The bolt was about two inches long and one-fourth inch in diameter. However, Hyhnen performed his duties poorly, and when he was recalled to the Soviet Union in 1957, he instead fled to the U.S. Embassy in Paris and revealed his secrets. To exchange messages and intelligence data, they used dead dropsinconspicuous hiding placesin the New York area. Still using Kayotis' passport, he went to Montreal and crossed into the United States on 17 November. [25], After rejoining the KGB in 1946, Fisher was trained as a spy for entry into the United States. In the mid-1920s, Eugene Makis parents became deeply impressed by glowing reports of conditions in the new Russia. [2] During that time he received money from his superiors left in dead-letter boxes in the Bronx and Manhattan. He dropped this coin to the floor. However the report never arrived. On February 10, 1962, American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States five years earlier. However, private treatment by the agency he had served for decades was not as warm. Abel, in the Old Testament, second son of Adam and Eve, who was slain by his older brother, Cain (Genesis 4:1-16). [2][4] On 15 November 1957, Judge Mortimer W. Byers imposed on Fisher a total sentence of thirty years and fines of $3,000. [7] Revolutionaries of the Tsarist era, his father was of German origins and his mother was of Russian descent. NUMBER 1, 3RD OF DECEMBER.. [2][39][40] Over time his artistic technique improved and he became a competent painter, though he disliked abstract painting, preferring more conventional styles. Donovan successfully argued against the death penalty for "Colonel Abel" by suggesting he could be used for a future prisoner exchange with the Soviet Union. Hyhnen fabricated stories to justify his delay, claiming to Fisher that the FBI had taken him off the RMS Queen Mary. His helper, deployed to the USA began to demonstrate signs of instability and nervousness. spies," is based on the story of rudolf abel, arrested in new york city, convicted, and exchanged for u.s. biplane pilot. The bolt was found on May 15, 1957. During his career as a soviet spy, Mark also had used many other nabel in addition to the ones cited above. Hayhanen obtained the impression that Mikhail was a Soviet diplomatic officialpossibly attached to the embassy or the United Nations. Inside was a tiny photographapparently a picture of a series of numbers. TRANSMIT INSERTIONS SEPARATELY.5. The detective, in turn, gave the coin to the FBI. Four days later, instead of continuing his journey to the Soviet Union he entered the American embassy in Paris, announcing that he was a KGB officer and asking for asylum. During World War II, he again trained radio operators for clandestine work behind German lines. Fisher was born and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North of England in the United Kingdom to Russian migr parents. [65], Fisher served just over four years of his sentence. In April 1957 (the same month Hayhanen boarded a ship for Europe under instructions to return to Moscow), Goldfus had told a few persons in the Fulton Street building that he was going South on a seven-week vacation. Goldfus disappeared about April 26, 1957. Soviet agent Rudolf Ivanovich Abel sent and received coded messages that were hidden inside such things as hollow U.S. coins, bolts, and batteries. He also rented a fifth-floor studio at the Ovington Studios Building on Fulton Street. Thats Mark.. [41] Fisher sometimes related made-up stories of previous lives, as a Boston accountant and a lumberjack in the Pacific Northwest. There he found a hollowed-out nickel. He died in 1971. A search of his Brooklyn studio uncovered a hollow pencil used for concealing messages, a code book, radio transmitting equipment and phony identifications. Astrological Sign: Cancer, Death Year: 1971, Death date: November 15, 1971, Death City: Moscow, Death Country: Russia, Article Title: Rudolf Abel Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime/rudolf-abel, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: May 18, 2021, Original Published Date: October 14, 2015. He later served in an instructional role before taking part in intelligence operations against the Germans during World War II. However, the Soviets retained his passport, which Fisher eventually used. His real identity and country of birth were only revealed after his death. The unidentified Soviet agent was an accomplished photographer, and Hayhanen recalled that on one occasion in 1955, Mark took him to a storage room where he kept photo supplies on the fourth or fifth floor of a building located near Clark and Fulton Streets in Brooklyn. [46], Upon his arrival in the United States, Hyhnen was interrogated by the FBI and proved very cooperative. While his KGB training continued, Hayhanen worked as a mechanic in the City of Valga, Estonia. [27] The only visitors to Fisher's studio were artist friends with whom he felt safe from suspicion. this is just under two hours. After the war, he began working for the KGB, which sent him to the United States where he worked as part of a spy ring based in New York City. