Spy Rudolph Abel. Years spent in prison

The future intelligence officer was born in Newcastle, England, where his parents, who were exiled from Russia in 1901 for revolutionary activities, settled. The spy's father was closely acquainted with many prominent revolutionaries, including Vladimir Lenin. According to some reports, he took part in organizing the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, held in London in the summer of 1903. Shortly before the start of the Congress, where the Bolshevik faction took shape, on July 11, 1903, a second child was born in the family of Heinrich Matveyevich Fisher, named William in honor of Shakespeare. Willie's father spoke several languages, and the sons followed him. Well, the language environment helped. So Willie spoke three languages \u200b\u200bfrom early childhood. And he also showed a keen interest in the natural sciences, was very well versed in chemistry and physics. But besides that, Willie was good at drawing, playing the piano and guitar. In general, he grew up as a versatile boy.
At the age of 15, William Fisher got a job as a draftsman apprentice at a shipyard. A year later, he passed the exams for admission to the University of London. But there is no reliably confirmed data about studying at the university. In 1920, the Fischers returned to Russia and accepted Soviet citizenship. For some time they lived with other families of prominent revolutionaries on the territory of the Kremlin.
At first, William worked as a translator at the Executive Committee of the Comintern, then he entered the VKHUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops). In 1924, Fischer entered the Institute of Oriental Studies and began studying India. But a year later he was drafted into the army, and had to leave his studies. Serve William ended up in the 1st Radiotelegraph Regiment of the Moscow Military District. Where he served together with the future famous polar explorer Ernst Krenkel.
After demobilization, he worked at the RKKA Air Force Research Institute as a radio engineer, abandoning his attempts to become an artist. The OGPU came to the INO (foreign department) in May 1927. At first he worked as a translator and radio operator, but rather quickly moved up to deputy resident. He worked illegally in Europe until 1938. And then purges began in the OGPU, and Fischer fell under the rink. Fortunately, he was not imprisoned, but only fired from the authorities.
Fischer was able to return to intelligence only in 1941. Participated in the training of radio operators for partisan detachments and reconnaissance groups. It was then that he met and worked with Rudolf Abel for a long time. The fates of the two scouts were very similar: both were dismissed from the special agencies in 1938 and called up to serve in 1941.
After the war, Fischer worked for some time in Eastern Europe, establishing ties between the newly created intelligence services of the socialist countries with the security agencies of the USSR. And then the colonel
It was decided to send Fischer to the United States, where he was supposed to head a significant part of the Soviet residency, engaged in the extraction of American atomic and nuclear secrets.
The scout arrived in the United States on documents in the name of Emil Robert Goldfuss, an amateur artist and professional photographer in late 1948. The main contacts of Mark (the codename of the scout) were the Coen spouses, about whom we wrote earlier. But the fruitful work with the Coen couple lasted only two years. In America, a "witch hunt" began, and the leadership decides to take the spouses out of the United States. Fischer was again left alone, and several dozen agents were in touch with him.
Mark's work in the United States was so successful that already in August 1949, less than a year after his arrival, the intelligence officer was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his enormous success in intelligence activities.

