence officers working legally in Soviet institutions were under round-the-clock surveillance and constantly expected provocations. Communication between spies was difficult.
In a short time, Fischer, under the operational pseudonym “Mark,” did a great deal of work to recreate the Soviet intelligence structure in America. He formed two intelligence networks: Californian, including intelligence officers operating in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, and Eastern, covering the entire coast of the United States. Only an incredibly gifted person could pull this off. However, William Genrikhovich was just like that. It was Fisher, through a high-ranking Pentagon official, who discovered plans to deploy American ground forces in Europe in the event of a war with the Soviet Union. He also obtained copies of Truman's decree on the creation of the CIA and the National Security Council. Fisher handed over to Moscow a detailed list of tasks assigned to the CIA, and a project to transfer powers to the FBI to protect the production of atomic bombs, submarines, jet aircraft and other secret weapons.
Through Cohen and his group, the Soviet leadership maintained contact with residents who worked directly at secret nuclear facilities. Sokolov was their liaison with Moscow, but due to current circumstances he could no longer fulfill his role. He was replaced by Fischer. On December 12, 1948, he first met Leontine Cohen. William Genrikhovich's contribution to the delivery of valuable information about the creation of nuclear power is enormous. “Mark” was in touch with the most responsible “atomic” agents of the USSR. They were American citizens, but they understood that in order to save the future of the planet, it was necessary to maintain nuclear parity. It is also possible that Soviet scientists would have created an atomic bomb without the assistance of intelligence officers. However, the extracted materials significantly speeded up the work, and it was possible to avoid unnecessary research, expenditure of time, effort and money, so necessary for the devastated country.
From Fisher’s story about his last business trip to the States: “In order for a foreigner to obtain a visa to the United States, he must undergo a long, thorough check. This path was not suitable for us. I had to enter the country as an American citizen returning from a tourist trip... The United States has long been proud of inventors, so I became one. He invented and made devices in the field of color photography, took photographs, and reproduced them. My friends saw the results in the workshop. He led a modest lifestyle, did not own a car, did not pay taxes, did not register as a voter, but, naturally, did not tell anyone about it. On the contrary, he spoke to his friends as an expert in financial matters.”
On December 20, 1949, the resident of the Soviet Union, William Fisher, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. And in mid-1950, in connection with a possible disclosure, the Coens were taken from America. Atomic work was suspended, but Fischer remained in the United States. Unfortunately, there is no exact information about what he did for the next seven years and what information he obtained for our country. In 1955, the colonel asked his superiors to give him leave - his close friend, Rudolf Abel, died in Moscow. His stay in the capital made a depressing impression on the intelligence officer - most of those with whom he worked during the war were in prisons or camps, his immediate superior, Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov, was under investigation as an accomplice of Beria, and he was facing capital punishment. When leaving Russia, Fischer told mourners: “Perhaps this is my last trip.” His premonitions rarely deceived him.
On the night of June 25, 1957, “Mark” rented a room at the Latham Hotel in New York. Here he successfully conducted another communication session, and at dawn three FBI agents broke into him. And although William managed to get rid of the received telegram and code, the “federals” found on him some items related to intelligence activities. After this, they immediately invited Fischer to cooperate with them, avoiding any arrest. The Soviet resident flatly refused and was detained for illegal entry into the country. He was taken out of his room in handcuffs, put in a car and transported to an immigration camp in Texas.
In March 1954, a certain Reino Heikhanen was sent to the United States as an illegal radio operator. This intelligence officer turned out to be a psychologically unstable person. His lifestyle and moral principles raised concerns among Fischer, who for three years asked the Center to recall the agent. Only in the fourth year was his call granted. In May 1957, they decided to return Heikhanen. However, upon reaching Paris, Reynaud unexpectedly went to the American embassy. Soon he was flying on a military plane to testify in the United States. Of course, they found out about this almost immediately at Lubyanka. And for some reason they did not take any measures to save Fischer. Moreover, he was not even informed about what had happened.