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel ( Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 - 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. Two separate coins obviously had been used in making this trick 50 Markka piece. [21] During his interview with the OGPU, it was determined he should adopt a Russian-sounding name and William August Fisher became Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher. Abel returned to Moscow, where the KGB pushed him into retirement, fearing that he had been persuaded to become a double agent during his five years in captivity by American authorities. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), The Spy Who Kept the Cold War From Boiling Over, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spies-swapped, Iconic child star Shirley Temple dies at 85, Laura Ingalls Wilder, chronicler of American frontier life, dies, World chess champion Garry Kasparov loses game to computer, Final episode of Arrested Development airs on Fox, Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress. [27] Fisher, as Kayotis, then travelled aboard the RMSScythia from Le Havre, France, to North America, disembarking at Quebec. Mark made another admissionthat he was a Russian citizen, Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, born July 2, 1902 in the Soviet Union. A few Western correspondents were invited there to view for themselves the true identity of the spy who never "broke". [37] Fisher was disturbed by Hyhnen's lack of work ethics and his obsession with alcohol. The hollow nickel found by the Brooklyn newspaper boy, The coded message contained in the hollow nickel. President John F. Kennedy commuted Abels sentence, and, on February 10, 1962, in a ceremony on a bridge between West Berlin and East Germany (Potsdam), Abel was exchanged for Powers and Frederic L. Pryor, an American student who had been held without charge in East Germany since August 1961. Donovan had read the newspaper accounts, which, he wrote, "described Abel in a sinister way as a 'master spy' heading all illegal Soviet espionage in the United States." [48] The Canadian Communist Party succeeded in obtaining a new passport for Fisher in the name of Robert Callan. Emil Goldfus was Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a brilliant Soviet spy who was fluent in at least five languages and an expert at the technical requirements of espionage. [2][37][38], Late in 1953, Fisher moved to Brooklyn and rented a room in a boarding house on Hicks Street. Best Known For: Soviet spy William Fisher, a.k.a. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. Hyhnen confirmed that it was "MARK" in the photograph. Thats Mikhail.. The painter in question is Rudolf Abel (brilliantly played by Mark Rylance with wry, mournful soul), first seen serenely composing a self-portrait in his Brooklyn apartment in 1957, at the height of Cold War dread and paranoia. The CIA turned Hayhanen over to the FBI to investigate the claims. Rudolf Abel was the most important Soviet agent the FBI ever got on the net. [23], Despite his foreign birth and the accusation that his brother-in-law was a Trotskyist, Fisher narrowly escaped the Great Purge. He described Mikhail as probably between 40 and 50 years old; medium build; long, thin nose; dark hair; and about five feet, nine inches tall. Less than three weeks later, acting on Hyhnen's information, surveillance was established near Fisher's photo studio. Forced into retirement in 1971, he died of lung cancer on November 15 of that year. Something went wrong. The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release, The Siege at Waco, In the Words of Who Was There, Ted Bundy Maybe Murdered Dozens More than We Knew, How Waco Inspired Timothy McVeighs OKC Bombing. A lady answered the door. The agents long hours of patience were rewarded on the night of June 13, 1957. His codename was "MARK". [63] In Abel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction by a vote of 54. On the evening of Monday, June 22, 1953, a delivery boy for the Brooklyn Eagle knocked on the door of one of his customers in the apartment building at 3403 Foster Avenue in Brooklyn. Donovan traveled to the Soviet embassy in East Berlin to negotiate the exchange, and on February 10, 1962, the two prisoners crossed paths as they were released on the Glienicke Bridge between East and West Germany. He appeared before Judge Mortimer W. Byers