"Bad" helper

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

The country has not forgotten

The final straw for Fischer was that Vic spent on drink five thousand dollars intended to pay for the lawyer of one of the agents arrested in the "Rosenberg affair." Fischer was furious and demanded that Moscow recall his assistant. Soon Heihanen was ordered to arrive in Europe. However, the lieutenant colonel categorically did not want to return. Otherwise I would have to answer for a lot. In May 1957, he arrived in France, from where he was to be transported to the socialist sector of Europe. But Vic went straight to the American embassy, \u200b\u200bgave his real name and asked for political asylum.
A few days later, the traitor was flown back to the United States on a military plane. He was supposed to help arrest the mysterious Mark, who, according to Heihanen, was in charge of the entire American residence. On June 21, 1957, the mysterious resident was arrested at the Latham Hotel in New York.
But that was where the luck of the Americans ended. Heihanen helped to decipher the encryption that was found in the nickel. But that didn't help much. In the encrypted message, Vick was congratulated on legalization and wished him luck. And no other encryption messages were intercepted. So only the arrested Mark could point at the agents working for the Soviet intelligence.
To let Moscow know about his failure, Fischer identified himself as Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. The scout knew that his colleague and friend had died suddenly a year and a half ago. But Moscow, having received a request from the US State Department, refused to recognize Abel as a citizen of the Soviet Union. In those days, the leadership of our country loudly declared that it was not engaged in espionage. What Abel was happily informed by the FBI. But the scout was sure that he would not be forgotten.
The FBI officers tried to apply psychological methods to the arrested spy. They did not dare to knock testimony out of him by force. The head of the CIA (from 1953 to 1961) Alain Dulles, in a personal conversation with the head of the FBI, Edgar Hoover, strongly advised against using violence against Abel. The American intelligence officer had a very high opinion of the steadfastness of the Soviet intelligence officers and was sure that nothing could be obtained from them by force. There were only methods of persuasion, which were not always so harmless.
Rudolf Abel was threatened with an electric chair, kept in solitary confinement, promised mountains of gold, and claimed that only a bullet or a gulag could await him in Moscow. But Abel did not split and did not surrender anyone. On November 15, 1957, one of the most famous spy trials of the Cold War ended. Which was covered by all the significant media in the West. The jury found Abel guilty of spying for the USSR and illegal stay in the United States. But the Americans did not dare to sentence the Russian intelligence officer to execution. They understood perfectly well that if, in the case of the Rosenberg spouses, they seemed to be excused for the fact that they were Americans, which means they had betrayed their country, then the situation was different with the career officer of Soviet intelligence. No one doubted that if they executed Abel, then the failed American spies would en masse try to escape from custody, and at this time the guards would be forced to use weapons, or die from apoplectic strokes. A log on the head.
Rudolf Abel was sentenced to 32 years in prison, which meant life imprisonment for the 54-year-old intelligence officer. To serve his sentence, Abel was sent to prison in Atlanta, where they again tried to turn his life into hell. But thanks to the American press, Abel was widely known in all segments of the population. Among criminals, he was frankly admired: after all, the entire state machine of America could not break him. So, in prison, Abel enjoyed serious authority.
The Soviet intelligence officer spent almost five years in prison, solving mathematical problems, studying the history of art, and painting in oil. According to some reports, after John F. Kennedy came to power in 1961, Abel drew his portrait from photographs and sent him to the White House. Recall that it was under Kennedy that the first steps were taken to equalize the rights of black and white Americans. So Kennedy was popular among the communists. Kennedy, having received his portrait, hung it in his own office, about which almost all the newspapers in America wrote.
Rudolf Ivanovich had no idea that his return to his homeland would take place very soon. On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down near Sverdlovsk. It flew at an altitude of 20 thousand meters and, according to the calculations of the Americans, was out of reach of Soviet missiles. They were wrong. The pilot of the plane, Francis Gary Powers, waited until the crumbling plane descended to an altitude of 10 thousand meters and got out of the plane. At an altitude of five kilometers, he opened his parachute and landed near the village of Kosulino. Where he was detained by local residents.
In August 1960, Powers was sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. In the United States, through the efforts of the pilot's relatives, a real campaign was launched to return the pilot home. The Russians agreed to exchange the spy pilot for Rudolf Abel. According to rumors, when Nikita Khrushchev was informed about the consent of the Americans, he asked:
- Abel, is this the one who painted the portrait of Kennedy? Can Powers draw? No? Well then, let's change.
On February 10, 1962, Rudolf Abel and Francis Powers moved towards each other on the Glinik Bridge (it separated West and East Berlin and served as the main exchange of spies). In his memoirs, CIA chief Allen Dulles called Abel the most productive illegal intelligence officer of the 20th century. William Fisher was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Labor, Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the Red Star. He died on November 15, 1971 and was buried with military honors at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow. Traitor Reino Heihanen died in a car accident in 1964 under mysterious circumstances. The FBI is still convinced that these "mysterious circumstances" were created by KGB agents.

50 years ago, on February 10, 1962, on the Glienicker Brucke bridge connecting Berlin and Potsdam, where the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and West Berlin passed, the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel was exchanged for the American pilot Francis Powers.

Soviet military intelligence officer, Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (real name and surname William Genrikhovich Fischer) was in the United States since 1948, where he carried out the task of identifying the degree of possibility of a military conflict with the United States, created reliable illegal communication channels with the Center, obtained information about the economic situation and military (including nuclear) potential.

As a result of the betrayal on June 21, 1957, he was arrested. When arrested, he named himself after his friend and colleague - Rudolf Abel. During the investigation, he categorically denied his affiliation with intelligence, refused to testify at the trial and rejected attempts by the American special services to persuade him to cooperate.

On November 15, 1957, he was sentenced by an American court to 30 years in hard labor. He was serving his sentence in federal prison in Atlanta.

Soviet intelligence began the fight for the release of Abel immediately after his sentencing. Painstaking work was carried out for several years by a large group of KGB officers. The prisoner had a "cousin" Jurgen Drives, under whose name Yuri Drozdov worked as a KGB stationer in East Berlin, correspondence was established between Abel's family members and his US lawyer James Donovan through a lawyer in East Berlin, Wolfgang Vogel. At first, the business developed sluggishly. The Americans were very careful, they checked the addresses of a relative and a lawyer, clearly not completely trusting "cousin Drives" and Vogel.

Events began to develop faster after an international scandal on May 1, 1960. On this day, in the area of \u200b\u200bSverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft operated by pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down. The reconnaissance flight route of the aircraft ran from the Peshawar base (Pakistan) through the territory of Afghanistan, a significant part of the territory of the USSR (Aral Sea - Sverdlovsk - Kirov - Plesetsk) and was supposed to end at the Buda airbase in Norway. His goal was to photograph military facilities.

After crossing the USSR border, the reconnaissance aircraft tried several times to intercept Soviet fighters, but all attempts ended in failure, since the U-2 could fly at heights inaccessible to the fighters of that time: more than 21 kilometers. The plane was shot down near the village of Povarnya near Sverdlovsk by a missile of an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system (SAM), created at NPO Almaz (now the Head System Design Bureau of the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern). The S-75 air defense system was first used to suppress aviation operations.

The missile hit the tail of a U-2 aircraft at an altitude of over 20 kilometers. The destroyed plane began to fall. Powers was saved by the fact that by a miracle his cabin did not depressurize, he waited for a fall to the 10 kilometers mark and jumped out with a parachute. After landing, Powers was arrested and then sentenced to 10 years in prison.

