What happened to Abel after his return. To whom disgrace, and to whom - immortality

SIX LIVES OF COLONEL ABEL

Rudolph Abel - William Fisher

The illegal scout William Genrikhovich Fischer, who is also Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, lived five lives of others, plus a sixth - his own.

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

Fisher was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1903 and spoke English as well as his native Russian. He came to intelligence on May 2, 1927. The illegal worked successfully in many countries, but despite this, he was dismissed from the NKVD on December 31, 1938. It could be worse, many of his friends and colleagues were shot on charges of espionage. As it always happens in this life, absolutely the wrong ones are under suspicion ...

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

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

While rereading a thick sheaf of letters written by William Genrikhovich to his wife Ele, I came across a revelation that struck me. He wrote to his beloved that he did not want to think about his former job, was tired of its endless difficulties and would never return to the old one. Was it a momentary weakness, or resentment? Or maybe the pure truth escaped from the pen of a person who has already learned a lot?

It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, Fischer served in the administration of General Pavel Sudoplatov. He was fluent in German, was considered the best radio operator of the organs and trained young scouts and agents in sabotage.

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

In the memoirs of another Soviet illegal immigrant - Konon Molodoy - I came across such an episode. The young man, abandoned to the German rear, was almost immediately caught and taken to counterintelligence for interrogation. The fascist who interrogated him did not torment Molody for long, but when he was left alone, he called the future star of Soviet espionage an "idiot" and kicked him out of the door. From then until the end of his days, Molodoy's tailbone ached. Molody met the "fascist" again, already by order of the Center, on an illegal business trip in America. Both instantly recognized each other. Is this true or fiction? The young man was so keen on such suspicious hoaxes.

Even before returning to the Fourth Directorate of the NKVD, the humble engineer Fischer had accomplished a feat of a suburban scale. Rushing in a suburban train from the dacha in Chelyusinskaya to the plant and back, early in the morning he heard a quiet conversation in the vestibule, where he went out to smoke. Two inconspicuous passengers were deciding where to get off. One suggested at the train station in Moscow, the other objected: it should be early, otherwise the train would slip into another part of the city. And they were dressed like ours, and there was no accent, but William Genrikhovich called a patrol and a couple were arrested. They turned out to be German parachutists.

How did he recognize these two as saboteurs? He was alarmed by the words: "the train will slip into another part of the city." This is how the movement is organized in Berlin. But from where, according to the official biography, Fischer knew these Berlin subtleties in Berlin, and why did he react so quickly when he sensed the falsity? Or has he also been to Berlin?

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

I was assured that this was not the case, there were no archival materials, there was no confirmation. I tried to study for months and years, where my hero was during the Great Patriotic War. I read his letters to relatives, wrote down what his daughter Evelina Vil'yamovna and his adopted daughter Lydia Borisovna told me. There were no such time intervals, sufficient for deep penetration.

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

It was in Berlin at the end of 1943. The city was fiercely bombed. Late at night, returning home, our friend, who worked there, overtook another raid. He took refuge from the shrapnel in the passage leading to the basement of the destroyed house. Somewhere between the explosions of bombs and shells, a faint sound of a piano suddenly sounded. He listened and made sure that they were playing Chopin's mazurka. Another person, perhaps, would not have paid attention to the sounds of the piano, all the more so to the fact that Chopin is being played. Our comrade remembered that the Nazis had forbidden Chopin to play. I thought that the player is looking for peace in music and should be a person who, over the nine years of the existence of Nazism, did not succumb to its influence. I found the entrance to the basement and found two women there. Mother and daughter. The daughter was playing the piano.

As a result of this "accidental" acquaintance, a safe apartment was obtained, where our comrade could calmly prepare his messages, keep documents and other facilities of the intelligence officer. In this apartment he spent the last days of fighting in Berlin and waited for the signal from the Center to leave the underground.

I hope this case from our practice will give you an idea of \u200b\u200bthe nature of our work. Outwardly, it does not abound with very great drama. It is not necessary to have a minister as a source of information. It is enough to recruit a trusted servant. And in the USA, I worked from 1948 to 1957. Then prison, arrest, and in 1962 an exchange. "

Who of "our comrades" did the colonel tell the audience about? It is clear that about an intelligent person who, even under fire, managed to quickly realize that they were playing the forbidden Chopin. Was it not an illegal, a great musician, who shared his own experience with his students? I would like to believe so. But this is at odds with the facts and dates that are well established.