on November 15, 1957 and was sentenced as follows (the three sentences to be served concurrently): Colonel Abel appealed his convictions, claiming that rights guaranteed to him under the Constitution and laws of the United States had been violated. [43] In January 1957, Hyhnen received a message from Moscow promoting him to Lieutenant Colonel and granting him leave in the Soviet Union. In Moscow, however, plans were being made for a new Eugene Maki, one thoroughly grounded in Soviet intelligence techniques, to enter the scene. Rudolf Abel, was convicted of espionage in the United States in 1957 and later exchanged for imprisoned American Francis Gary Powers. However, on 21 October 1952, as instructed by Moscow, Reino Hyhnen left a thumbtack on a signpost in New York's Central Park. Investigation in Detroit disclosed that several persons there considered Kayotis to be in poor physical condition at the time of his departure from the United States. This spy, Reino Hayhanen, stated that he had just been ordered to return to Moscow. His ashes were interred at the Donskoye Cemetery under his real name; next to Konon Molody, who had died the previous year. By a five-to-four decision which was handed down on March 28, 1960, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of this Russian spy. From the fall of 1952 until early in 1954, he said, Mikhail served as his espionage superior in New York. In 1948, Fisher slipped into the United States illegally by way of Canada. After he collected for the newspaper, Jimmy left the apartment house jingling several coins in his left hand. FBI mugshot of William August Fisher, a.k.a. Early in May 1957, he telephoned the United States Embassy in Paris and subsequently arrived at the embassy to be interviewed. None could recall seeing a nickel or other coin quite like this one. The FBI first became aware of Abel's activities in 1953, when Abel's incompetent junior colleague Reino Hayhanen carelessly spent a hollow nickel that ended up in the hands of a paperboy. However, at the first session, the summit collapsed after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to apologize to Khrushchev for the U-2 incident. [37], After arriving in New York, Hyhnen spent the next two years establishing his identity. GREETINGS FROM THE COMRADES. The newsboy quickly counted the coins in his pocket. Letters that they wrote to their former neighbors showed that Mr. and Mrs. Maki were very unhappy and sorely missed America. Was Rudolf Abel actually a spy? [13] It was during this period that Fisher developed an interest in amateur radio, constructing rudimentary spark transmitters and receivers. Khrushchev also canceled an invitation for Eisenhower to visit the USSR. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. In one of the dead drops mentioned by Hayhanena hole in a set of cement steps in Prospect ParkFBI agents found a hollowed-out bolt. The message apparently was intended for Hayhanen and had been sent from the Soviet Union shortly after his arrival in the United States. On November 14, 1948, he disembarked from the ship at Quebecand quickly dropped out of sight. [37] For six months Hyhnen checked the thumbtack and no one had made contact. The drama of Fisher's trial and the subsequent negotiations that led to the prisoner exchange were revived with the release of the 2015 movie Bridge of Spies. In October 1948, using a Soviet passport, he travelled from Leningradsky Station to Warsaw. It fell apart! On July 3, 1951, Hayhanenthen living in Turku, Finlandvisited the United States Legation in Helsinki. Since he was posing as an artist and photographer, nobody questioned his irregular working hours and frequent disappearances. Following World War II, he rose to the rank of senior operative authorized representative of the Segozerski district section of the NKGB and, with headquarters in the Village of Padani, set about the task of identifying dissident elements among the local citizens. [6] In 1896, he was arrested for sedition and sentenced to three years internal exile. His parents Heinrich and Lyubov were Bolshevik supporters from Russia, and young Fisher helped his father by distributing "Hands Off Russia" literature during World War I. FOR ORGANIZATION OF COVER, WE GAVE INSTRUCTIONS TO TRANSMIT TO YOU THREE THOUSAND IN LOCAL (CURRENCY). After learning of Hayhanens defection, Abel fled to Florida, where he remained underground until June, when he felt it was safe to return to New York. [43] Fisher checked his drop points only to find messages several months old, while Hyhnen's radio transmissions had routinely been sent from the same location using incorrect radio frequencies. