USSR USSR Russia Russia
Morris G. Cohen (operational alias - Peter Kroger; July 2 ( 19100702 ) , New York - June 23, Moscow) - Soviet intelligence agent of American origin, Hero of the Russian Federation (title awarded posthumously in 1995).
Biography
A family
Excerpt Characterizing Cohen, Morris Henrikhovich
The horses were dismantled quickly in the semi-darkness, the girths were tightened and the commands were sorted out. Denisov stood at the guardhouse, giving the last orders. The party's infantry, plopping with a hundred feet, walked forward along the road and quickly disappeared between the trees in the predawn fog. Esaul ordered something to the Cossacks. Petya kept his horse on the bit, eagerly awaiting the order to sit down. Washed cold water, his face, especially his eyes, burned with fire, a chill ran down his spine, and something was trembling quickly and evenly throughout his whole body.- Well, are you all ready? - said Denisov. - Come on horses.
The horses were served. Denisov got angry with the Cossack because the girths were weak, and, having scolded him, sat down. Petya took hold of the stirrup. The horse, out of habit, wanted to bite him on the leg, but Petya, not feeling his own weight, quickly jumped into the saddle and, looking back at the hussars who had started behind in the darkness, drove up to Denisov.
- Vasily Fedorovich, will you entrust me with something? Please… for God's sake… ”he said. Denisov seemed to have forgotten about Petya's existence. He looked back at him.
“I’m talking about you alone,” he said sternly, “to obey me and not to meddle.
During the entire move Denisov did not speak a word more with Petya and drove in silence. When we arrived at the edge of the forest, it was already noticeably brightening in the field. Denisov talked something in a whisper with the esaul, and the Cossacks began to drive past Petya and Denisov. When they had all passed, Denisov touched his horse and rode downhill. Sitting on their backs and sliding, the horses descended with their riders into the hollow. Petya rode next to Denisov. The tremors in his entire body intensified. It became brighter and brighter, only the fog hid distant objects. Having rode down and looking back, Denisov nodded his head to the Cossack who stood beside him.
- Signal! He said.
The Cossack raised his hand, a shot rang out. And at the same instant there was the sound of pounding horses in front of them, shouts from different directions, and more shots.
At the same instant, as the first sounds of stomping and shouting were heard, Petya, hitting his horse and releasing the reins, without listening to Denisov shouting at him, galloped ahead. It seemed to Petya that all of a sudden, like the middle of the day, it was brilliantly dawning the minute the shot was heard. He galloped to the bridge. Cossacks galloped along the road ahead. On the bridge he ran into a straggler Cossack and rode on. Ahead, some people — they must have been the French — were running from the right side of the road to the left. One fell into the mud under the feet of Petya's horse.
Cossacks crowded around one hut, doing something. A terrible cry came from the middle of the crowd. Petya galloped up to this crowd, and the first thing he saw was the pale face of a Frenchman with a trembling lower jaw, holding on to the shaft of a pike pointed at him.
- Hurray! .. Guys ... ours ... - Petya shouted and, giving the reins to the heated horse, galloped forward along the street.
Shots were heard ahead. Cossacks, hussars and Russian ragged prisoners who fled from both sides of the road, all loudly and awkwardly shouted something. A dashing Frenchman, without a hat, with a red frowning face, in a blue greatcoat, fought off the hussars with a bayonet. When Petya jumped up, the Frenchman had already fallen. Again he was late, it flashed through Petya's head, and he galloped over to where he heard frequent shots. Shots rang out in the courtyard of the manor house where he had been with Dolokhov last night. The French sat there behind a fence in a dense garden overgrown with bushes and fired at the Cossacks crowded at the gate. Approaching the gate, Petya in the powder smoke saw Dolokhov with a pale, greenish face, shouting something to people. “Take a detour! Infantry wait! " - he shouted, while Petya drove up to him.
- Wait? .. Uraaaa! .. - Petya shouted and, without hesitating a single minute, galloped to the place where the shots were heard and where the powder smoke was thicker. A volley was heard, and empty bullets squealed into something. The Cossacks and Dolokhov jumped up after Petya into the gate of the house. The French, in the wavering thick smoke, some threw down their weapons and ran out of the bushes to meet the Cossacks, others ran downhill to the pond. Petya galloped on his horse along the courtyard and, instead of holding the reins, waved both hands strangely and quickly, and farther and farther knocked off the saddle to one side. The horse, having run up to the fire smoldering in the morning light, rested, and Petya fell heavily on the wet ground. The Cossacks saw how quickly his arms and legs twitched, despite the fact that his head did not move. The bullet pierced his head.
After talking with a senior French officer, who came out to him from behind the house with a handkerchief on a sword and announced that they were surrendering, Dolokhov dismounted and walked over to Pete, who was lying motionless, with outstretched arms.
- Ready, - he said, frowning, and went to the gate to meet Denisov, who was on his way to him.
- Killed ?! - Denisov cried out, seeing from afar that familiar to him, undoubtedly lifeless position in which Petya's body lay.
“Ready,” Dolokhov repeated, as if pronouncing the word gave him pleasure, and quickly went to the prisoners, who were surrounded by dismounted Cossacks. - We will not take! - he shouted to Denisov.
