There were certain anomalies that took place that we just couldnt put our finger on., And Bearden says, I remain convinced there is a fourth man. He drove across the Potomac River to Washington, D.C. and entered Chadwicks, a popular Georgetown restaurant, where he handed the documents to a Soviet Embassy official named Sergei Chuvakhin. [7], Former KGB major-general Oleg Kalugin does not mention Penkovsky in his comprehensive memoir about his career in intelligence against the West. Terms of Use Ten agents were executed and countless others imprisoned. No child today is doing duck and cover drills or helping to build a fallout shelter. After a meeting in Paris in September 1961, Penkovskys next trips were mysteriously cancelled at the last minute. His father, an avowed communist, served in the NKVD, Joseph Stalin's secret police, a forerunner of the KGB. After they chatted for a while, the rezident said, By the way, Sergei, this cable came in and tossed it over. Here's what to know about Wynne's real history. The information he provided on the Soviets relatively weak capability in long-range missiles proved invaluable to the United States before and during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962. Five days after Bokhan received the cable about his son, he took his wife, Alla, and their 10-year-old daughter, Maria, to the beach. Had the Russians examined the car, they would have seen the hump on the floor where the driveshaft would normally be. Wynne was a middle-classBritish businessman whose frequenttravelto Eastern Europe attracted recruitmentby MI-6 to serve as a liaison to high-ranking Soviet official Penkovsky. Wynne left The Ivy restaurant in Seven Dials that day probably wondering what he'd let himself in for. For his treason, Penkovsky was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad days after the trial ended (though Wynne would later claim he died of suicide). During their visits, Penkovsky and Wynne would get out on the town, visiting restaurants, nightclubs and shops under the cover of talking business, with each man proudly showing the other around his home country. Penkovsky's father might have fled to the West rather than have died of typhus as Penkovsky had previously reported, the KGB prohibited Penkovsky from assuming his post in New Delhi but permitted him to remain in the GRU after his mother submitted a statement detailing her family's ignorance of her husband's fate.28 Soon after they arrived in the United States, there was a ceremony honoring his father at a Russian Orthodox church in Washington. We never drank too much, but we had to relax a little bit after one of our tiring meetings. This led to the publication of his dubious memoirs. Oleg Penkovskiy. This was prior to President Kennedy's address to the US revealing that U-2 spy plane photographs had confirmed intelligence reports that the Soviets were installing medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, in what was known as Operation Anadyr. Both he and the Soviet leader. Reiser was waiting in a car at the other end. Bokhans son, Alex, also made it to the U.S., in 1995. Brought up in the North Caucasus, Penkovsky graduated from the Kiev Artillery Academy with the rank of lieutenant in 1939. His trial began a few months later, and he was promptly sentenced to death for treason. For months, Andrei had been hoping his father would find him an apartment. The case of Oleg Penkovsky, a CIA and MI6 agent deep inside Soviet military intelligence, provided le Carr inspiration for The Russia House (1989). He did so, he said, to prove his bona fides as a potential KGB mole. They had a sumptuous lunchBokhan knew it might be his last meal with his familyand Maria bought a stuffed Greek doll called a patatuff. Benedict Cumberbatch:Battled mystery flu, fake crew cut facing Jodie Foster in 'The Mauritanian'. The Soviets had arranged for the apparent good news to reach his wife through a friend and former co-worker in Moscow, who wrote to her in Lagos. Wynnes fabrications range from small to huge. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. They were alone in the world with this incredible burden except for the other man.. Boy and daughter now Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky were captured by the Soviets in 1962. [4], Greville Wynne, a British salesman of industrial equipment to countries behind the Iron Curtain, was recruited by MI6 to communicate with Penkovksy. "He did make a life for himself, but Greville Wynne did pay a big price for his service. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. But over the course of their two-year friendship, Oleg Penkovsky and Greville Wynne clandestinely smuggled 5000 top-secret documents from Russia to England and the United States. He didnt have a choice. Today, Sergei and Alla live quietly in the Sun Belt under his new identity. It is possible that Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk fell under KGB suspicion through some operational error or communications intercept. Then after your service, when you havent even told your family or friends about this, youre told, thank you very much, indeed. Hanssen, who was convicted of espionage, is serving a life sentence in the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. This time it's a true story:Wynne served as an unassuming go-between for British intelligence MI-6 and Russian spyOleg Penkovsky atthe height of the Cold War. The defection of Gordievsky was one of the UK's greatest security coups, delivering a stream of high-grade information. He was arrested on October 22nd. Despite having no previous experience