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Pablo Escobar. Its not suitable for a magic trick, one novelty salesman commented. With this data, the FBI Laboratory succeeded in breaking through the curtain of mystery which surrounded the coded message. Roughly halfway through his journey, he was shot down over Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains. As a member of a Soviet spy ring operating on American soil, Hyhnen came under the FBI's jurisdiction and they began verifying his story. During this period, FBI agents discreetly tied together the loose ends of the investigation, matters which had to be resolved before this Russian intelligence officer could be taken into custody. An official website of the United States government. The money Hyhnen received from the KGB to support the network was instead spent on alcohol and prostitutes. The exchange took place on the Glienicke Bridge that linked West Berlin with Potsdam, which became famous during the Cold War as the "Bridge of Spies". Despite his modest background, Hayhanen was an honor student and, in 1939, obtained the equivalent of a certificate to teach high school. From New York came a half dollar which had been ground in such a manner that smaller coins could be concealed under it. On May 16, leaders of the United States, the USSR, Britain, and France met in Paris for a long-awaited summit meeting. The two men were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which connects East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The surveillance continued on "MARK" and, on the night of 13 June, a light was seen to go on in Fisher's studio at 10:00 pm. Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957. [20] That year he married Elena Lebedeva, a harp student at Moscow Conservatoire. If you suspect that you are under surveillance, place a white thumb tack on the board.. [59] The Brooklyn Bar Association approached several prominent trial lawyers with political ambitions, all of whom declined the case. From July 1949 to October 1952, Hayhanen resided in Finland and established his identity as the American-born Eugene Maki. During this period, Fisher posed as a photographer and painter named Emil R. Goldfus and immersed himself in a Brooklyn artistic community. Hyhnen, Fisher's former assistant, testified against him at the trial. During his eight years as an illegal resident he appears not to have recruited, or even identified, a single potential agent. Sudoplatov later described this operation as "the most successful radio deception game of the war". In Warsaw, he discarded his Soviet passport and using a U.S. passport travelled via Czechoslovakia and Switzerland to Paris. Donovan had played an important role in the negotiations that led to the swap. Accordingly, passage was secured for Hayhanen on an airliner, and he was permitted to return to the United States. For the next seven months the hollow nickel travelled around the New York City economy, unopened. One year laterJuly 28, 1952a passport was issued to Hayhanen as Eugene Maki at Helsinki. Among the items he had been supplied by the Soviets were hollow pens, pencils, screws, batteries, and coinsin some instances magnetized so they would adhere to metal objects. Abel returned to Moscow, where he was forced into retirement by the KGB, who feared that during his five years of captivity U.S. authorities had convinced him to become a double agent. He died in 1971. discuss how the story is a trade in the film. [15][16] Though Fisher qualified for university, the costs prohibited him from attending. Is time wrong? He was released in 1962, however, in exchange for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957. IT IS TOO EARLY TO SEND YOU THE GAMMAS. In 1949, Hyhnen freely obtained Maki's birth certificate. Why? If thats `Mark, hell return, they correctly surmised. He admitted his first Soviet contact in New York had been "MIKHAIL" and upon being shown a series of photographs of Soviet officials identified "MIKHAIL" as Mikhail Svirin. Rudolf Abel was born William Fisher in England in 1903. READ MORE:The Spy Who Kept the Cold War From Boiling Over. An investigation which had started with a newsboys hollow nickel ultimately resulted in the smashing of a Soviet spy ring. Among the government witnesses to testify against him was his former trusted espionage assistant, Lieutenant Colonel Reino Hayhanen. In August, Powers pleaded guilty to espionage charges in Moscow and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonmentthree in prison and seven in a prison colony. It was collecting time again. Using this passport, he sailed October 16, 1952 from Southhampton, England aboard the Queen Mary and arrived at New York City on October 21, 1952. He eventually became fluent in several languages and developed a love for radio communications. Decided March 28, 1960. Fisher knew that the FBI's use of his rank