“Mark” immediately realized who ratted him out. There was no point in denying that he was an intelligence officer from the USSR. Fortunately, the colonel's real name was known only to a very narrow circle of people, and Reino Heihanen was not one of them. Fearing that the Americans would start a radio game on his behalf, William Fisher decided to impersonate another person. After some thought, he settled on the name of his late friend Rudolf Abel. Perhaps he believed that when information about the capture of the spy became known to the public, people at home would be able to understand who exactly was in American prison.
On August 7, 1957, Abel was charged with three counts: remaining without registration in the United States as a spy of a foreign state (five years in prison), conspiracy to collect atomic and military information (ten years in prison), conspiracy to transfer the USSR above information (death sentence). On October 14, a public hearing in the case “US v. Rudolf Abel” began in federal court in New York. The scout's name became famous not only in America, but throughout the world. On the very first day of the meeting, TASS issued a statement that among the Soviet agents there was no person named Abel. For several months, both before and after the trial, they tried to convert Fischer, to persuade him to betray, promising all kinds of life benefits. After this failed, the intelligence officer was threatened with the electric chair. But this didn’t break him either. He didn't say a word or reveal a single agent, and this was an unprecedented feat in the history of intelligence. Risking his life, Fisher declared: “Under no circumstances will I cooperate with the United States government or do anything to save life that could harm the country.” In court, from a professional point of view, he behaved perfectly, answered all questions about admitting guilt with a categorical refusal, and refused to testify. It is necessary to note the lawyer of William Genrikhovich - James Britt Donovan, who served in intelligence during the war. He was a very conscientious and intelligent man who did everything possible first to protect “Mark” and later to exchange him.
On October 24, 1957, James Donovan gave a brilliant defense speech. It is worth citing one excerpt from it: “...If this person is really who our government considers him to be, then this means that in the interests of his state he performed a very dangerous task. We send only the smartest and bravest people from among our country's military personnel on such missions. You also know that everyone who accidentally met the defendant spontaneously gave him the highest assessment of his moral qualities...”
In March 1958, after Fischer's conversation with Allen Dulles, the Soviet intelligence officer was allowed to begin correspondence with the family. After saying goodbye, the CIA director told lawyer Donovan: “I would like to have three or four such intelligence officers in Moscow.” However, he had an extremely poor idea of who the Russian spy really was. Otherwise, Dulles would have realized that in the Soviet Union he only needed one intelligence officer of this level.
After much delay, the United States Department of Justice allowed Fisher to correspond with his wife and daughter. It was of a general nature, about family affairs and health conditions. William Genrikhovich ended his first letter home with the words: “With love, your husband and father, Rudolf,” making it clear how to address him. The Americans did not like much in the messages; they rightly assumed that the Soviet agent was using them for operational purposes. On June 28, 1959, the same Department made an unconstitutional decision banning Fisher from communicating with anyone outside of America. The reason was very simple - the correspondence does not correspond to the national interests of the United States. However, Donovan's persistent struggle yielded results; Fischer was forced to allow communication. Later, “Rudolf’s German cousin,” a certain Jurgen Drives from the GDR, but in fact a foreign intelligence officer Yuri Drozdov, entered into correspondence. All communication went through Donovan and the lawyer in East Berlin; the Americans were cautious and carefully checked both the lawyer and the “relative.”
The development of events accelerated after a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the Sverdlovsk region on May 1, 1960. Its pilot, Francis Harry Powers, was captured, and the USSR accused the United States of carrying out espionage activities. President Eisenhower responded by suggesting that Abel be remembered. The first calls to trade Powers for Rudolph began in the American media. The New York Daily News wrote: “It can be said with certainty that for our government Rudolf Abel is of no value as a source of information about the activities of the Reds. After the Kremlin squeezes all possible information out of Powers, their exchange is quite natural...” In addition to public opinion, the president was also under intense pressure from Powers' family and lawyers. Soviet intelligence also became more active. After Khrushchev gave official consent to the exchange, Drives and a lawyer from Berlin, through Donovan, began bargaining with the Americans, which lasted almost two years. The CIA understood perfectly well that a professional intelligence officer “weighs” much more than a pilot. They managed to convince the Soviet side to release, in addition to Powers, student Frederick Pryer, detained in August 1961 in East Berlin for espionage, and Marvin Makinen, who was in prison in Kyiv.