One curious and documented episode connected with my hero was allowed to emerge from the declassified archives. In mid-1944, the German Lieutenant Colonel Schorhorn was captured. They managed to recruit him and start an operation to divert large forces of the German Wehrmacht. According to the legend, planted to the Germans by the department of Pavel Sudoplatov, a large Wehrmacht unit was operating in the Belarusian forests, miraculously escaping captivity. It allegedly attacked regular Soviet units, reported to Berlin about the movement of enemy troops. The attack on our troops is sheer fiction, which, nevertheless, was believed in Germany. But a small group of Germans, wandering in the woods, did maintain regular contact with Berlin. It was William Fisher, disguised as a fascist officer, who started this game with his radio operators. The group also included captured, recruited Germans. This operation was named "Berezino". Airplanes flew from Berlin to Belarus, the Germans dropped tens of tons of weapons, ammunition, food for their group. More than two dozen saboteurs who arrived at the disposal of Shorehorn were arrested, partially recruited and included in the radio game. It's not hard to imagine what kind of disinformation they conveyed. For all this, the Fuhrer personally promoted Schorhorn to colonel, Fischer was presented to the highest award of the Reich - the Iron Cross. For the same operation and for his work during the war, William Genrikhovich Fischer was awarded the Order of Lenin.

The Germans were fooled in this way for over eleven months. Hitler had already committed suicide, Berlin was taken, and the radio game continued. It wasn't until May 4, 1945 that Fischer and his men received the last radiogram from somewhere in Germany, no longer from Berlin. They were thanked for their service, regretted that they could no longer provide help, and, relying only on God's help, offered to act independently.

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

There was, according to my research, no more, and another agent network, which Fischer controlled or collaborated with. And in America, knowledge of German came in handy. On the east coast of the United States, he was associated with emigrant Germans who fought Hitler before and during World War II. They committed sabotage in various countries captured by the Nazis. Here comes the name of the militant Kurt Wiesel, who during the war years helped the famous anti-fascist saboteur Ernst Wollweber. In the States, he made an excellent career as an engineer for a shipbuilding company in Norfolk. In late 1949 and in the 1950s, Weesel had access to the most classified information.

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

Rudolph Abel and Willie Fischer were friends. We went to the dining room together. At Lubyanka they joked: "Vaughn Abeli \u200b\u200bcame." Perhaps they met in China, where both worked as radio operators. Perhaps fate brought them together in 1937, according to Fischer's daughter Evelina.

During the war years, both lived in a small apartment in the center of Moscow. Wives and children were evacuated. And in the evenings three gathered in the kitchen. They were even christened, which was original and bold at that time, "The Three Musketeers."

Who was the third? When, several decades after the war, they were allowed to travel abroad and forever, the third, radio journalist Kirill Khenkin, who never became a Chekist, packed up and left. Surprisingly, he was released peacefully, without scandals, promising to remain silent.

He may have kept silence, but he wrote the book "The Hunter Upside Down" about William Fisher and his last moments. Well, God bless him, with Kirill Henkin, who died at the age of about ninety years in Germany. Some episodes from his book are interesting. Hen-kin, who left the USSR, was forced to observe the laws of the emigre genre, otherwise who would have published the book. But here is a moment that is beyond doubt. The purges began, and the office in which Rudolf Ivanovich Abel and four colleagues were sitting was emptying every day. One by one, colleagues called somewhere, left and did not return. On the tables, which were then sealed at night, there were personal belongings, glasses of tea. A KGB cap hung on the chair for a long time. For some reason it was not removed, and it served as a formidable reminder of the fate of its owner.

I would venture to speculate about the reasons for the real friendship between the two heroes of this story. There was something in common in the fates of the two scouts - Abel and Fischer - which, it seems to me, brought them closer together. Both were not darlings of fortune. Fate beat them cruelly: mental wounds from their own blows are difficult to heal. And do they heal? As you know, William Fisher was fired from the NKVD in the pre-war years of purges and executions. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, after the execution of his brother - an old Bolshevik - was also thrown out of the organs, and then returned. And although his wife came from the nobility, and relatives remained in occupied Riga, during the war days he was not touched.

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

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

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

I don't know anything about the fate of my relatives.

Deputy early 3 branches of the 4th department of the NKGB of the USSR, Major of State Security R. Abel.

Fortunately for the major, he was badly needed: “... From August 1942 to January 1943, he was on the Caucasian Front as part of the task force for the defense of the Great Caucasian ridge. During the Otech. During the war, he repeatedly went on special assignments. "

And the key phrase, which gives an answer to the question of what he was doing: "He performed special assignments for the preparation and deployment of our agents behind enemy lines."

Everyone has their own war

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

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

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

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

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

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

But on October 8, 1941, my mom and dad and I left Moscow for Kuibyshev. Confusion arose over this. Some people claim that dad worked in Kuibyshev for a long time during the war. His current colleagues from Samara even attribute to his father the organization of a special intelligence school there. This is not true.