Morris and Leontine Cohen are the spy spouses who prevented World War III ...
Alina MAKSIMOVA, specially for "Crime"
Spouses Morris and Leontine Cohen were born in the United States, but considered themselves citizens all their lives. Soviet Russia... They did a lot to prevent the third world war, which America almost unleashed. With the atomic bomb, American politicians were confident of their superiority and rattled their weapons with might and main. Only after the Russians had the same weapon in the United States they handed it back. The Coen couple were among those who helped bring the atomic bomb to the USSR. Only after the collapse Soviet Union their names were declassified, and the spouses were awarded the title of Hero of Russia. Posthumously.
HOBBY LEFT IDEAS
Morris Cohen was born on July 2, 1910 in the East Side suburb of New York. His parents were from Russian Empire, and left for the United States, fleeing Jewish pogroms. Which at the beginning of the 20th century happened quite often in Ukraine, where the Elder Coens lived. But they did not hate their homeland and passed on their love for Russia to their son.
Morris showed at school nice results in rugby and managed to get an athletic scholarship at Columbia University. Almost immediately after graduation, he went to Spain, where the civil war broke out. In October 1937, during the Battle of Fuentes de Ebro, he was wounded in both legs and was hospitalized. Where attracted attention soviet intelligence officer Alexander Orlov, who recruited the young American. In Spain at that time there were several schools in which Soviet intelligence officers from various countries were trained in the basics of intelligence activities. There, after recovering, Morris received training.
Leontine's path to scout turned out to be more tortuous. She was born on January 11, 1913 in a family of immigrants from Poland. Lona's growing up, as her friends and relatives called her, fell on a period of economic crisis, called the Great Depression. This crisis has affected not only the United States, but also many European countries. And the USSR at the same time demonstrated tremendous economic growth. Which, as it were, proved the superiority of the socialist model over the capitalist one. Leontina was an activist of the trade union movement from an early age, and at 18 she joined the Communist Party.
Morris and Lona were introduced by their mutual friend at an anti-fascist rally in New York in 1939.
doo. The young inter-brigade officer, who had just returned from Spain, struck the young communist in the very heart. Young people quickly found a common language, and then fell in love with each other. Morris hesitated for a while, but in the end admitted to his beloved that he was working for soviet intelligence... And he invited Lona to become his wife and partner in illegal work.
The decision to work for intelligence did not come easily to Leontine. Since this meant breaking off all ties with the Communist Party and, in general, with people who adhered to the "left" (that is, socialist) views. But in the end Lona agreed. According to the recollections of people who knew the Coens in those days, the spouses turned out to be just an ideal pair of scouts. One of the scouts working in New York in the early forties, Yuri Sokolov, later wrote:
“Morris and Lona were inseparable as loving spouses, as friends, and as companions in intelligence work. Almost always, when we talk about Morris, we actually mean both. "
Lona's initially excessive impulsiveness and love of risk was balanced by her husband's composure and caution. Morris and Lona became contacts between illegal immigrants in the United States and the Soviet station. But gradually the couple began to be assigned very serious tasks.
THE LATEST MACHINE GUN AND ATOMIC WIPES
In 1941, the Coens are tasked with obtaining documentation for a new aircraft machine gun, which was produced at the Hartford plant. At the time, the United States had not yet officially entered the Second world war (this will happen in December 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), and therefore did not particularly share their military developments with the allies.
Leontine managed to meet a certain young engineer (his name has not yet been declassified, only the pseudonym "Frank" is known), who agreed to cooperate. But he did not have access to the documentation. But he was responsible for quality control of products. For several days, "Frank" carried the latest machine gun out of the factory for individual parts and handed them over to Lona. When all the details were taken out, the Coen couple packed the removed from the factory in a double bass case and forwarded it to the USSR consulate in New York. Experienced intelligence officers working in the United States at that time were simply stunned by this. They thought that the Coens would get the blueprints, and they brought them the machine gun.
In 1942, Morris was drafted into the army. Morris took part in the operations of American troops in Algeria in 1942, the landing in Sicily in 1943. After the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944, Cohen's corps was deployed to Europe. He met the end of the war with the rank of corporal, with several military awards. He celebrated the victory on the Elbe, together with Soviet soldiers.
While Morris fought in Europe, Leontina continued to work for Soviet intelligence in the United States. In 1943 she was assigned to focus on the Manhattan Project. This is how the work on the atomic bomb was called in the United States. The main developments were carried out in the secret and closed town of Los Alamos. Among the scientists working on the project, Soviet intelligence had a source of information. But communication with him was difficult. Scientists from Los Alamos were released to neighboring cities only once a month.
Leontina managed to buy a referral from a New York doctor to treat a lung disease in Albuquerque, near Los Alamos. Lona had to wait four weeks to meet with the source. During this time, she managed to arouse suspicion among the FBI officers, of whom there were simply an indecent number in Albuquerque.