In the photo he is visiting colleagues from the GDR in 1967
It was very difficult to organize such “makeweights”. The GDR intelligence services did a huge favor by ceding Prier to domestic intelligence.
After spending five and a half years in a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Fischer not only survived, but also managed to force investigators, lawyers, even American criminals to respect him. It is a well-known fact that while in custody, a Soviet agent painted a whole gallery of oil paintings. There is evidence that Kennedy took his portrait and hung it in the Oval Hall.
On February 10, 1962, several cars approached the Glienicke Bridge, separating East and West Berlin, from both sides. Just in case, a detachment of GDR border guards hid nearby. When a signal was received over the radio that Prier had been handed over to the Americans (Makinen was released a month later), the main exchange began. William Fisher, Airman Powers, and representatives of both sides converged on the bridge and completed the agreed upon procedure. Representatives confirmed that these are the people they are waiting for. After exchanging glances, Fisher and Powers parted ways. Within an hour, William Genrikhovich was surrounded by his relatives, who had specially flown to Berlin, and the next morning he went to Moscow. As a farewell, the Americans banned him from entering their country. However, Fischer had no intention of returning.
When asked about the main task of intelligence, William Genrikhovich once answered: “We are looking for other people’s secret plans turned against us in order to take the necessary countermeasures. Our intelligence policy is defensive. The CIA has a completely different way of working - creating the preconditions and situations under which military actions by their armed forces become permissible. This department organizes uprisings, interventions, coups. I declare with full responsibility: we do not deal with such matters.”
After rest and recovery, Fischer returned to work in intelligence, participated in the training of a new generation of illegal agents, and traveled to Hungary, Romania and the GDR. At the same time, he constantly sent letters asking for the release of Pavel Sudoplatov, who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. In 1968, Fischer starred with the opening speech in the film "Off Season". He was given performances at institutes, factories, even on collective farms.
Fischer, like many other intelligence officers, was not given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This was not accepted; the authorities were afraid of information leakage. After all, a Hero means additional papers, additional authorities, unnecessary questions.
William Genrikhovich Fischer died on November 15, 1971 at the age of sixty-eight. The real name of the legendary intelligence officer was not immediately revealed. The obituary written in Krasnaya Zvezda read: “...Being abroad in difficult, difficult conditions of R.I. Abel showed rare patriotism, endurance and perseverance. He was awarded three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and other medals. He remained at his combat post until his last days.”
Without a doubt, William Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) is the outstanding agent of the Soviet era. An extraordinary person, a fearless and modest domestic intellectual intelligence officer lived his life with amazing courage and dignity. Many episodes of his activities still remain in the shadows. The classification of secrecy has long been removed from many cases. However, some stories seem routine against the backdrop of already known information, while others are very difficult to reconstruct in their entirety. Documentary evidence of William Fisher's work is scattered across a bunch of archival folders, and putting them together and reconstructing all the events is a painstaking and long job.
Information sources:
http://www.hipersona.ru/secret-agent/sa-cold-war/1738-rudolf-abel
http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2010/golros20101207.htm
http://che-ck.livejournal.com/67248.html?thread=519856
http://clubs.ya.ru/zh-z-l/replies.xml?item_no=5582
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(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 at 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 was involved in technical support for the radio game 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, an American of 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.
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Soviet illegal intelligence officer, colonel. Since 1948 he worked in the USA, in 1957 he was arrested. On February 10, 1962, he was exchanged for American reconnaissance aircraft pilot F. G. Powers, who was shot down over the USSR, and American economics student Frederick Pryor.