We were leaving for evacuation. The whole staff, the families of the Chekists in the heating-houses, and Spot with us. An absolutely wonderful, amazing sparkling wool fox terrier with a typical English name. Dad said: if they don’t agree to take Spot into the heat gun, then I will shoot him, because otherwise he will die. But they agreed, and our teplushka turned out to be the only one that was not robbed along the entire long journey - thanks to the dog, no one else could approach. In addition to me, two more children were traveling in the warm-house, they were wildly delighted that we had a dog.

At the end of October, the cast reached Kuibyshev, but we were not allowed to disembark, although my mother had an agreement with the local opera and ballet theater that she would stay to work there as an artist. We landed in Sernovodsk - a small resort hole about a hundred kilometers away. Dad stayed with us, in my opinion, two days, left for Kuibyshev - and disappeared. We sat without everything - no cards, no money. They unloaded us and forgot.

And then my mother developed a vigorous activity. The wife of one employee, a professional singer, was traveling with us in a warm house. And the two of them organized a concert for the flight part, which was nearby. Everyone who could took part in it. I played the cello, and my cousin Lida recited poems “On the Soviet Passport”. Lida grew up in our family like a native.

The leadership of the unit remained very pleased with the concert: it was rather uncomfortable for them in Sernovodsk. In gratitude, they took my mother to Kuibyshev in their military car, because by that time it was possible to get there only with passes. Mom was immediately taken to the theater. But she, the spy's wife, immediately decided to find where the local authorities were: she wanted to find dad. Instead, she was taken to the police, from where the theater director dragged her out. There were also brave people then.

And then on the street, my mother accidentally met Rudolph Abel's uncle. They were terribly happy because Abeli \u200b\u200bwere leaving Moscow on their own. Uncle Rudolph told his mother that he stayed in Kuibyshev, and dad was on a business trip: he went to Ufa for some equipment. I gave my mother a bottle of alcohol and said that when Willie returned, we would drink it with him. There was not much alcohol, and he went for something completely different. On the way back from Ufa or from somewhere else, my father fell under the ice of the Ufimka River. I came to Sernovodsk wet, dirty and covered with lice, because when they got out of the river, they let them warm themselves up in the village hut. There they gathered all this living creatures. He didn't even let my mother come close to him. What they were carrying, I have no idea, maybe you will find it out elsewhere. Well, all the alcohol was spent on sanitizing my dad.

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

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

They were often confused. But for one of them to impersonate the other, as it is written in some books, is nonsense. Lord, what are they just making up. They say that the Pope used the name "Abel" during the war years - not true. All this is nonsense.

In general, if you believe the rumor, where only my father did not work during the war. They even sent him to England and Germany. No, during the war years, dad did not go to any Great Britain or Berlin.

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

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

My father left quite often and for a long time. And how much, I did not count then and now it is difficult for me to orient myself, although we lived. together, of course. And after the war he spoke little about his military affairs.

What else do I have from military memories? It somehow bumped into it: my father had two students - two German brothers. And he worked with them, cooked. The only time they appeared with us was - handsome fair-haired men, twenty years or less. For some reason they came for a sewing machine - what did they do with it? Then I broke the unspoken family ban, asked my father how things turned out for them later. He was upset because it was so bad. Both died when they were dumped into Yugoslavia.

Another case is related to military weapons. After returning from evacuation, I saw for the first and last time my father had a gun. I could be wrong, but it seems "TT". Father was in a hurry at night and left the gun at home. He showed me how to assemble and disassemble it. And he was very proud that he did it quickly and skillfully. But my mother immediately took this abandoned pistol from me. And so, I don’t know if my father ever fired from a military weapon, if not. The conversation never got going.

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

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

There is another episode from the war. Since all sorts of malfunctions happened with the light and matches also turned into a large deficit, and there were also all smokers in the house, my father brought a lighter. I hadn’t smoked at that time, but my grandmother, my mother, my father himself ... The lighter was the object of his pride, it had a platinum spiral.

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

Someone from the staff came and said: “Oh, Willie, what a good lighter you have. You must do the same to our boss. " To which the Pope objected: “Why on earth? Our boss himself knows how to do all this. He has much more opportunities to get the necessary parts than I do. " The next day dad comes to work - no lighter. He quickly realized what was the matter. I went to the chief - and she was there on the table. Father immediately: "Hello, my lighter came to you by mistake." He took her and left. And then he brought it home.