At a press conference, in response to Soviet accusations that the United States was carrying out espionage by sending its planes over Soviet territory, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower advised the Russians to recall the Rudolf Abel case.

Abel's photographs and materials about him appeared in the press again. The New York Daily News, in its editorial, was the first to offer to trade Abel for Powers. Other American newspapers also took up this initiative. The Soviet intelligence also stepped up its actions. The Americans were well aware that the high-class professional intelligence officer Abel "was worth" much more than the simple, albeit experienced pilot Powers, and hoped to make a good deal. As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was reached to exchange Abel for three Americans. In addition to the pilot Powers, the Soviet side agreed to release the American Yale student Frederick Pryor, who was arrested for espionage in East Berlin in August 1961, and the young American Marvin McEnen of the University of Pennsylvania. He was imprisoned in Kiev, Ukraine, serving an 8-year sentence for espionage.

It was decided to exchange Abel and Powers on February 10, 1962 at the Glinicker-Brücke bridge. Exactly in the middle of the bridge, built over the channel between the two lakes, was the state border between the GDR and West Berlin. This steel dark green bridge was about a hundred meters long, the approaches to it were clearly visible, which made it possible to provide all precautions. In another part of Berlin, at checkpoint "Charlie", Frederick Prior was to be released.

On the morning of February 10, American vehicles approached the bridge from one side, one of which was Abel. On the other hand, the cars of the Soviet and East German representatives who brought Powers. They were accompanied by a covered van with a radio station. In it, just in case, a group of border guards from the GDR took refuge.

As soon as the radio signal that Pryor had been handed over to the Americans at the Charlie checkpoint, the main exchange operation began (Makinen was handed over a month later).

Officials from both sides met in the middle of the bridge and completed the previously agreed procedure. Abel and Powers were invited there as well. The officers confirmed that these are exactly the people they are waiting for.

After that, Abel was presented with a document of release, signed in Washington on January 31, 1962 by US President John F. Kennedy and Secretary of Justice Robert Kennedy.

Following this, Abel and Powers went each to their own side of the border.

Returning to Moscow, Fisher (Abel) was sent for treatment and rest, then continued to work in the central apparatus of foreign intelligence. He took part in the training of young illegal intelligence officers. Died in 1971 at the age of 68.

Returning to his homeland, Powers, and then flew on a television company helicopter. In August 1977, he was killed in the crash of a helicopter he piloted while returning from filming extinguishing wildfires in the vicinity of Los Angeles.

(Additional

The real name of the man who is considered the most prominent intelligence officer of the twentieth century is Fisher William Genrikhovich. He was born on July 11, 1903 in the English city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

A professional revolutionary, Russified German from the Yaroslavl province, Heinrich Fischer, by the will of fate, turned out to be a resident of Saratov. He married a Russian girl Lyuba. For revolutionary activities he was exiled abroad.

Heinrich Fischer was a staunch Marxist who personally knew Lenin, Krzhizhanovsky. Mother - Lyubov Vasilievna, a native of Saratov, was his ally in the fight. He could not go to Germany: there a case was opened against him, and the young family settled in England, in Shakespeare's places. On July 11, 1903, in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Lyuba had a son, who was named William in honor of the great playwright.

At the age of sixteen, William entered the university, but he did not have to study there for a long time: in 1920, the Fisher family returned to Russia and took Soviet citizenship. Seventeen-year-old William fell in love with Russia and became its passionate patriot. He did not get to the Civil War, but he went to the Red Army willingly. He acquired the specialty of a radiotelegraph operator, which was very useful to him in the future.

The guy, who spoke Russian and English equally well, and also knew German and French, who also owned a radio business and had an unblemished biography, could not fail to draw attention to the personnel officers of the OGPU. In 1927, he was enrolled in the state security organs, or rather, in the Foreign Department of the OGPU, which was then headed by Artuzov.

At first, he performs the duties of an interpreter, which is well known to him, and then a radio operator. Since his homeland was England, the leadership of the OGPU decided to send Fischer to the British Isles to work.

Beginning in 1930, he lived in England for several years as a resident of Soviet intelligence, periodically traveling to other countries of Western Europe. He acted as a radio operator of the residency, organized a secret radio network, transmitting radio messages to the center from other residents. On instructions that came from Stalin himself, he managed to persuade the famous physicist Pyotr Kapitsa, who at that time taught at Oxford, to return to the USSR from England. There is also some information that at this time Fischer was several times in China, where he met and made friends with his colleague from the foreign department of the OGPU, Rudolf Abel, under whose name he went down in history.

In May 1936, Fischer returned to Moscow and began training illegal immigrants. One of his students turned out to be Kitty Harris, a liaison for many of our distinguished intelligence officers, including Vasily Zarubin and Donald McLain. Her file, kept in the Foreign Intelligence archive, contains several documents written and signed by Fischer. It can be seen from them what kind of work it cost him to train students who were incapable of technology. Kitty was a polyglot, well versed in political and operational issues, but proved to be completely impervious to technology. Somehow making a mediocre radio operator out of her, Fischer was forced to write in the "Conclusion": "in technical matters she gets easily confused ..." When she ended up in England, he did not forget her, he helped with advice.