Soviet intelligence officer-illegal. His real name was William Genrikhovich Fischer, but he went down in the history of the 20th century as Rudolf Abel. In 1948, V. Fischer was sent to work illegally in the United States to obtain information from sources working at nuclear facilities. He worked under the pseudonym "Mark". And he succeeded so much that already in August 1949 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In 1957, as a result of the betrayal of a certain Heikhanen, who was sent to help Fischer as a radio operator, he was arrested. When arrested, he identified himself as Rudolf Abel - that was the name of his friend, also an illegal intelligence officer, who died in 1955. This was done intentionally so that the “Center” would understand that it was he who was arrested. In October 1957, a noisy trial began on charges of espionage against Abel Rudolf Ivanovich. Sentence: 32 years in prison. But on February 10, 1962, R. Abel was exchanged for the American pilot Francis Powers, who was shot down on May 1, 1960 near Sverdlovsk and convicted by a Soviet court of espionage.
For outstanding services in ensuring the state security of our country, Colonel V. Fischer was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the Red Star and many medals. His fate inspired V. Kozhevnikov to write the famous adventure book “Shield and Sword.”
V. Fischer died on November 15, 1971, remaining for the whole world Rudolf Abel. He was buried in Moscow at the Donskoye Cemetery (1st place).
How to find a grave
From the entrance to the cemetery, walk along the central alley keeping to the left. Landmark - sign "Common grave 1", "Common grave 2". Turn left and go straight. The grave of Rudolf Abel is on the left near the road. To the left of Abel’s grave, in the third row from the road, is the grave of another legendary intelligence officer - Konon the Young.
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (1903-1971) - the famous Soviet illegal intelligence officer, had the rank of colonel, one of the most outstanding intelligence officers of the twentieth century.
Childhood
His real name is Fischer William Genrikhovich. He was born on July 11, 1903 on the northeast coast of Great Britain in the industrial town of Newcastle upon Tyne. His parents were in this country as political emigrants.
Father, Heinrich Matthaus (Matveevich) Fischer, German by birth, was born and raised in Russia, in the Yaroslavl province on the estate of Prince Kurakin, where his parent worked as a manager. In his youth, he met Gleb Krzhizhanovsky, became a convinced Marxist, and actively participated in the revolutionary movement “Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class” created by Vladimir Ulyanov (he knew V.I. Lenin personally). Heinrich was a polyglot; in addition to Russian, he was fluent in French, English and German. By the will of fate, finding himself in Saratov, he met the girl Lyuba, who later became his wife.
Mom, Lyubov Vasilievna, was a native of Saratov, and from an early age she participated in the revolutionary movement. Throughout her life she was an ally of her husband.
In 1901, Lyuba and her husband Heinrich were arrested by the tsarist government for revolutionary activities and expelled from Russia. It was not possible to go to Germany; a case was opened against Henry there, so the family settled in the homeland of the great poet Shakespeare - in Great Britain. They already had an eldest son, Harry, and the parents decided to name the boy who was born in 1903 in honor of the famous playwright - William.
From childhood, William was interested in natural sciences and had a good understanding of technology. He was fond of drawing, sketching, made portrait sketches of friends, and the boy especially liked to paint still lifes. The child also showed interest in playing music; he mastered instruments such as guitar, piano, and mandolin very well. The boy studied easily, but at the same time he grew up very persistent; if he set some goals for himself, he stubbornly worked towards achieving them. He knew several languages; William could have made a great scientist, artist, engineer or musician, but he was destined for a completely different fate.
He had a rare gift: he sensed the thoughts of others, always realized exactly where danger might come from, even when nothing foreshadowed it. William was a rare owner of an olfactory vector, in other words, unsurpassed intuition. Despite the fact that his parents affectionately called him Willie, the boy was not their favorite. This is not surprising, because owners of the olfactory vector are rarely loved by people, even those closest to them. And all because olfactory people themselves never love anyone, they rarely and talk very little to others.