After the documents were finally obtained and Leontina tried to leave for New York, right at the train, the FBI officers decided to thoroughly search the suspicious person. The documents were hidden in a box of napkins, and they would definitely shake it up. But Lona was not taken aback. She calmly provided her search bag, and then began to sneeze deafeningly. She took out a box of napkins from the bag being inspected, pulled out a couple, and gave the box itself to the FBI agent. He mechanically took it and continued to hold it all the time while his colleagues inspected the girl's things and even searched her herself. And Lona occasionally turned to him for another napkin to blow her nose. As the train was leaving the platform, the FBI finally released Leontina. Already passing into the carriage, Lona "suddenly remembered" about the napkins, snatched them from the hands of the FBI man and jumped into the departing train. A few days later, the secret documents were already delivered to Moscow.
In February 1945, when it was already absolutely clear that Nazi Germany was virtually finished, the Yalta Conference of the leaders of three countries: the USSR, the USA and Great Britain took place. On which fate was decided post-war Europe... US President Franklin Roosevelt, who had sympathy for the communists and understood that the Soviet Union made the greatest contribution to the victory over Germany, agreed to Joseph Stalin's demands for the arrangement of Eastern Europe. In fact, giving the Soviet Union all the countries that were conquered by the Soviet troops.
That all changed on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died and Harry Truman became president. Who believed that the communist idea was no less harmful to the world than Nazism. Truman viewed the USSR not as an ally, but as an enemy. During the Postdam Conference in July-August 1945, the US President tried to achieve a revision of the previously reached agreements. And he seemed to have a trump card: the day after the start of negotiations, July 18, 1945, Truman received a long-awaited message. First test atomic bomb went super successfully, and the Americans had a superweapon. This was exactly what Truman tried to hint to Stalin, but the Soviet leader only grinned.
In early August 1945, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese died, cities were literally wiped off the face of the earth. And all this from just two bombs! Stalin, who had previously been rather skeptical about the creation of atomic weapons, was impressed. The USSR did not have an adequate answer to this weapon. But they had an army that defeated the Nazis and accumulated vast experience in military operations. Which, by and large, the Americans did not have. They fought with the Japanese rather sluggishly. And as soon as the Red Army entered the war and defeated the Kwantung Army, the world saw with its own eyes which army was stronger. But the atomic bomb was a serious trump card.
Soviet scientists were ordered to create something similar as soon as possible. The fact that Kurchatov back in 1939 spoke about the possibility of using a split atom in military equipment and its destructive power, and Kurchatov was sent to hell, was forgotten. Scientists were ordered to create a Soviet atomic bomb as soon as possible. But the Soviet Union lost a lot in this race. The most recent developments in this area were from the USA, Great Britain and Germany. But the Americans made sure that the German nuclear scientists did not fall into the hands of the Russians. However, some of the German scientists soviet troops managed to capture and take out to the Union. But the USSR was still far behind. Kurchatov argued that the creation of the atomic bomb could take a decade. That in the conditions of greatly complicated relations with the United States, it was like death. Truman, confident in the superiority of American weapons, became more and more impudent, threatening the USSR with nuclear weapons. The only thing that stopped him from unleashing a third world war was that the United States had too few atomic bombs.
The almost impossible was entrusted to the Soviet intelligence officers in America: they were obliged to obtain as much material as possible on the "Manhattan Project". To accomplish this goal, the famous Soviet intelligence officer William Fischer, better known as Rudolph Abel, was sent to the United States. The Coen couple became his main contacts.
In 1949, the USSR tested the first Soviet atomic bomb. US exclusive in the area nuclear weapons ended, and Truman instantly lowered his tone in threats to the Soviet Union. And in the fact that the USSR had adequate weapons, it was the intelligence officers who played a huge role. And the Coens were among them.
HEROES ARE NOT WAITING FOR IN THE HOMELAND?
But between the capitalist and communist worlds began “ cold war". Which in America was aggravated by the "witch hunt". This was the name of the violent persecution of communists and all kinds of unreliable (mainly with socialist views) in the late 40s - early 50s in the United States.
The Coen couple's reputation was tarnished. Leontina was noted for membership in the Communist Party, and Morris fought in Spain on the side of the Republicans. The leadership of Soviet intelligence decides to withdraw the Coens from a possible blow. In 1950, the spouses-scouts were transferred to the USSR. Where they study radio business and learn modern encryption techniques. In 1954, under the name of the Kroger spouses from New Zealand, they were transferred to the UK. Where at that time the Soviet intelligence agent Konon Molodyy (pseudonym Ben) was working very actively. Managed to quickly become his own in the highest circles of the English establishment. The Kroger Coens became Ben's closest associates and his connection to Moscow.
Work in England continued for five years, and then Ben was arrested. This happened as a result of the betrayal of the Polish intelligence officer Michal Golenevsky. Michal collaborated with the American and british intelligence, transmitting to them the encryptions that passed through him. He knew neither the Coens nor the Young, but most of the encryption messages sent by the Coens from England passed through Poland. According to these documents, the British counterintelligence was able to figure out Konon the Young. And checking his connections, they went out to the spouses of the Coen-Krogers.