In general, bosses are a special category. To be honest, my dad didn't like the boss. I tried not to mess with him. Why and why - I don't know. Did not love. Surname Korotkov (after the war, the head of all Soviet illegal immigrants. - N.D.), Of course, it sounded at home, but to say that my father had some kind of relationship with Korotkov outside the service - no. Sakharovsky (he headed the department in charge of illegal immigrants longer than others. - N.D.) was mentioned even less frequently. But the surname Fitin (head of the foreign intelligence of the war years. - N.D.) pronounced - but in wartime. Before the war, Spiegelglass was in charge there. But apart from surnames - nothing ...

And when dad returned (never during our meetings did Evelina say “returned from the USA” or “went to the States.” - N. D), such a story happened. He was drawn to literary activity. Then they just started to publish the magazine "Krugozor". And in the first issues he wrote a story. Instead of the author's name, there is a colonel with three stars.

The same radio game was described there ("Berezino" - N. D .), which they led with the Germans. If I am not mistaken, the plot is as follows: it seems that a captured German officer gets into a partisan detachment. And he is persuaded to play a radio game with his own. And as a result, our people receive weapons, parcels, German troops are landed there.

But the story did not work out well. Then a man wrote a script based on it and a film was shot on television. And without any father's knowledge. Dad tried to be indignant. But he was told: just think, colonel, three stars, also me, a pseudonym. And on this the question was closed. The father was very unhappy. Of course it's a shame. I believe it was a slap in the face and completely sassy. If I had got this screenwriter, I would have said a few words to him, and with great pleasure. That stealing is a bad and impudent occupation.

But to enter into quarrels, to prove something to crooks ... All this was below father's dignity. And he always had a lot to do.

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

(ND: I will briefly present the plot of the story. A Soviet intelligence agent tracks down Nazis hiding in various countries. In the end, a winding path leads him to Paris, where he, with the help of French communist friends, destroys the Nazi network.

The scout's image is absolutely autobiographical. In the main character's reasoning about illegal intelligence, there is a certain specificity in the dialogues. It is clear that the pen was driven by a professional.

In the editorial office of "Border Guard" the story was evaluated and published. And they also said: the author, of course, is from the authorities, "but not Abel." Having learned that it was he, they were embarrassed.

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

And again the question arose: how does Abel know all this? In such details and details, only a person who knew and fell in love with a changeable city that does not open up to everyone is capable of giving a vivid picture. But again, if you believe the colonel's biography, he never set foot in Paris.

Means what? Do not believe? I am all about small and mysterious back streets. Even the inquisitive biographers of Abel-Fischer cannot get out of them.

Family chronicles

The adopted daughter of Abel - Fisher, Lidia Borisovna Boyarskaya, allowed me to publish several letters from William Genrikhovich. They are simple. They contain the atmosphere of the war years.

Letter from William Fisher to Kuibyshev, where his family lives, awaiting a pass to return to Moscow.

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

No wonder I have already lived as a monk for a year and am not looking for another family or connection…. You must prepare too. We need to think about how to pack the harp. You can't move without a harp ...

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

I am making plans to leave the People's Commissariat. Either to the factory, or to paint. I'll sit on your neck for a year and study. I will be no worse, if not better, than these daubs who have taken power in this area. And you can also do work at the factory. Only not the People's Commissariat. Enough! .. "

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

“… I wrote to you that there is a glorious doctor, a famous athlete Znamensky (runner). He is from a simple peasant family, his perseverance has achieved a doctoral degree and considerable results as an athlete. There is also Ermolaev - a photographer, hunter and fisherman. He will be able to arrange passes to the Uchinskoye reservoir - inform Yasha Schwartz about that - we will have fish, and in the fall - ducks.

We live here primitively. My working day starts at 3 am. This is only recently, due to a change in the environment. I'm on duty. From 10 I work intermittently, I sleep periodically. We eat at 10, 16.00 and 21.00, and lunch is very good, but breakfasts and dinners are rather weak. Mainly for fats. Due to the heavy workload, I received an additional ration.

We live in peasant fur coats and intensively feed fleas. There are kerosene stains on the paper, a lamp is leaking ... The fur coats here are solid and large, but very dirty. What kind of rubbish you will not find on shelves, in nooks and in attics - whole and broken, necessary and unnecessary - everything is piled together ... "

Letter from a partisan unit

“... Apparently, on December 12 there will be a car for Moscow. Our hunter Ermolaev is traveling with her, who will obviously bring you this letter ... How about my salary? I gave Ermolaev a power of attorney and, perhaps, he will be able to get the money for December and give it to you. In general, the issue of communication with you must be resolved, since by all indications the case has taken the form of a long operation, and how long it will take is difficult to foresee. It seems that I will celebrate the New Year in the wilds of Belarus. The workload has slightly decreased, there is nothing to do, there are no books. If you can - send me 3 books on the radio (lists the books. - N.D.) ... I want to remember the old and still the history of the CPSU (b). Ermolaev will tell you more about our life ... "

Letter from Belarusian forests

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

Breakfast was brought - kart, mashed potatoes and smoked herring, 2 lumps of sugar and tea. I'm going to make coffee. Coffee! The dream comes true.