Youth
At the age of fifteen, William graduated from school and got a job at a shipyard as an apprentice draftsman. A year later, he successfully passed the entrance exams to the University of London, but he did not have to study at this institution, since his family left the UK. A revolution took place in Russia, the Bolsheviks were now in power, and in 1920 the Fishers returned to their homeland and accepted USSR citizenship (but did not give up English). For some time they lived on the territory of the Kremlin along with other families of prominent figures of the revolution.
Seventeen-year-old William immediately liked Russia, and he became its passionate patriot. The guy who spoke excellent Russian and English was immediately noticed, and soon he was already working in the executive committee of the Communist International (Comintern) as a translator.
Then young Fischer entered the higher art and technical workshops (VKHUTEMAS), this educational institution was created in 1920 by merging the Stroganov Art and Industrial School and the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
In 1924, William became a student at the Institute of Oriental Studies, where he began to study India with particular zeal, choosing the Hindustan department. But soon he was called up to serve in the Red Army, where he went with pleasure. Fischer ended up in the Moscow Military District, in the 1st Radiotelegraph Regiment. Here he received the specialty of a radiotelegraph operator, which was very useful to him in the future. He became a first-class radio operator; everyone recognized his superiority in this matter.
Getting started in intelligence
Having been demobilized, William went to work at the Research Institute of the Red Army Air Force as a radio engineer. In April 1927, he married Elena Lebedeva, the girl graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in the harp class, and later became a professional musician.
Soon, personnel workers of the OGPU (Special State Political Administration) became interested in the young man, who knew four languages almost perfectly, had an unblemished biography and skillfully mastered the radio business. In the spring of 1927, he was enlisted in the foreign department of the OGPU on the recommendation of a relative, Serafima Lebedeva (his wife’s older sister), who worked in this department as a translator.
At first, Fischer was an employee of the central apparatus, but very soon the Moscow Komsomol Committee sent him to state security agencies. He got used to the professional environment quite quickly and became a full member of the team. Soon, the service's leaders appreciated William's unique abilities and entrusted him with special tasks that needed to be completed through illegal intelligence in two European countries.
The first business trip was to Poland. The second to Great Britain, it turned out to be longer and was called semi-legal, because William traveled under his own name. The official legend looked like this: at the end of winter 1931, Fisher applied to the British Consulate General in Moscow with a request to issue him a British passport, because he was a native of England and ended up in Russia due to his young age and at the will of his parents. Now he has quarreled with his parents and wants to return to his homeland with his wife and daughter (in 1929 the couple already had a girl, Evelyn). The Fisher couple were given British passports and went abroad, first to China, where William opened his own radio workshop.
At the beginning of 1935, the family returned to the Soviet Union, but four months later they went abroad again, this time using Fischer’s second specialty - a freelance artist. Eleven months later, William, his wife and daughter arrived in Moscow, where he continued his work training illegal immigrants.
On the last day of 1938, he was fired from the NKVD without explanation. For some time he had to work at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce and at an aircraft factory, while Fischer constantly wrote petitions for his reinstatement in the intelligence agencies.
During the war in 1941, Fischer was reinstated in the NKVD, and he began training personnel for partisan warfare behind enemy lines. He trained radio operators who were sent to cities and countries occupied by the Germans.
During this period, William met a Soviet foreign intelligence officer, Rudolf Ioganovich (Ivanovich) Abel. Subsequently, this name was used by the resident of Soviet intelligence, William Fisher, when exposed in the United States, and it stuck with him, thanks to which it became known throughout the world.
Another name and fate
In 1937, Rudolf Abel was first mentioned in documents. It was not only a new name, but also a completely different fate, history, legend.