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

Here, for the first time, we meet the name by which William Fisher will become world famous many years later.

Who was “t. Abel R. I. "?

Here are the lines from his autobiography:

“I was born in 1900 on 23 / IX in Riga. Father is a chimney sweep, mother is a housewife. Until the age of fourteen he lived with his parents, graduated from grade 4. elementary school ... worked as a delivery boy. In 1915 he moved to Petrograd. "

The revolution soon began, and the young Latvian, like hundreds of his compatriots, sided with the Soviet regime. As a private fireman, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel fought on the Volga and Kama, went on an operation in the rear of the whites on the Zetivy destroyer. "In this operation, the barge of death with prisoners was recaptured from the whites."

Then there were battles at Tsaritsyn, a class of radio operators in Kronstadt and work as a radio operator on our most distant Commander Islands and on Bering Island. From July 1926 he was the commandant of the Shanghai consulate, then the radio operator of the Soviet embassy in Beijing. Since 1927 - an employee of the INO OGPU. Two years later, “in 1929 he was sent to work illegally outside the cordon. I was in this job until the autumn of 1936. " There are no details about this business trip in Abel's personal file. But let's pay attention to the time of return - 1936, that is, almost simultaneously with V. Fischer.

Since that time, judging by the above document, they have worked together. And the fact that they were inseparable is known from the memoirs of their colleagues, who, when they came to the dining room, joked: "Vaughn, Abeli \u200b\u200bhave come." They were friends and families. VG Fischer's daughter, Evelyn, recalled that Uncle Rudolph often came to see them, was always calm, cheerful, knew how to get along with children ...

R. I. Abel did not have his own children. His wife, Alexandra Antonovna, came from the nobility, which apparently interfered with his career. Even worse was the fact that his brother Voldemar Abel, the head of the political department of the shipping company, in 1937 turned out to be "a participant in the Latvian counter-revolutionary nationalist conspiracy and for espionage and sabotage activities in favor of Germany and Latvia, was sentenced to VMN." In connection with these R.I. Abel was dismissed from the ranks of the NKVD. But with the beginning of the war he returned to serve in the NKVD. As it is written in the personal file: "During the Patriotic War, I repeatedly went to carry out special assignments ... carried out special assignments for the preparation and transfer of our agents to the rear of the enemy." At the end of the war he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and two Orders of the Red Star. At the age of forty, he was dismissed from the state security organs with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel died suddenly in 1955, never knowing that his name went down in intelligence history.

William Genrikhovich Fisher was also not pampered by the pre-war fate. After Alexander Orlov, the curator of residents in Western Europe, fled to the United States at the beginning of 1938, taking the NKVD cash with him, William Fischer was recalled to the USSR because he was threatened with exposure. Having worked for a short time in the foreign intelligence apparatus in Moscow, on December 31, 1938, he was dismissed from the authorities without explanation and sent to retire. After his dismissal, Fischer got a job first at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, and six months later at an aircraft industrial plant, while constantly writing reports to the Central Committee with a request to reinstate him in intelligence.

When World War II began, William Fisher was remembered as a highly qualified specialist, and in September 1941 he was appointed head of the communications department in the central intelligence apparatus at Lubyanka. There is evidence that he was involved in providing for the parade on November 7, 1941 on Red Square in Moscow. Until the end of the war, Fischer was engaged in the technical training of radio operators of sabotage groups that were sent to the German rear, including the countries occupied by Hitler. He taught radio business at the Kuibyshev intelligence school, participated in radio games with German radio operators, including "Monastery" and "Berezino".

In the last of them, Fischer was able to fool such a German master of sabotage as Otto Skorzeny, who sent his best people to help the nonexistent German underground on the territory of the USSR, where the Soviet special services were already waiting for them. Until the end of the war, the Germans never found out that they were being deftly led by the nose. For his activities during the Patriotic War, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

It is possible that Fischer personally carried out a mission in the rear of the Germans. The famous Soviet intelligence officer Konon Molody (aka Lonsdale, aka Ben) recalled that, being abandoned behind the front line, he was almost immediately caught and taken for interrogation by the German counterintelligence. In the officer who interrogated him, he recognized William Fisher. He superficially interrogated him, and when left alone, he called him "an idiot" and almost pushed him out of the door with his boots. Was it a fiction or a fiction? Knowing Molodoy's habit of hoaxes, one can rather assume the latter. But something may have happened.

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

In early 1948, freelance artist and photographer Emil R. Goldfuss, aka William Fisher, and illegal "Mark", settled in the New York borough of Brooklyn. His studio was at 252 Fulton Street. He drew at a professional level, although he had not studied it anywhere.

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

Fischer's subordinates acted independently of the Soviet residency with legal cover - diplomats, consular staff. Fischer had a separate radio communication system for communication with Moscow. As liaison agents, he had the later famous married couple "Louis" and "Leslie" - Maurice and Leontine Coen (Krogers).