I am very glad that you finally made it to the orchestra, even if in the circus. This will be just the beginning, especially since there are good conductors there. The circus also has the advantage that it stands still, and Igor Moiseev, although of a higher brand, does not sit still. Only you were in vain to get involved with knitting, think about taking care of your health. "

Lydia Borisovna Boyarskaya told me how William Genrikhovich left:

On October 8, 1971, guests arrived at the dacha for Evuna's birthday. I was there too and did not even notice that with my uncle

Willie, something bad is happening. He was friendly as always, nothing directly indicated his illness. There is both composure and will of iron. But soon he became ill and was admitted to an oncological hospital.

And the day before his death, November 14, Evunya and I were on duty in his ward. Uncle Willie lay alone, and there was always an intelligence officer near him. Uncle Willie was unconscious, and his condition was terrible. Apparently, terrible dreams tormented him. It seemed to us - moments of arrest, interrogation, trial ... He rushed all the time, groaned, grabbed his head and tried to get up. He even fell to the floor, and the three of us could not hold him. He never regained consciousness. Died November 15, 1971.

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(real name - William Genrikhovich Fisher)

(1903-1971) soviet intelligence officer

For many decades, the real name of this legendary scout has been hidden by an impenetrable veil of secrecy. Only after his death did it become known that the surname Abel, which he named when he was arrested in the United States, belonged to his deceased friend and colleague.

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was born into a German family, several generations of which lived in Russia. William's father, Heinrich Fischer, was born on the estate of Mologa of the princes Kurakin, located not far from Yaroslavl. The prince took his ancestors out of Germany, inviting them to work. Abel's grandfather was a cattle breeder and a veterinarian, his grandmother was a chicken breeding specialist. They have worked all their lives in Russia, which has become their second homeland.

but Heinrich Fischer did not follow in the footsteps of his parents. He became an engineer, joined the Bolshevik Party, and then left with his wife to England, where he was engaged in business and at the same time led party work. There in Newcastle his son William was born. He went to school and soon began to help his father: he ran to attendance, then became an activist of the "Hands off Russia!" Movement.

In 1921, the family returned to Russia, where William Fisher entered the institute and in 1927, while still studying, began working in Soviet intelligence. After graduating from the institute and passing special training, he was again sent to England, where he worked for almost ten years under his real name.

In 1938, when purges began in intelligence, Fischer, who had returned to the USSR by that time, was stripped of his military rank and fired. For several years he worked as an engineer at a Moscow plant. Already during the Finnish war, Fischer was remembered. He was returned to his rank and sent to a special radio battalion, where he served with the famous polar explorer E. Krenkel.

Shortly before the start of the war, Fischer was again returned to foreign intelligence and was soon transferred to Germany. There he spent the entire war, reporting information to Moscow. Fischer continued to work in intelligence after the war.

On the instructions of the Center, in 1947 he moved to Canada, and from there in 1948 he moved to the USA. Fischer crosses the border under the name of Lithuanian-American Andrew Kayotis. In the United States, he legalized himself under a different name - Emil Goldfus.

Officially, he became a photographer-retoucher by profession, but in fact he was involved in organizing the receipt and transfer of intelligence information to the USSR. For many years, an unremarkable photographer lived in Brooklyn, becoming the organizer and head of an extensive agent network.

In 1955, Fischer came to Moscow for a short rest. This was his only visit, because 2 years after returning to the United States, he was arrested on June 21, 1957. The scout was betrayed by one of the employees of his group. None of Fischer's colleagues were exposed or harmed.

Unlike other intelligence officers, Fischer was not silent, and at the very first interrogation he declared that he was a Soviet intelligence officer and his real name and rank was Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. He made this statement in order to check how complete information the American special services have. When they believed him, it became obvious that American counterintelligence officers did not have any other information besides operational information. A few months later, Fischer received letters from his daughter and wife that had come to his name. Now he knew that Moscow had understood his move and had entered the game. The trial of Rudolph Abel passed with great noise and was widely covered in the American press.

The court sentenced him to thirty years in prison. But he did not sit out until the end of the term. Five years later, in February 1962, in East Berlin, Rudolf Abel was exchanged for the American pilot F. Powers, who was shot down over the territory of the USSR, and for two other detained agents.