could have only come from Hyhnen. The action remained secret until it was successfully completed. [43][45] Hyhnen arrived in Paris on May Day, having sailed from the U.S. aboard La Libert. Fisher was publicly feted a hero upon his return to the Soviet Union. Letters subsequently received from him indicated that he was in a Lithuanian hospital. The newsboy rested this coin, a nickel, on the middle finger of his hand. Count Two (Conspiracy to obtain defense information), 10 years imprisonment and $2,000 fine. Finally, Powers and Abel were waved forward and crossed the border into freedom at the same moment8:52 a.m., Berlin time. Svirin had been in and out of the United States on several occasions between 1939 and 1956. He was dismissed from the agency during the Great Purge of the late 1930s, but he returned to its service after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. He was, however, able to tell the FBI about Fisher's studio and its location. End of preview. In 1957, Reino Hayhanen, a lieutenant colonel in the KGB, walked into the American embassy in Paris and announced his intention to defect to the West. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, as head of a school that trained radio operators destined for duty in illegal residences. For example, during the fall of 1948, while en route to the United States from the Soviet Union, he had adopted the identity of Andrew Kayotis. With the end of this war in 1940, Hayhanen was assigned to check the loyalty and reliability of Soviet workers in Finland and to develop informants and sources of information in their midst. It had been hollowed out, and there was a small hole in the first a of the word Tasavalta which appeared on the tail side of this coin. [] R. I. Abel resolutely expressed his firm reluctance to associate his name with such a hero "(V. G. Pavlov, Operation Snow, Moscow: BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, FBI: Rudolph Ivanovich Abel (Hollow Nickel Case), "Mark Rylance wins Best Supporting Actor in the most high profile British win of Oscars 2016", "BAFTA Film Award Nominations and Winners 2016", A memorial plaque to the legendary Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher was put up in Samara, A True Story of the Cold War: Bridge of Spies, Universal News reporting Capture Of Soviet Spy Col. Rudolph Abel (1957), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rudolf_Abel&oldid=1150189193. In Washington, each effort to decipher the microphotograph met with failure. How did the Supreme Court rule in Rudolf Abel's Case? Its doctors orders, he explained. Sorry, Jimmy, she said. Genrich Fischer (or Fisher), Abels father and a friend of Lenins, emigrated to Britain around 1901, where he spent 20 years attempting to organize and indoctrinate his fellow factory workers before returning to Russia. William Ghenrihovici Fischer. On February 10, 1962, Rudolf Invanovich Abel was exchanged for the American U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers, who was a prisoner of the Soviet Union. Donovan is widely known for negotiating the 1960-1962 exchange of captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and for negotiating the 1962 release and return of 9,703 prisoners held by Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Rudolf Abel was arrested while undercover in the U.S. From time to time the man got up, walked around, and eventually left. In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. All Rights Reserved. In his studio, FBI investigators found a hollow pencil used for concealing messages, a shaving brush containing microfilm, a code book, and radio transmitting equipment. The proprietors of novelty stores and related business establishments in the New York vicinity were contacted. [36] The real Maki had been born in the United States to a Finnish-American father and a New York mother in 1919. One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the $5,000 embezzled by Hyhnen. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! economics. Upon its receipt in Washington on June 26, 1953, the nickel was subjected to the thorough scrutiny of a team of FBI scientific experts. According to the lieutenant general of the Foreign Intelligence V. G. Pavlov: The very first chapter of the novel, called The Shield and the Sword, aroused categorical objections from me and R. I. Abel. [27] Kayotis had applied for and received a visa to visit the Soviet Union. Was Rudolf Abel found guilty? He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by the FBI in 1957. And both coins had a small hole in one printed letter so that a sharp-pointed instrument, such as a needle, could be used to open them. [10] However, in 1938 he was dismissed from the NKVD, which the OGPU had been renamed to in 1934.