They later recalled that it was easy to work with Mark - Rudolf Ivanovich Abel: “After several meetings with him, we immediately felt how we were gradually becoming more efficiently competent and experienced "Intelligence," Abel liked to repeat, "is a high art ... This is talent, creativity, inspiration ..." This is exactly how - an incredibly rich spiritually person, with a high culture, knowledge of six foreign languages, and was our dear Milt - that is how we called him behind his back. Consciously or unconsciously, we completely trusted him and always looked for support in him. It could not be otherwise: as a highly educated, intelligent person with a highly developed sense of honor and dignity, decency and obligation, it was impossible not to love him. He never hid his high patriotic feelings and devotion towards Russia ".

Fischer managed to create a Soviet spy network not only in the United States, but also in Latin America - Mexico, Brazil, Argentina. In 1949, for obtaining important data concerning the American atomic experiment "Manhattan", William Fisher was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. He obtained information about the establishment in the United States of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, with a detailed list of tasks assigned to them.

Unfortunately, there is no access to materials about what William Fisher was doing and what information was transmitted to his homeland during this period. It remains to be hoped that someday they will be declassified.

In 1955, Fischer returned to the Soviet Union for several months when his close friend Rudolf Abel died.

William Fischer's intelligence career came to an end when his signalman and radio operator Reino Heihanen betrayed him. Upon learning that Reino was mired in drunkenness, debauchery, the intelligence leadership decided to recall him, but did not have time. He went into debt and became a traitor.

On the night of June 24-25, 1957, Fisher, under the name of Martin Collins, stayed at the Latham Hotel in New York, where he held another communication session. At dawn, three men in civilian clothes broke into the room. One of them stated: “ Colonel! We know that you are a colonel and what you are doing in our country. Let's get acquainted. We're FBI agents. We hold reliable information about who you are and what you do. The best way out for you is cooperation. Otherwise arrest».

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

Fischer immediately guessed that Heihanen had betrayed him. But he did not know his real name. So, you can not name it. True, it was useless to deny that he came from the USSR. William decided to be named after his late friend Abel, believing that as soon as information about his arrest becomes known, the house will understand who it is about. He feared that the Americans might start a radio game. Taking the name known to the Center, he made it clear to the service that he was in prison. He told the Americans: "I will testify on condition that you give permission to write to the Soviet embassy." They agreed, and the letter actually arrived at the consular department. But the consul did not understand the point. He opened a "case", filed a letter, and replied to the Americans that such a fellow citizen did not appear with us. And I did not even think to inform the Center. So our people learned about the arrest of "Mark" only from the newspapers.

In October 1957, an open trial against Fischer-Abel began in federal court in New York, in which he was accused of espionage, his name became known not only in the United States, but throughout the world. He categorically refused to admit guilt on all charges, refused to testify in court and rejected all offers of the American side for cooperation.

The American publicist I. Esten wrote about Abel's behavior in court in his book How the American Secret Service works: For three weeks they tried to convert Abel, promising him all the blessings of life ... When this failed, they began to frighten him with an electric chair ... But this did not make the Russian more malleable. When the judge asked if he pleaded guilty, he did not hesitate to answer: “No!” Abel refused to testify».

To this we must add that both promises and threats to Abel were received not only during, but also before and after the trial. And all with the same result.

Abel's attorney James Britt Donovan, a knowledgeable and conscientious man, did much both to protect him and to exchange. On October 24, 1957, he delivered an excellent defense speech, which greatly influenced the decision of the "ladies and gentlemen of the jury." Here are just a few excerpts from it:

« ... Let's assume that this person is exactly what the government thinks he is. This means that in serving the interests of his country, he was performing an extremely dangerous task. In the armed forces of our country, we send only the bravest and smartest people on such assignments. You have heard how every American familiar with Abel, involuntarily gave a high assessment of the moral qualities of the defendant, although he was summoned for a different purpose ...

... Heihanen is a renegade from any point of view ... You saw what he is: a worthless type, traitor, liar, thief ... The laziest, most inept, most unlucky agent ... Sergeant Rhodes appeared. You all saw what kind of person he was: a licentious, drunkard, a traitor to his country. He never met Heihanen ... He never met the defendant. At the same time, he told us in detail about his life in Moscow, that he was selling all of us for money. And what does this have to do with the defendant? ..

And on the basis of this kind of testimony, we are offered to issue a conviction against this person. Perhaps send to death row ... I ask you to keep this in mind when you consider your verdict ...»

In November 1957, Fischer was sentenced to 32 years in prison, serving his sentence in solitary confinement in Atlanta.

Allen Dulles

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

The struggle to free Abel began. Painstaking work went on for several years. Events began to unfold at an accelerated pace only after May 1, 1960, when an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the Sverdlovsk region and its pilot, Francis Harry Powers, was captured.

Shot from the film "Dead season"

On February 10, 1962, an exchange procedure took place on the Glinik Bridge, between East and West Berlin. Since the Americans had a good idea of \u200b\u200bthe level of Agent Fisher, in addition to Harry Powers, the Soviet side had to transfer also Frederick Prier and Marvin McEnen, students convicted in the USSR for espionage.

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

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

The last years of his life, William Genrikhovich Fischer, aka Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, aka "Mark", worked in foreign intelligence. He once acted in a movie with the opening remarks to the film Dead Season. He traveled to East Germany, Romania, Hungary. He often spoke to young workers, trained and instructed them.

He acted as a consultant in the creation of a Soviet film about intelligence officers "Dead Season", where the facts of his own biography were filmed.