Returning to the USSR, Rudolf Abel continued his activities in intelligence. He was awarded the rank of general. He supervised the work of the Anglo-American intelligence network, trained young employees, and went on business trips to socialist countries several times. For his merits, he was awarded the Order of the Battle Red Banner.

The famous scout led a rather closed and secluded lifestyle, did not speak anywhere with stories about his activities, as many generals liked to do in their years. But one day he nevertheless appeared on the silver screen, starring in the film by S. Kulish "Dead Season", where an episode of the exchange of scouts was shown.

In 1971, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel retired and soon died of lung cancer. On his tombstone, for the first time, two names of the scout were put together - Fischer and Abel.

Arrested for espionage in East Berlin in August 1961.

Rudolph Abel
William Genrikhovich Fisher

Date of Birth	11 july(1903-07-11 )
Place of Birth
Date of death	15th of November(1971-11-15 ) (68 years old)
A place of death
Affiliation	Great Britain Great Britain the USSR the USSR
Years of service	- -
Rank
Battles / wars	The Great Patriotic War
Awards and prizes
Rudolph Abel at Wikimedia Commons

Biography

In 1920, the Fischer family returned to Russia and adopted Soviet citizenship, without abandoning English, and together with the families of other prominent revolutionaries lived at one time on the territory of the Kremlin.

In 1921, William's older brother Harry was killed in an accident.

On his arrival in the USSR, Abel first worked as a translator at the Executive Committee of the Communist International (Comintern). Then he entered VKHUTEMAS. In 1925 he was drafted into the army in the 1st radiotelegraph regiment of the Moscow Military District, where he received the specialty of a radio operator. Served together with E. T. Krenkel and the future artist M. I. Tsarev. Having an innate inclination to technology, he became a very good radio operator, whose primacy was recognized by everyone.

After demobilization, he worked at the RKKA Air Force Research Institute as a radio engineer. On April 7, 1927, he married a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, harpist Elena Lebedeva. She was appreciated by her teacher - the famous harpist Vera Dulova. Elena subsequently became a professional musician. In 1929, their daughter was born.

On December 31, 1938, he was dismissed from the NKVD (due to Beria's mistrust of personnel who worked with "enemies of the people") with the rank of lieutenant of the GB (captain) and worked for some time in the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, and then at an aviation plant as a militarized guard shooter. Repeatedly applied with reports on his reinstatement in intelligence. I also addressed my father's friend, the then secretary of the Central Committee of the party, Andreev.

Since 1941, again in the NKVD, in a unit organizing a partisan war in the rear of the Germans. Fischer trained radio operators for partisan detachments and reconnaissance groups sent to the countries occupied by Germany. During this period, he met and worked with Rudolf Abel, whose name and biography he later used.

After the end of the war, it was decided to send him to work illegally in the United States, in particular, to obtain information from sources working at nuclear facilities. He moved to the United States in November 1948 with a passport in the name of a US citizen of Lithuanian origin Andrew Kayotis (who died in the Lithuanian SSR in 1948). Then he settled in New York under the name of the artist Emil Robert Goldfuss, where he ran the Soviet spy network, and owned a photo studio in Brooklyn as a cover. The Coen couple were selected as agents for "Mark" (V. Fisher's pseudonym).

By the end of May 1949, "Mark" had resolved all organizational issues and was actively involved in the work. It was so successful that in August 1949 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for specific results.

In 1955 he returned to Moscow for several months of summer and autumn.

Failure

To relieve Mark from current affairs, in 1952, an illegal intelligence radio operator Reino Heihanen (pseudonym Vik) was sent to help him. “Vic” turned out to be morally and psychologically unstable, and four years later it was decided to return him to Moscow. However, "Vic", suspecting something was wrong, surrendered to the American authorities, told them about his work in illegal intelligence and betrayed "Mark".

In 1957, "Mark" was arrested at the Latham Hotel in New York by FBI agents. At that time, the leadership of the USSR declared that it was not engaged in espionage. In order to let Moscow know about his arrest and that he is not a traitor, William Fischer, when arrested, named himself after his late friend Rudolf Abel. During the investigation, he categorically denied that he belonged to the intelligence service, refused to testify at the trial and rejected attempts by American intelligence officials to persuade him to cooperate.

In the same year he was sentenced to 32 years in prison. Following the announcement of the verdict, "Mark" was in solitary confinement at the New York Detention Center, then transferred to the Federal Correctional Jail in Atlanta. In conclusion, he was engaged in solving mathematical problems, the theory of art, painting. He painted oil paintings. Vladimir Semichastny claimed that the portrait of Kennedy, painted by Abel in the conclusion, was presented to him at the request of the latter and after that it hung in the Oval Office for a long time.