In mid-1961, Morris and Leontine heard the verdict of the British court: husband - 25 years, wife - 20. British and American intelligence for a long time tried to recruit the spouses, but in vain. And in 1969, the British intelligence officer Gerald Brook failed in the USSR. The leadership of Soviet intelligence offered the British an exchange: Brooke for the Kroger spouses. The British agreed.
Leontina and Morris arrived in Moscow in October 1969 and applied for Soviet citizenship. But then suddenly the all-powerful (at that time) ideologist of the CPSU Mikhail Suslov reared up. Upon learning that some Americans were awarded Soviet orders (both spouses were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and the Friendship of Peoples), and now demanding Soviet citizenship for themselves, he sharply opposed it. Suslov did not understand for what such merits Americans could become citizens of the USSR. But Yuri Andropov, who at that time was the head of the KGB of the USSR, was not afraid to go into conflict with Suslov and achieved a personal meeting with Leonid Brezhnev. On which he said something. The Coens received Soviet citizenship. Until the early 90s, they worked in schools for training Soviet intelligence officers.
Leontine died at the end of 1992, Morris passed away in June 1995. Just a month before he was awarded the title of Hero Russian Federation... Leontina Cohen was awarded this title in 1996.
BOMB ON A Saucer
Morris and Lona Cohen
During the war, Morris and Lona Cohen discovered the secret of the atomic bomb for the USSR.
They were awarded the titles of Heroes of Russia posthumously, but I managed to meet Morris Cohen (aka Peter Kroger, Sanchez, Izra-el Oltmann, Briggs, Louis ...) shortly before his death. Perhaps I am the only Russian journalist who is so lucky. Our conversation in the summer of 1994 lasted four hours and helped to understand a lot in the very complex and confusing story of their life with Lona.
In the United States, Morris and Lona Cohen ran an agent network called the Volunteers. During the war, blueprints and samples of the most modern weapons were mined. In the States, they worked with six Soviet contacts, including the legendary Abel. The role of the Coens in the extraction of atomic secrets during the Great Patriotic War is invaluable. To avoid failure, they were removed by Soviet intelligence from the United States.
After three years of study in Moscow, they were sent to England as assistants to the Soviet illegal immigrant Konon the Young, aka Gordon Lonsdale. As a result of the betrayal of the Polish defector, Morris and Lona were arrested. After nine years in prison, they were exchanged. Received Soviet citizenship and lived in the center of Moscow until the end of their days. Despite the apparent abundance of material about the Coen spouses, their intelligence activities have not been fully disclosed. Some previously unknown details are covered in this chapter.
For some reason, it seemed to me that Morris lived somewhere in a dacha village behind a high fence or in some special apartment far from the center. It turned out that we are almost neighbors. A large house on Patriarch's Ponds, an incurious elevator operator, a sturdy nurse, tactfully supporting a limping, gray-haired old man with a wand by the elbow.
His Russian language is far from perfect, but Morris may well explain himself to the surrounding staff. However, the Foreign Intelligence Officer attached to him, who visits Cohen several times a week, speaks flawless English. Yes, and Morris preferred to communicate with me in native language... When we occasionally switched to Russian, Morris called me "you". However, both the nurses and the others, he said only "you".
A tour of a cozy, but no-nonsense, furnished three-room apartment does not allow you to forget who you are visiting. In prominent places are photos of our two illegal scouts - Fisher - Abel and Young - Lonsdale. It just so happened that both Coens had a chance to work with them. With the first in the USA, with the second in the UK. Next to it is a framed photograph of Yuri Andropov, when he was the chairman of the KGB of the USSR he looked into this apartment. Portraits of Morris and Lona, painted, as the owner explains to me, "by a comrade from our Service." I know, I know who this comrade is. Colonel of the SVR, Honored Worker of Culture, artist Pavel Georgievich Gromushkin was entrusted with creating a whole series of portraits of our illegal heroes.
And next to it - in some dissonance with this officialdom - funny and colorful wall newspapers, postcards, sometimes written in large children's handwriting. This was not forgotten by Morris' grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Russian security officers, with whom he and Lona risked beyond the cordon. A slightly dry, somewhat academic apartment is warmed by the heat. I was told that after Lona's death from cancer in 1993, Morris really lacked this warmth, he was sad. But the caring "attached" officers from the SVR did not let them fall into depression.
In addition to photographs, books also spoke about the owner's rare profession. For most readers, this is the intelligence story; for Morris, it's his own. Leaning heavily on a stick, he takes out a folio and opens it to the right page: “The English write that I did this and that. Not certainly in that way". Or: "In the United States, they still believe that ... Let them remain with their delusions."
And in the corridor there is a large drawing of a Spanish house with columns, near which Morris lingers for a long time: “Take a closer look at the mansion, what are the columns, eh? I'll explain to you later. " And memories of the civil war in Spain began, where he came under the name of Israel Oltmann, of comrades who had already passed away. He gives precise characteristics, I would say, sharp, biting, speaks about some without any respect, especially about a couple of chatty Frenchmen. Several people from the Interbrigade were still alive at the time. Someone with whom my guide Morris corresponded from Moscow: a museum of memory of internationalists was being created, and Morris had something to convey to it. One friend, with whom Morris fought side by side in Spain, wanted to come, and the formalities seemed to be settled, but suddenly fell silent, disappeared. Tears welled up in Morris's eyes - it looks like his friend is gone. They went on the attack together, fought as part of the Interbrigade with Franco, fascism ...