He died on November 15, 1971. He was buried under his own name at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow. In 2015, in Samara, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where he lived during the war.

The whole country started talking about Rudolf Ivanovich Abel in 1969 after the release of the feature film "Dead Season" on the screens of the Soviet Union.

In 2015, in Samara, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where he lived during the war.

In the same year, the movie "Spy Bridge" directed by Steven Spielberg was released in Hollywood, which tells the story of William Fisher's life from the moment of his arrest to the exchange.

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In preparing the article, materials were used.

Rudolf Ivanovich then really risked his life, while from a professional point of view he behaved impeccably. Dulles' words that he would like to have three or four people like this Russian in Moscow do not require comment.

The former deputy chief of the First Main Directorate (intelligence) of the KGB of the USSR, consultant to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Lieutenant General Vadim KIRPICHENKO, tells about Rudolf Abel.

- Vadim Alekseevich, were you personally acquainted with Abel?

The word "familiar" is the most accurate. No more. We met in the corridors, greeted, exchanged handshakes. Take into account the difference in age, and we worked in different directions. I knew, of course, that this was "the same Abel". I think, in turn, Rudolf Ivanovich knew who I was, he could know the position (at that time - the head of the African department). But, in general, everyone has their own plot, we did not intersect in professional matters. This was in the mid-sixties. And then I went on a business trip abroad.

Later, when Rudolf Ivanovich was no longer alive, I was unexpectedly recalled to Moscow and appointed head of illegal intelligence. Then I got access to the questions led by Abel. And he appreciated Abel the scout and Abel the man.

"We still do not know everything about him ..."

In the professional biography of Abel, I would single out three episodes when he rendered invaluable services to the country.

The first - the war years: participation in the "Berezino" operation. Then the Soviet intelligence created a fictitious German grouping of Colonel Schorhorn, supposedly operating in our rear. It was a trap for German scouts and saboteurs. To help Shoerhorn Skorzeny dropped more than twenty agents, all were captured. The operation was based on a radio game, for which Fischer (Abel) was responsible. He conducted it masterly, the command of the Wehrmacht until the very end of the war did not understand that they were being led by the nose; The last radiogram from Hitler's headquarters to Schorhorn is dated May 45, sounds something like this: we can no longer help you, we trust in the will of God. But here's what is important: the slightest mistake of Rudolf Ivanovich - and the operation would be thwarted. Further, these saboteurs could be anywhere. Do you understand how this is a danger? How many troubles for the country, how many of our soldiers would have paid with their lives!

Next - Abel's participation in the hunt for American atomic secrets. Perhaps our scientists would have created a bomb without the help of scouts. But scientific research is a waste of effort, time, money ... Thanks to people like Abel, we managed to avoid dead-end research, the desired result was obtained in the shortest possible time, we simply saved a lot of money for the ruined country.

And of course - the whole saga with the arrest of Abel in the USA, trial, imprisonment. Rudolf Ivanovich then really risked his life, while from a professional point of view he behaved impeccably. Dulles' words that he would like to have three or four people like this Russian in Moscow do not require comment.

Of course, I name the most famous episodes of Abel's work. The paradox is that many others, very interesting, remain in the shadows now.

- Are they classified?

Not necessary. The secrecy label has already been removed from many cases. But there are stories that, against the background of already known information, look routine, discreet (and journalists, of course, are looking for what is more interesting). Something is already simply difficult to recover. The chronicler didn't follow Abel! Today, documentary evidence of his work is scattered across many archival folders. To bring them together, to reconstruct events is painstaking, long work, who will get their hands on? The only pity is that when there are no facts, legends appear ...

- For example?

He did not wear a Wehrmacht uniform, did not take out Kapitsa

For example, I had to read that during the war Abel worked in the deep German rear. In fact, during the first stage of the war, William Fisher was busy training radio operators for reconnaissance groups. Then he participated in radio games. He was then on the staff of the Fourth (reconnaissance and sabotage) directorate, the archives of which need to be studied separately. The maximum that was - one or two drops in partisan detachments.

- In the documentary book by Valery Agranovsky "Profession: Foreigner", written based on the stories of another famous intelligence officer, Konon Molodoy, such a story is described. The young soldier of Molodoy's reconnaissance group is thrown into the German rear, soon he is seized, brought to the village, there is a colonel in the hut. He looks with disgust at the obviously "left" Ausweiss, listens to confused explanations, then takes the arrested person out onto the porch, kicks him in the ass, throws the Ausweis into the snow ... Many years later, the Young meets this Colonel in New York: Rudolf Ivanovich Abel.

It is not confirmed by documents.

- But Young ...

Konon could be identified. He could have told something, but the journalist misunderstood him. There could be a deliberately launched beautiful legend. In any case, Fischer did not wear a Wehrmacht uniform. Only during Operation Berezino, when German agents were parachuted into the Schorkhorn camp and Fischer met them.

- Another story is from the book "The Hunter Upside Down" by Kirill Khenkin. Willie Fisher, during a business trip to England (thirties), was introduced to Kapitsa's laboratory in Cambridge and contributed to Kapitsa's departure to the USSR ...

Fischer was working in England at that time, but he did not get involved in Kapitsa.

- Henkin was friends with Abel ...