Rudolf Abel was born on September 23, 1900 in Riga, his father worked as a chimney sweep, and his mother was a housewife. Until the age of fourteen, he lived with his parents and graduated from four classes of elementary school. He began working as a delivery boy and in 1915 moved to Petrograd. With the beginning of the revolutionary events, together with his compatriots, he took the side of the Soviet regime. He got a job on the destroyer "Retivy" as a private fireman and participated in operations on the Kama and Volga behind white lines. He fought near Tsaritsyn, graduated from the radio operator class in Kronstadt, then worked in this specialty in distant places - on Bering Island and the Commander Islands.
In the summer of 1926, he was appointed to the position of commandant at the Shanghai consulate. After that, he worked in Beijing at the Soviet embassy as a radio operator. In 1927, he began collaborating with the INO OGPU, from where he was sent to work illegally abroad in 1929. He returned to his homeland in the fall of 1936.
His wife, Alexandra Antonovna, was of noble origin; they had no children.
Rudolf had a brother, Waldemar, who was convicted in 1937 of counter-revolutionary conspiracy and espionage activities for Germany. His brother's arrest resulted in Rudolf's dismissal from the NKVD in the spring of 1938.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he returned to service in the authorities, was part of the task force for the defense of the main Caucasus ridge, and carried out special missions to transport Soviet agents to the German rear.
In 1946, he received the rank of lieutenant colonel and retired from state security agencies. In 1955 he suddenly passed away.
Activity in America and failure
In 1946, Fischer was transferred to a special reserve, and long preparations began for his business trip abroad. He was infinitely devoted to Russia, he never hid his highly patriotic feelings for the Motherland, so he agreed to complete this task, despite the fact that he had to part with his wife and daughter.
In 1948, a photographer and freelance artist named Emil Robert Goldfus, aka Fischer and illegal immigrant “Mark,” settled in the American city of New York in the Brooklyn area. The “owner of the photo studio” was supposed to obtain information about nuclear facilities and the creation of atomic weapons. His contacts were the Soviet intelligence officers the Cohen couple.
In 1952, radio operator Reino Heihannen (operational pseudonym "Vic") was sent to help "Mark". He turned out to be unstable psychologically and morally, mired in debauchery and drunkenness, for which he was recalled from the United States. But “Vic” realized something was wrong and surrendered to the American authorities, talking about his activities in the United States and handing over “Mark.”
In June 1957, “Mark” (William Fisher) checked into the Latham Hotel in New York, where he had another communication session. Early in the morning, FBI officers burst into the room, declaring from the door that they knew his real name and the purpose of his stay in America. Thus, they tried to create an effect of surprise, but “Mark”’s face did not reflect a single emotion. He did not give himself away with a single movement, muscle, or glance, which testified to his inhuman endurance.
In order to somehow make it clear to Moscow that he was arrested, but did not betray his homeland, Fischer introduced himself by the name of his late friend Rudolf Abel. His olfactory vector helped destroy evidence under the watchful gaze of three FBI professionals. Until now, many believe that the intelligence officer had hypnosis abilities. Especially when at his trial he was sentenced to 32 years in prison instead of the death penalty prescribed by American law.
Liberation
For three weeks they tried to convert Abel, then they threatened him with the electric chair, but everything turned out to be useless.
He was first held in a New York pre-trial prison, then transferred to Atlanta to a federal penitentiary. And in the Soviet Union a long and persistent struggle began for his liberation.
On May 1, 1960, near the city of Sverdlovsk, Soviet air defenses shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, pilot Francis Harry Powers was captured. On February 10, 1962, two cars stopped on the Alt Glienicke bridge on the border of East and West Berlin. A man came out of each, reached the middle of the bridge, they exchanged glances and walked past to opposite cars, sat down and drove apart. This is how Powers was exchanged for Abel. An hour later, the great Soviet intelligence officer saw his family in Berlin, and the next morning they all returned to Moscow together.
The last years of his life, William Fisher, aka “Mark”, aka Rudolf Abel, trained and instructed young workers for foreign intelligence. He died of oncological disease (lung cancer) on November 15, 1971, and was buried at the New Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
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 purchasing 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.