It was fascism that then pushed many people, even those far from Marxism, into the arms of the Land of Soviets. The Spanish Civil War - the first and open clash with arms in hand with the emerging brown threat - united and rallied thousands of anti-fascists, unwittingly turning them into a huge preparatory and qualifying class for the Soviet intelligence school. From there, from Spain, dozens, if not hundreds, of the most faithful stepped into the ranks of the secret fighters. Among them was Morris Cohen.
He walked all the steps leading to friends of the USSR. A member of the League of Young Communists, who, as a child, heard John Reed in New York's Times Square and before last days considered him "the best speaker in my life." At night, student agitator Cohen put up flyers on the campus. Then he turned into a distributor of the communist press and a party organizer. Contrary to the nitpicks of teachers who tried to fill up the young and stubborn communist in the exams, he received a diploma as a history teacher. And the practical course of historical truths went to voluntarily master on civil war to Spain.
He was lucky and unlucky. He commanded a platoon, fired, did not miss, but in the battle at Fuentes d'Ebro was seriously wounded: both legs were shot. In a Barcelona hospital, he was treated for almost four months. He himself helped to nurse the bedridden, together with him cursing Franco with the more fury, the more often the damned general won victories. The battle was drawing to a close - and quite unfortunate for them.
Probably, not only the volunteers from the Interbrigades understood this, but also the advisers from the USSR who took care of them. There was no way to let the recruiting moment pass by. Where can you find, then, gather such a mass supporting the Soviets without exception.
And in 1938, an adviser from the USSR sent 50-60 convalescents directly by truck to a two-story mansion, the view of which Morris showed me in the hallway. This mansion - how many people passed through it, I wonder? - and brought Cohen to Moscow.
He was the third American to be interviewed. Not everyone who was spoken to and who was offered agreed to go on reconnaissance. And Morris said yes without hesitation.
Some authors write that Cohen is the last recruitment of resident Alexander Orlov before escaping to the United States. However, Morris, in a conversation with me, strongly denied this statement. There was another person and another conversation in that four-pillar mansion. But the result is the same: in 1939, when an international exhibition unfolded in New York, a young boy who had arrived from Moscow sat down next to Cohen in a café nearby. He looks Jewish, like Cohen. I suspect that in a solid transcription, Morris's surname would sound more like Kogan. And the real name of the employee of the Soviet security agencies who met him was Semyon Markovich Semyonov. Odessa boy from a poor Jewish family, graduated from the Moscow Textile Institute and since 1937 served in the NKVD. In the United States, he managed to do two important things at once - to study at the University of Massachusetts, whose diploma he later received, and also to work in the residency of the Soviet foreign intelligence under the pseudonym "Twain".
Compatriots and almost the same age liked each other. Cohen invited Twain to visit his house. There, in Morris's modest home, and not in a cafe in front of everyone, a new friend handed him a broken comb. The "real password", as they say in intelligence, exactly fell on the half of the comb, captured by Morris from Barcelona. Twain became the first - of six - Soviet curator to start working with Louis. This operational pseudonym was assigned to Morris at the Center. In 1941, already married, Louis recruited, with the permission of Moscow, his wife Leontina, or Lona for short, who received the code name Leslie.
In two or three fairly reputable foreign publications, Cohen is called an American with a certain degree of doubt, but Lona was enlisted as a Soviet intelligence officer: Leontine, illegally abandoned in the States, married Morris fictitiously. Nonsense. Leontina Teresa Petke was born in Massachusetts in 1913. Her parents emigrated to America from Poland, and Slavic blood really flowed in her veins. A member of the US Communist Party, a trade union activist, she met her future husband where she should logically meet: at an anti-fascist rally. She guessed about her husband's connections with the Russians, and then, when he was allowed to reveal himself to his wife, she immediately agreed to work for the Soviet Union out of disinterested motives. Truly disinterested, for, as one of the six Russian intelligence agents-curators of the Coens told me, any attempt to present them with a reward caused a decisive refusal. In the end, it was agreed that the Volunteers, for obvious reasons, but without Morris's knowledge, christened his group in Moscow, would accept money not for the information they got, but solely for operational needs: the purchase of films, cameras, train trips, etc. by taxi. So one day Morris and Lona took out the latest machine gun from a military factory. This episode from their intelligence activities was remembered by Morris because the trunk was heavy, long and did not fit into the hired cab. I had to squeeze it into the trunk of a car with a diplomatic number, please guess which country.
But they saved on a taxi, - Morris joked.
By the way, Lona-Leslie took out the complete machine gun. Shortly before the death of Lona Cohen, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service helped her dream come true: her sister came to Moscow from the United States. I was going to come again ... Formally, entry to the States was not closed for Mrs. Cohen. No formal charges were brought against her or her husband.
True, when in 1957 a Soviet intelligence officer named Abel was arrested in New York, two photographs of the spouses were found in his belongings - for a passport. FBI agents asked the neighbors of the Coen couple, who had already disappeared by that time, if they had ever seen this man. The neighbors genuinely hesitated. It seems that one time around Christmas a similar modestly dressed man visited Morris and Lona.