He is confusing. Or thinks up. Abel was an amazingly bright and versatile person. When you see such a person, when you know that you are a scout, but you don't really know what you were doing, myth-making begins.

"I would rather die than betray the secrets I know."

He drew excellently, on a professional level. In America he had patents for inventions. He played several instruments. In his spare time he solved the most difficult mathematical problems. Understood in higher physics. He could literally assemble a radio receiver out of nothing. Carpenter, locksmith, carpentry ... A fantastically gifted person.

- And at the same time he served in a department that does not like publicity. Didn't regret it? It could take place as an artist, as a scientist. And as a result ... Became famous for failing.

Abel did not fail. His traitor, Reino Heihanen, failed. No, I do not think that Rudolf Ivanovich regretted joining the intelligence service. Yes, he was not famous as an artist or scientist. But, in my opinion, the work of a scout is much more interesting. The same creativity, plus adrenaline, plus tension of the mind ... This is a special state that is very difficult to explain in words.

- Courage?

If you want to. In the end, Abel volunteered for his main business trip to the United States. I saw the text of a report with a request to send them to illegal work in America. It ends like this: I would rather accept death than give out the secrets I know, I am ready to fulfill my duty to the end.

- What year is it?

- To clarify, this is why: in many books about Abel it is said that at the end of his life he was disappointed in his former ideals, was skeptical of what he saw in the Soviet Union.

I do not know. We weren't close enough to take the liberty of judging his mood. Our work does not dispose to special frankness, at home you cannot say too much to your wife: you proceed from the fact that the apartment can be bugged - not because they do not trust, but simply as a preventive measure. But I would not exaggerate ... After returning from the United States, Abel organized performances at factories, institutes, even collective farms. There was no mockery of the Soviet regime there.

There is one more thing to keep in mind. William Fisher's life was not easy, I would like to be disappointed - there were enough reasons. Do not forget that in 1938 he was fired from the authorities and suffered this very painfully. Many friends were imprisoned or shot. He worked abroad for so many years - what prevented him from crossing over, starting a double game? But Abel is Abel. I think he sincerely believed in the victory of socialism (even if not very soon). Do not forget - he comes from a family of revolutionaries, people close to Lenin. The belief in communism was absorbed with mother's milk. Of course, an intelligent person, he noticed everything.

I remember the conversation - either Abel spoke, or someone in his presence, and Abel agreed. It was about overfulfillment of plans. The plan cannot be overfulfilled because the plan is the plan. If it is overfulfilled, it means that either it was calculated incorrectly, or the mechanism is out of balance. But this is not a disappointment in ideals, rather a constructive, cautious criticism.

- An intelligent, strong person in Soviet times constantly travels abroad. He could not help but see that they live better there ...

In life, there is no only black or only white. Socialism is free medicine, an opportunity to educate children, and cheap housing. Precisely because Abel was abroad, he knew the value of such things too. Although, I do not exclude, a lot could annoy him. One of my colleagues nearly became anti-Soviet when he visited Czechoslovakia. He was trying on shoes in the store, and suddenly the then Czechoslovak president (I think, Zapotocki) sat down next to him with boots. “You see,” said a friend, “the head of state goes to the store as calmly as everyone else and tries on his shoes. Everyone knows him, but no one fusses, the usual friendly service. Can you imagine such a thing here?” I think that Abel had similar thoughts.

- How did Abel live here?

As everyone. My wife also worked in intelligence. Once she comes in shocked: "The sausages were thrown out in the buffet, do you know who stood in line in front of me? Abel!" - "So what?" - “Nothing. He took his half a kilo (they don’t give more in one hand), went happy.” The standard of living is the normal average Soviet. Apartment, a modest summer residence. I don’t remember about the car. Of course, the intelligence colonel did not live in poverty, a decent salary, then a pension - but he did not live in luxury either. Another thing is that he did not need much. Well fed, dressed, shod, a roof over your head, books ... Such a generation.

Without a Hero

- Why was Abel not given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union?

Then the scouts - especially the living ones who were in the ranks - were not given a Hero at all. Even people who obtained American atomic secrets received Gold Stars only at the end of their lives. Moreover, the Heroes of Russia, they were already awarded by the new government. Why didn't they? They were afraid of information leakage. The hero is additional instances, additional papers. Can attract attention - who, for what? Extra people will find out. And simply - a man walked without a Star, then he was gone for a long time, appears with the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. There are neighbors, acquaintances, the question is inevitable - why? There is no war!

- Abel tried to write a memoir?

Once he wrote his memoirs about his arrest, stay in prison, exchange for Powers. Something else? I doubt it. Too much would have to be discovered, and Rudolf Ivanovich is ingrained in professional discipline, which can be talked about and about which not.

- But incredibly much has been written about him - both in the West, in our country, during Abel's life, and now. Which books to believe?

I am editing Essays on Foreign Intelligence - Rudolf Ivanovich's professional activities are reflected there most accurately. What about personal qualities? Read "Strangers on the Bridge" by his US attorney Donovan.

- I disagree. For Donovan, Abel is an iron Russian colonel. But Evelina Vilyamovna Fisher, daughter, recalls how her father argued with her mother about the beds in the country, was nervous if they were shifting papers in his office, whistled enough, solving mathematical equations. Kirill Khenkin writes about Willie's soul mate, who ideologically served the Soviet country, and at the end of his life thought about the degeneration of the system, was interested in dissident literature ...