Liberation

After rest and treatment, Fischer returned to work in the central intelligence apparatus. He took part in the training of young illegal scouts, painted landscapes at his leisure. Fischer also participated in the making of the feature film Dead Season (1968), the plot of which is connected with some facts from the intelligence officer's biography.

William Genrikhovich Fisher died of lung cancer at the age of 69 on November 15, 1971. He was buried at the New Donskoy cemetery in Moscow next to his father.

Awards

Memory

His fate inspired Vadim Kozhevnikov to write the famous adventure novel Shield and Sword. Although the name of the protagonist is Alexander Belov and is associated with the name of Abel, the plot of the book differs significantly from the real fate of William Genrikhovich Fisher.
In 2008, the documentary "Unknown Abel" was shot (directed by Yuri Linkevich).
In 2009, Channel One created a two-part biographical film "The US government against Rudolf Abel" (starring Yuri Belyaev).
For the first time, Abel showed himself to the general public in 1968, when he addressed his compatriots with an introductory speech to the film "Dead Season" (as the film's official consultant).
In the American film by Steven Spielberg's "Spy Bridge" (2015), he was portrayed by British theater and film actor Mark Rylance, for this role, Mark won many awards and prizes, including the Academy Awards.
On December 18, 2015, on the eve of the Day of State Security Bodies, a solemn ceremony of opening a memorial plaque to William Genrikhovich Fisher took place in Samara. The plate, designed by the Samara architect Dmitry Khramov, appeared on the house number 8 on the street. Molodogvardeyskaya. It is assumed that it is here in the years

Abel Rudolf Ivanovich (real name and surname William Genrikhovich Fisher) (1903-1971), Soviet intelligence officer.

The future famous "atomic spy" was born on July 11, 1903 in Newcastle in the family of a Russified German, a Social Democrat who emigrated to England.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Fishers returned to Russia and accepted Soviet citizenship. William, who perfectly knew English and French, in 1927 entered the foreign intelligence department of the GPU. In the 30s. XX century he twice traveled to Europe and, being there in an illegal position, provided radio communication between the Soviet station and the Center.

During the Great Patriotic War, Fischer was organizing reconnaissance and sabotage groups and partisan detachments. After the war, he was sent to America to obtain information on the economy and military capabilities of the United States. Having successfully legalized himself in 1948 in New York under the guise of free artist Emil Goldfuss, Mark (the intelligence officer's codename) established ties with the Volunteers group, in which the Americans, who collaborated with Soviet intelligence for ideological reasons, operated. The leader of the group - Luisi and the contact - his wife Leslie (spouses Martin and Leontine Cohen) provided Mark with classified information about the development of the atomic bomb, carried out in Los Alamos.

Mark was given out by his own radio operator-communicator. The arrest took place on June 21, 1957. Mark had to inform Moscow about this so that the American special services could not start a provocative game. Therefore, he confirmed his Soviet citizenship, but called himself the name of a friend who also worked in the security agencies and by that time was already deceased, Rudolf Abel. It was under this name that Fischer went down in history.

He refused to cooperate with the US intelligence services. The trial in the Abel case was accompanied by a loud anti-Soviet campaign in the press. The scout was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

After four and a half years in prison, he was exchanged for the American pilot F. Powers, who was shot down in 1960 in the skies over the USSR. CIA Director A. Dulles admitted: he would like the United States to have "three or four people like Abel in Moscow."

The Abel family and the Fischer family in China.

The name of the Soviet intelligence agent Rudolf Abel was first mentioned in 1957, when the FBI arrested him in the United States. The verdict is 32 years in prison. In 1962, he was traded for the American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers. However, in fact, there were two Rudolf Abels. Both are scouts, friends. And one of them was born in Riga.