When they reached the USSR, the Coens accepted Soviet citizenship, and Morris proudly showed me his rather shabby passport, saying that he was a Russian citizen like me and asked me never to call him Mr. Or a friend, or just Morris, well, Peter. He himself was slightly confused in his own names, and when talking about his wife, he called her differently every time - Leslie, Lona, Leontine, Helen. Once it escaped and completely unusual name, which I, for obvious reasons, have no right to name.
The spouses did not have children, and it is not difficult to guess the reasons for this. Although there is another version. While playing college football, Morris was kicked hard in the groin. And this is where a funny story begins. The statistics of the beloved game in the USA are kept impeccably. And largely thanks to this very football, the Americans unearthed that Morris Cohen is really his own, indigenous, and not sent from the USSR. Born in New York in 1910, this player, who was born in New York in 1910, played for the undergraduate team and even received an athletic scholarship in college, not university. Morris confirmed that during his early years he was a passionate gambler. “Maybe that's why my knee, which was broken during the game in Mississippi, still hurts and aches at night. And in another fight I was so kicked right between my legs that they carried me off the field on a stretcher. It took a long time to heal ... ”And he sighed heavily.
Cohen did not know if he still had relatives in the United States. Father - from somewhere near Kiev, mother was born in Vilno, and lived in New York in terrible poverty on the East Side. The family never spoke Russian.
People who knew the Coen couple closely enough in Moscow, like Colonel Yuri Sergeevich Sokolov, one of six contacts who worked with them in the United States, claim that illegal intelligence officers had perfect compatibility. Lona seemed to be the leader, but the decisions were made both in the United States and later in England and in Moscow by the silent Morris. Lona chirped in Russian, he immersed himself in books in English. True, during the meeting he confessed to me that now he could not read for a long time - his eyes hurt.
I looked at the long list of my questions printed in English through a huge magnifying glass. Many of them were never answered - he showed himself to be a great master of sideways. He talked about a difficult New York childhood, about his father - first a cleaner, then a vegetable merchant. I realized that many of the conspiratorial meetings took place in my father's green shop. Apparently, the father not only guessed about his illegal work, but even sometimes helped him.
With pleasure, Morris recalled only the textbook episode that happened in the Great Patriotic War - the export of drawings from the secret atomic laboratory in Los Alamos, where Leslie had distinguished herself so well. I cannot but cite it, despite the fact that this feat is described in many books and entered many intelligence textbooks in different countries as an example of not only the courage of an illegal intelligence officer, but also his resourcefulness and composure.
The war was going on, and in June 1942 Cohen was mobilized. He served in various places, even somewhere in Alaska. So it was impossible to get out of the army. So Johnny - another liaison of the "Volunteers" group, who is also a legal Soviet intelligence agent Anatoly Yatskov, had to send Lona Cohen to a meeting with an unknown agent Perseus in Los Alamos, not close to New York. She had to take from a stranger young man who worked in a secret atomic laboratory, "something" and convey this "something" to Yatskov, or, as Morris said, "ours" in New York. Lona had no idea what she was going for.
With difficulty, she got a vacation at a military plant and was a little safe with a certificate from a New York doctor: she was going to the resort of Albuquerque to heal her lungs. And this is not far from Los Alamos or Carthage, as they called it in the Center. But Albuquerque also looked after the visitors, so Lona settled in Las Vegas, a town whose name is absolutely similar to the name of the world capital of casinos. I rented a room from some railway worker and was treated, taking procedures. Before leaving, she was shown a photo of the agent, who then went down in history under the name Perseus.
Those who worked in the atomic laboratory were released from the closed zone into the city only once a month on Sundays. On this day, he and Lona were supposed to meet in Albuquerque in the busy square near the temple. Here, in my unenlightened opinion, the station was too clever, deciding that one password was not enough. Perseus had to hold a magazine in his right hand, in his left - a yellow bag, from which a fish tail would stick out. And not just fish - but catfish. If the bag is turned to Leslie with the front side with a picture, then Perseus can be approached boldly: there is no surveillance. This was followed by the exchange of passwords and the transfer of the bag.
Leslie had to be pretty nervous. Her vacation was already ending, but Perseus still did not come. They say that even a successful but risky conspiratorial meeting takes a month of a scout's life. And Perseus showed up only on the fourth Sunday. He did not hold the magazine in his hand, but in his bag. The young guy forgot the password too, then admitted to Leslie that he was confused on what day the meeting should take place.
But the nerve cells were not wasted. Between the fish, it really was a catfish, and there were a hundred and fifty documents in the magazine. On my own behalf, I will add: their importance and significance were such that relatively soon the creator of the Soviet atomic bomb Kurchatov reported to Beria about their content, and the latter to Stalin.
Morris also told me a detail that has remained unsolved over the years since our meeting with him. It turned out that Lona had come to those lands more than once.