So all the same, we are alone with our enemies, with our family - others, at different times - different. A person must be judged by specific deeds. In Abel's case, making allowances for time and profession. But such as he, any country will be proud at all times.

Rudolph Abel. Homecoming. Excerpt

"... The road went downhill, in front of us were visible water and a large iron bridge. Not far from the barrier, the car stopped. At the entrance to the bridge, a large board announced in English, German and Russian:" You are leaving the American zone. "

Have arrived!

We stood for a few minutes. One of the Americans came out, walked over to the barrier and exchanged a few words with a man standing there. A few more minutes of waiting. We were given the signal to get closer. We got out of the car, and then it turned out that instead of two small bags with my things, they had taken only one - with shaving accessories. The second, with letters and court cases, remained with the Americans. I protested. They promised to give them to me. I received them a month later!

With unhurried steps we passed the barrier and along the easy rise of the bridge approached the middle. Several people were already standing there. I recognized Wilkinson and Donovan. There were also several people on the other side. One thing I learned was an old workmate. Between the two men stood a tall young man, Powers.

The representative of the USSR spoke loudly in Russian and English:

Wilkinson took out a document from his briefcase, signed it and handed it to me. I read it quickly - it testified to my release and was signed by President John F. Kennedy! I shook hands with Wilkinson, said goodbye to Donovan, and went to my companions. I crossed the white line of the border of the two zones, and my comrades hugged me. Together we walked to the Soviet end of the bridge, got into our cars, and after a while drove up to a small house where my wife and daughter were waiting for me.

The fourteen-year business trip is over! "

reference

Abel Rudolf Ivanovich (real name - Fisher William Genrikhovich). Born in 1903 in Newcastle-on-Tyne (England) into a family of Russian political emigrants. Father - from a family of Russified Germans, a revolutionary worker. The mother also participated in the revolutionary movement. For this, the Fischer couple were exiled abroad in 1901 and settled in England.

At the age of 16, Willie successfully passed the exam at the University of London. In 1920 the family returned to Moscow, Willie worked as a translator in the Comintern apparatus. In 1924 he entered the Indian department of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow, but after the first year he was drafted into the army, enlisted in a radiotelegraph regiment. After demobilization, he went to work at the Research Institute of the Red Army Air Force, in 1927 he was admitted to the INO OGPU as an assistant commissioner. He performed secret missions in European countries. Upon returning to Moscow, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant of state security, which corresponded to the military rank of major. At the end of 1938 he was dismissed from intelligence without giving any reason. He worked at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, at a factory. Repeatedly applied with reports on his reinstatement in intelligence.

In September 1941, he was enlisted in a unit that was organizing sabotage groups and partisan detachments in the rear of the fascist occupiers. During this period, he became especially close friends with his workmate Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, whose name he would later be called upon arrest. At the end of the war, he returned to work in the illegal intelligence department. In November 1948, it was decided to send him to illegal work in the United States to obtain information about American nuclear facilities. The pseudonym is Mark. In 1949, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his successful work.

To relieve Mark from current affairs, in 1952 the radio operator of illegal intelligence Heihanen (pseudonym - Vik) was sent to help him. Vic turned out to be morally and psychologically unstable, drank, and quickly sank. Four years later, it was decided to return him to Moscow. However, Vic informed the American authorities about his work in the Soviet illegal intelligence service and betrayed Mark.

In 1957, Mark was arrested by FBI agents. In those days, the leadership of the USSR declared that our country "was not engaged in espionage." In order to let Moscow know about his arrest and that he is not a traitor, Fischer, when arrested, named himself after his late friend Abel. During the investigation, he categorically denied that he belonged to the intelligence service, refused to testify at the trial and rejected attempts by the American special services to persuade him to cooperate. Sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was serving his sentence in federal prison in Atlanta. In the cell he was engaged in solving mathematical problems, the theory of art, painting. On February 10, 1962, he was exchanged for an American pilot, Francis Powers, who was convicted by a Soviet court for espionage.

After rest and treatment, Colonel Fischer (Abel) worked in the central intelligence apparatus. He took part in the training of young illegal intelligence officers. He died of cancer in 1971. He was buried at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the 1st degree of the Patriotic War, the Red Star and many medals.

The Abel family and the Fischer family in China.

The name of the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolph 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 Rudolf 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 was sent to Shanghai, to one of the largest centers of Russian emigration, where he was 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 embassy 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 over 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, 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 Rudolph Abel, the FBI arrests a Soviet spy in the USA ... Rudolph 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 named himself after Rudolf Abel on purpose - signaling to the Lubyanka about his failure and silence. In Moscow, they learned about the arrest of the intelligence officer from information in the American press, 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 Rudolf Abel - with the exception of the "English period", where he managed to graduate with honors from school and even enter the University of London. In Moscow, he was hired as a translator 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 friends in Moscow with families, was short, thin, unsportsmanlike, in English restrained and reserved. He was fond of astronomy, drew beautifully, played the guitar. It was not James Bond or even Stirlitz. It was 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 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, ”said his daughter Evelina.
Only many years later on the monument next to the surname Abel, albeit in brackets, they added - "William Genrikhovich Fisher".