Rudolf Abel (1903–1971). Pseudonym of William Fisher, Soviet spy. Abel arrives in New York Federal Court for a hearing after being charged with espionage, 1957 It’s exciting to follow the plot of a spy movie, knowing that ours will surely win and evil will be punished. But what is it like to be a participant in such events in reality? Play in such a way that everyone believes, because there will be no double. Recognition and glory, by the way, too.
Scene one. Shakespearean passions
120 years ago, on July 7, 1903, in the English town of Newcastle-on-Tyne, a boy was born, who was named after Shakespeare – William.
The German grandparents of a newborn in the 19th century were discharged by Prince Kurakin to the Yaroslavl province in order to maintain the estate in exemplary order. One of their five sons, Heinrich Fischer, was imbued with revolutionary ideas, went to prison, into exile, and in 1901 was forced to leave Tsarist Russia abroad, otherwise hard labor. Heinrich left for England with his wife and colleague Lyubov Korneeva.
William Fisher was 15, he was going to enter the university, when his father announced: the family was moving to Soviet Russia.
Just a fact
Socialist parents considered whether to name the boy Karl – in honor of Marx.
Scene two. Fathers and Sons
I had to adjust to life in the new conditions. William graduated from VKhUTEMAS, learned radio engineering, married Elena Lebedeva, a harpist. And one day he showed up at the British embassy: restore, they say, a passport, there is no strength to endure the communist system, he quarreled with his father, I want to go back!
Bourgeois imbued, issued documents to William, his wife and two-year-old daughter Evelina. In 1931, the Fishers left Russia. In England, Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, William Fisher established radio communications. For Soviet illegal immigrants, of course. The quarrel with his father was legendary.
Tom Hanks as James Donovan, Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel and Billy Magnusson as Douglas Forrester in Bridge of Spies
Scene three. Labor reserves
In 1936, the Fishers returned to Moscow. William Genrikhovich works in the foreign intelligence documentation group. Two years later, intelligence officer Alexander Orlov, who for many years headed the residency in Great Britain, France, and Spain, fled to the West – he was frightened of Yezhov’s repressions. I didn’t hand over anyone, but the NKVD decided to overdo it: the agents were mothballed, illegal immigrants were recalled, operational officers were suspended from work. William Fisher was retired. He got a job as an engineer at an aircraft factory. The period when he lived under his own name, without looking back in search of a tail, he called the most calm in life. He confessed to his wife: he doesn’t even want to remember his previous work!
Scene four. The enemy will not pass
But there are no former scouts. Fischer was returned to service in 1941 at the request of Pavel Sudoplatov – he needed the best. William Genrikhovich was responsible for radio communications with the residency in the occupied territory. And he took part in the ingenious radio games started by Sudoplatov’s department. In particular, he portrayed a German officer in the operation “Berezino”: allegedly a Wehrmacht unit that survived the battles hid in the Belarusian forests and committed sabotage. They needed money, food, weapons, and the Germans willingly dropped all this from the plane at the indicated point. They fooled the enemy for 11 months. The last radiogram from the other side came on May 4, 1945: they say, we understand everything, but now you stay there yourself with God’s help.
Scene five. Report failed
As soon as they celebrated the Victory, they had to rake up the consequences of betrayal: at the end of 1945, several scoundrels gave the FBI residency in the United States. William Fisher was assigned to supervise the direction. In November 1948, the Lithuanian American Andris Kayutis disembarked from a ship that arrived from Germany to Canada. A couple of days later, the artist Emil Goldfuss settled in a small apartment in New York.
Nine successful years of work in America turned into an arrest. Handed over with giblets liaison – Reino Heihanen. The talent of a scout was surprisingly combined in him with gouging: he drank, squandered money in casinos and brothels, and lost important material evidence. The leadership was patient at first – the results of Heihanen’s work were outstanding. But he went berserk. He was told to return. He flew to Paris, and there he showed up at the American embassy.
When the FBI came for Fischer, he was indignant: what kind of intelligence is this?! I am a freelance artist. Later, in prison, I realized: there is enough evidence. I had to confess to the Americans: he is a colonel of Soviet intelligence … Rudolf Ivanovich Abel. I calculated: when the information reaches the Center, everyone will understand it. Because his best friend and colleague Rudolf Abel died two years before this event.
Scene six. Silence is gold
Even the lawyer and investigators admired the perseverance of the prisoner. No revelations and a firm refusal to cooperate with the FBI. Perhaps that is why he was not put in the electric chair, but sentenced to 30 years in prison. Fischer was in his 50s, so it’s like a life sentence. The lawyer found an argument: such a valuable comrade could be useful for bargaining with the Soviets. Like looking into the water. “Rudolf Abel” was exchanged five years later for Francis Powers, the pilot of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft shot down in 1960.
Returning to his homeland, “Colonel Abel” taught KGB intelligence officers, wrote plays and paintings. He died in 1971. But only in the 1990s did the SVR declassify some information. Then the country learned that the one who was considered Rudolf Abel was actually William Fisher. But in memory he remained under a false name.
By the way
Fischer liked to remember: during the war in the partisan detachment, their doctor was the famous runner Georgy Znamensky, who once opened a boil for him.
Portrait for the president
In an American prison, prisoner Abel taught fellow inmates French, solved mathematical problems, mastered silk-screen printing, and even presented drawings to the institution’s management for a more rational use of the building. He painted pictures – he did it well. There is a legend that he created a portrait of Kennedy hung in the oval office.
Photo source: Personastars.com, Granger/TASS
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2023-07-07 01:30:57