Her first journey almost ended in failure. Neither Leslie, which is understandable, nor the station, which is a shame, did not suspect that everyone leaving the towns near Los Alamos was being searched at the station. Thank goodness Leslie discovered this on the way to the train station. Deliberately hesitating, she jumped out onto the platform with a heavy suitcase a few minutes before the train left and rushed to her carriage. Demonstrating the full degree of her own defenselessness, she turned directly to the secret service officer who was inspecting the passengers' belongings. She played a scene of losing a ticket, handed him a box from under paper handkerchiefs, in which one and a half hundred "atomic" documents were hidden. The train was already moving when Leslie finally "found" the ticket. The officer who searched her was holding the box and barely had time to give it to the "absent-minded" lady when the train had already started.
Leslie narrowly escaped failure. And in the Soviet Union, who knows, they might not have made their own atomic bomb on time: the thread would surely reach Perseus, and one of our most valuable "atomic" agents would be neutralized.
Morris Cohen knew the man's real name. He himself turned to him with a request to bring him to the Russians: he was aware that Cohen was working at Amtorg. Morris was assigned to have a frank conversation with the young man. They met at the Aleksandre restaurant, continued, as I understood, in my father's shop. This is how Perseus's collaboration with Soviet intelligence began. Morris, of course, did not mention his name. He only dryly noticed that in the entire Foreign Intelligence Service there were two or three people who could remember the true name of Perseus - a brilliant scientist. The mere mention of the reward made this boy, according to Morris, furious. He worked selflessly, like the rest of Cohen's group. I only got in touch with Morris and Lona and another "our friend". Now that Morris is gone, we managed to find out the name of this "comrade" - it is the American journalist Kurnakov, who worked for our intelligence. The chain is pretty short. The traitors of Perseus did not know, the arrested intelligence officers, if they guessed about his existence, did not betray him. And at the end of the conversation, Cohen stunned me, saying: “I hope that Perseus still lives in the USA with a quiet, peaceful life. He has something to be proud of. "
Now, years later, I, of course, understand that Cohen knew about the fate of Perseus, I was sure that his name would never be revealed. But the great Cohen was wrong. Perseus's real name is Theodore (Ted) Hall. After the war, he withdrew from cooperation with Soviet intelligence. Until 1962 he lived in the United States, then moved to England, where he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory and made several outstanding discoveries in the field of biophysics. He fell seriously ill and spent the last days in a villa on the French coast, opposite Britain. His work "for the Russians" became known due to the betrayal of the archivist Mitrokhin, who fled from Russia abroad. But Hall, who, along with his wife and in his old age adhered to leftist views, was firm, proudly did not answer the questions of journalists, as well as open accusations of espionage in favor of the Soviets. He died of cancer in 1998, finally saying that “if the USSR and the United States had no nuclear parity, it could have ended in an atomic war. If I helped to avoid this scenario, then I will agree to accept the charges of treason. "
Leontine and Morris held out in the United States in their incredibly daring roles for about twelve years. Lona's impulsiveness, emotionality, her love of risk were balanced by Morris's cold prudence and caution. In addition, the residents who worked with them took care of this couple. But in 1950, the Center realized: "Volunteers" are under threat. They began to slowly withdraw from the game. And so Colonel Abel's courier, Yuri Sergeevich Sokolov, who worked under a diplomatic roof, came one day straight to the Coens' home. Having violated all the commandments of intelligence, he spent a long time convincing Morris and Lona: we must leave. Fearing wiretapping, they had a loud conversation about something extraneous, and about the main thing - they corresponded on paper. Lona burned the scribbled pages in the bathroom, which was filled with puffs of smoke at the end of the drawn out conversation.
Morris argued that it was stupid to leave just now, when the work was settled. They can do so much and, if necessary, will go over to illegal status for this, using other people's passports. Sokolov, aka Claude, tried to persuade him not to take risks. And when Morris wrote on paper: "Is this an order?", Sokolov's answer was "Yes!" And then Cohen wrote: “So there is nothing to discuss. We agree. "
In the summer of 1950, they were preparing to leave with might and main. A legend was invented for friends. She was so similar to the truth, so intertwined with the life they led, that even those close to her did not arouse suspicion.
They soon had passports in the name of the Sanchez couple. Providence prompted: we must get out urgently. After all, Claude - Sokolov miraculously did not fail them, accidentally breaking the rules, drove through a red light, and he was almost arrested. And on his hands he had their passports with new names. For many, a boat trip on the route New York - the Mexican port of Veracruz, and even at someone else's expense, would delight. But not Morris and Lona. As he said goodbye to his father, Morris told me, he “emotionally broke down, almost missed the ship. Father also realized that we would never see each other again. One of the hardest moments in my life. "
So Lona and Morris Cohen disappeared from their apartment on East 71st New York Street without a trace. After waiting, as agreed for some time, the father with a sigh told his acquaintances that his son and wife had left the States to try their luck elsewhere, and closed their bank account.
And they didn’t get to Moscow by the shortest route. First, Mexico and the safe house of the Soviet foreign intelligence. Then France, Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia. The section Geneva - Prague turned out to be the most dangerous. Flights to the capital of socialist Czechoslovakia - once a week, tickets are sold out. Helen - Lona was at her limit. The race across the countries exhausted all the nerves. And they decided to take the risk, to move to Prague across the German border.