The son of a chimney sweep

Rudolph Ioannovich Abel was a real European gentleman: he spoke six languages, looked like a thoroughbred Aryan nobleman - tall, fair-haired, benevolent, well-mannered. Meanwhile, he was born into the family of a simple Riga chimney sweep, graduated only from the city four-year school, after which he worked as a courier-delivery man.
In 1915, the young man moved to St. Petersburg, entered general education courses, passed external exams for all four courses of a real school. Knowledge of German as a native 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 was also fluent in English and French!
Little has been written about Rudolph Abel. In particular, there is no information about how he came to the revolution. Most likely, an example was the elder brother Voldemar - a Latvian shooter who guarded Smolny, a member of the CPSU (b) since 1917, commissar of the Cheka of the Kronstadt Fortress. So again, it is not surprising that Rudolph volunteered for the Baltic Fleet in 1917.
In 1924 he was demobilized, worked as an electrician and radio operator at the Sovtorgflot in Vladivostok. His life changed dramatically in 1926. Rudolph is sent to Shanghai, to 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 officer at the USSR plenipotentiary mission in Beijing.
The writer Nikolai Dolgopolov two years ago published the book "Abel-Fisher", where he describes Rudolph Abel as a real James Bond. From 1929 to 1936, Rudolf Abel became an illegal Soviet intelligence agent. According to Dolgopolov, a short entry testifies to this in his personal file: "Appointed to the post of authorized INO OGPU and is on a long-term business trip in different countries." Was it sent to the Baltic States, taking into account the 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 appears in Manchuria under the guise of a Russian emigrant. I came there with my 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 office of foreign intelligence. However, the years of repression began. The NKVD, and then the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs from Yezhov passed into the hands of Beria, the apparatus was cleaned, and Abel, like many other intelligence officers, was fired from the organs. The reason was the arrest of Voldemar's brother, who by the mid-1930s had become a major party worker in Leningrad, the head of the political department of the Baltic Shipping Company.
In 1938, the red shooter, the devoted revolutionary Voldemar Abel, and another 216 people were sentenced to death "for participating in a Latvian counter-revolutionary nationalist conspiracy" and "for espionage and sabotage activities in favor of Germany and Latvia."

There is a version that during the years of repression, Rudolf Abel survived 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 insignificant positions - as a gunner of a paramilitary guard, then as a censor, and then completely goes on an early and meager pension. 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 Caucasian ridge, where he was responsible for defense activities, being the head of the operative of the reconnaissance group.
And soon after the Victory, in September 1946, Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Abel was again dismissed, and he finally - at the age of 46! - becomes a pensioner, albeit a well-deserved one: he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, and several medals. In 1955, a scout unexpectedly dies of a heart attack and is buried in Moscow at the German cemetery.

Resurrection in the USA

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

The public process was called "US government against 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 to the USSR especially important materials on the atomic development of the American side. The verdict is 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 Rudolph 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 called himself the name of Rudolf Abel on purpose - signaling the Lubyanka about his failure and silence. In Moscow, they learned about the arrest of the intelligence officer from information in the American press, and before that they could not understand why he did not get in touch.

The arrest of agent Rudolph Abel.

Why did Fischer choose the name of Rudolf Abel? And because they were friends - Rudolph and William. Both were of German blood, only William (named after Shakespeare, who was adored by his parents) was born in Great Britain, in 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 spread the Iskra. So William's arrival in the revolution was natural.
The 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 Rudolph 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 for the Comintern apparatus, and in 1924 he even entered the Indian department of the Institute of Oriental Studies. But then - the army, the radiotelegraph regiment, in 1927 - the arrival in 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 then in this country!
“Grateful readers who read my books and articles back in the 90s suddenly began to send me photographs,” Dolgopolov said in an interview. - And in one photo with the Chinese Wall, four people are depicted: this is Willie Fisher, his friend and also the Chekist Willie Martens with his wife, as well as a man named Abel, Rudolf Ivanovich, with his wife Asya. When I showed this photo to Evelina Vilyamovna Fischer, it just infuriated her. "
In China, they were links in the same chain: the power of the radio transmitters of that era was low, so intelligence reports from foreign territory to the Soviet side were transmitted along a 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 Rudolph Abel.

After that he worked at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, at a factory. He has repeatedly filed reports on his restoration in intelligence. Restored, like Abel, in 1941.
Willie Fischer, unlike his friend Rudolf Abel, with whom they were family friends in Moscow, was short, thin, unsportsmanlike, in English restrained and reserved. He was fond of astronomy, drew well, played the guitar. It was not James Bond or even Stirlitz. They said that when the film about the scouts "Dead Season" was being filmed, William Genrikhovich, who made a commentary 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 Rudolph Abel, aka Fischer.

Forget your name

William Fisher was in demand until his last days and worked with young intelligence officers. He died in 1971. But someone else's name became for Fischer not even the second, but the first. After returning from the United States, 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 Rudolph Abel!
Even a short obituary in Red Star was also dedicated to Rudolph Abel. And they buried William Fisher in the Donskoy cemetery, too, like Abel, although his wife and daughter raised a real uprising, trying to return the legendary scout, even after death, his own name.
“Most of all in his life my father worried that someone else's name had stuck to him until the end of his days. The authorities did not allow him to part with him. He was to be known to the people only as Abel, ”his daughter Evelina said.
Only many years later on the monument next to the surname Abel, albeit in brackets, they added - "William Genrikhovich Fisher".