in intelligence work, Wynne was being recruited to serve as an MI6 agent. [17] A similar description was later included in Ernest Volkman's popular history book about spies, Tom Clancy's novel Red Rabbit and in Viktor Suvorov's book Aquarium. Wynne agreed, and during his visit to Moscow the following month he wound up connecting with Oleg Penkovsky, a lieutenant colonel in the GRU (the Soviet Unions foreign-intelligence agency) who was eager to leak high-level military information to Western powers. In 1949 Penkovsky transferred from the regular army to the Soviet army intelligence directorate (GRU). In April 1961, through Greville M. Wynne, a British businessman, he offered his services to British intelligence. In addition to Gordievsky, Bokhan and Poleshchuk, more than a dozen other sources were exposed. Wright was bitter towards British intelligence, reportedly believing that it should have adopted his proposed methods to identify British/Soviet double agents. Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky, (born April 23, 1919, Vladikavkaz, Russiadied May 1963?, U.S.S.R.), senior Soviet military intelligence officer who was convicted of spying for the United Kingdom and the United States. Donec gravida mi a condimentum rutrum. "Most experts agreethat what Penkovsky provided on the Soviet's capabilities was extremely useful during the Cuban Missile crisis," saysRobert English, director of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California. The mere belief that theres another mole, whether correct or not, can cause chaos inside an intelligence agency. The KGB took her to a sanitarium, where she was drugged and interrogated further. At first I couldnt even recognize him, Andrei said. Dunlap was just another source they had to protect. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "But you have a responsibility to honor the essence of what happened," says director Dominic Cooke. He works as a computer programmer. Corrections? Would she ever live in the West? They worked hard, shadowing British diplomats, to build up a "discovery case" against Penkovsky so that they could arrest him without throwing suspicion on their own moles. Thanks to his priceless information the Cuban crisis was not transformed into a last World War". what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and daughter, what happened to oleg penkovsky daughter, what happened to oleg penkovsky wife and child, what happened to oleg penkovsky family, what happened to oleg penkovsky . In 1997, Andrei and Svetlana emigrated to the United States. Relying once again on Varentsov's patronage, he spent nine months studying rocket artillery at Dzerzhinsky Military Academy. He was reputedly on friendly terms with Penkovsky,[21] which is very likely to have been a cause of his fall. In the morning, they took usmy mother, my grandmother and meand put us in separate black Volgas, Andrei said. Make way for his amateur,everyman spy Greville Wynne in "The Courier," now on premium VOD6. Before his father left Lagos, Andrei said, he gave a gold watch to his CIA case officer at the time. No, he was told, theyre here for you.. He was to stand on a certain Moscow street corner on a designated day and time until he saw a British-looking man who was eating something. After stops in Madrid and Frankfurt, a military jet flew him across the Atlantic. His character's execution was the opening scene for the movie. Updates? [20] The head of the GRU, Ivan Serov was sacked during the same period. The 23-year-old journalist had been working late for Novosti, the Soviet press agency. They flew to New York and, with help from the CIA and the FBI, were reunited with Sergei at a motel near John F. Kennedy International Airport. A few days after Oleg Gordievsky was recalled to Moscow, the KGB flew his wife, Leila, and their two daughters there, and he broke the unwelcome news that they would not be posted back to London. Then he kissed his wife and daughter goodbye. Her eyes were empty. In November 1960, Greville Wynne, a 41-year-old British businessman, sat down for a lunch that would change his life. Penkovsky was in fact arrested by the Soviets on Oct. 22, 1962, at the height of that crisis, after they realized that highly classified information was leaking to the West. OConnor makes clear that The Courier is not a documentary, even as he explains that he took pains to stick to the facts as much as they could be ascertaineddrawing on works such as Jerrold L. Shecter and Peter S. Deriabins The Spy Who Saved the World: How a Soviet Colonel Changed the Course of the Cold War and other accounts that could be trusted more than Wynnes own inventions. The film sees him arrested on a plane leaving. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oleg-Vladimirovich-Penkovsky, Public Broadcasting Service - Biography of Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Oleg Penkovsky. Penkovsky provided plans and descriptions of the nuclear rocket launch sites in Cuba to the West. He dropped it, sensing that he was getting into dangerous territory. [Wynne], bless him, for all his wonderful work, was a menace and a fabricator, says Nigel West, who has written numerous books on British and American intelligence organizations, including two books specifically about fabricators in the intelligence arena. As the deputy chief, Bokhan was privy to all GRU spy operations aimed at Greece, the United States and the other NATO countries. Advertising Notice The first meeting between Penkovsky and two American and two British intelligence officers occurred during a visit by Penkovsky to London in April 1961.