But there was one difficulty. For a trip to the countries of the socialist community, Americans had to get an insert in their passport. It was issued by the State Department or by US consulates overseas. The Coens, now wandering under the name Briggs, were the last ones to want to go there. During their short journey, anything could have happened. Maybe they are already wanted all over the world?
We moved by train, without an insert in the passport. They hoped it would. But they ran into a document check. The Germans dropped them off the train, and the stern officer ordered: "Follow me!" They were detained on Saturday night, and the officer immediately began to call the nearest American consulate. Fortunately, the phone did not answer: the weekend is sacred for diplomats.
It was foolish to get caught like this, after all they had done, and after so many miles of travel. However, the spouses Briggs could slow down at the airport. Not an arrest yet, but very, very close. It was necessary to act, to do something, and Mrs. Briggs raised a typical American scandal - yelling at the Germans: “Who, in the end, won the war - the States or you? You have no right to detain the American delegation. " The delegation was still the same. But this is typical in Lona's style: what more difficult situation, the faster she was oriented and the more decisive she acted.
The border guards wavered, brought in some sleepy fellow - a sergeant of the American army. The latter quickly fell asleep into the position of compatriots who had been dropped off the train by "these Germans." It was, however, even worse than he had imagined. The guy immediately and under the Briggs called his military commanders by phone. But there they answered that the general, on whom everything depended, would arrive by nine in the morning.
The sergeant clearly sympathized with the cute couple, brought in from somewhere wine "Liebe Frau Milch", and the Briggs began to celebrate their idiotic detention with him. Lona, replacing her anger with mercy, invited two German officers for a glass. She broke up. The wine was absorbed faster and faster - bottle after bottle. However, the general, to whom the sergeant in spite of everything disciplinedly called, was not there either at nine in the morning or at ten. Maybe he went out too? And the sergeant, wanting to help his own, tried to ask someone in Munich about the poor Briggs. The mousetrap seemed to be slamming shut.
And suddenly he turned up - a chance. Every scout is always waiting for him, but the chance is rare. First, the wine ran out. Secondly, the sergeant was in a hurry to meet with Gretchen. Thirdly, the German border guards got drunk and, at the command of a junior American, barely put their illegible squiggles in the passports of such companionable American spouses. And, fourthly, the train to Prague just arrived. The red-haired sergeant kindly put new acquaintances in it. He even threw their suitcases on the shelves. In short, on November 7, 1950, the Coens celebrated in Prague.
True, something did not work in the Czech capital, and no one there, contrary to the agreements, was waiting for them. It turned out to be difficult to contact anyone. They felt safe in the hotel. They were frightened by a knock on the door, but it was just a maid, politely inquiring if the guests did not need the telephone of the American Embassy. Helen said no.
In Prague, due to various yet unclear circumstances, they had to spend a month. And all the same, it was calmer for the spouses to wait for sending to Moscow than in Paris or Berlin.
Arrival at Vnukovo airport upset them a lot and even frightened them: again no one met them. Thoughts crept into my head:
"What if Stalin arrested the comrades with whom we worked?" Passed through passport control, customs - no one. Noticing the confusion of foreigners hanging out at the exit from the airport, the bus driver offered to give them a lift there - to the American embassy. Shrugging off the annoying suggestions, they asked to be taken to the only Moscow hotel they had heard of. In the "National" they were immediately and without armor accommodated in a good room.
Evening came. They did not have rubles, and the hotel refused dollars. With some effort, I managed to order tea and biscuits to my room. And then friends from their Service rushed into their room. Now Leslie and Louis were at home, drinking something stronger than the fragile Frau Milch.
Further in the biography of the Coen spouses - a three-year failure, which Morris did not want to make up. I'll have to do it. After a short rest, they began to study with Soviet teachers what they had been studying in practice for 12 years in "self-training courses" in the United States, namely, the work of an illegal intelligence officer.
Be that as it may, around Christmas 1954, a pleasant married couple settled at 18 Penderry Rise in Catford, southeast London. Peter and Helen Kroger came to the UK from New Zealand. The 44-year-old head of the family bought a small second-hand bookstore nearby.
At first, his case moved sluggishly. Sometimes he got confused about finances. Neighbors understood that the intelligent, gentle Peter was a second-hand bookseller from the beginning. Illegal resident Konon Young, aka businessman Gordon Lonsdale, who was well known to them from his work in the United States under the nickname Ben, was of the opposite opinion. He had a couple of reliable communications radio operators. For six years in London, the trio managed to do a lot.
They worked until 1961. The arrest took them by surprise, although a few days before the failure, they felt being followed. British counterintelligence has not yet seen as many spy supplies as they immediately found in a house on Penderry Rise. They were already serving their term, and in the garden, in the house, they came across hidden, buried objects, the purpose of which there was no doubt.
The reason for the arrest is tragically commonplace - betrayal. Sold scout friendly to us then Poland. The trial lasted only eight days. Buddy Ben - Lonsdale got 25 years. He courageously took all the blame upon himself, in every possible way shielding the Kroger couple. And those, contrary to the pound of evidence in the form of radio transmitters and other things, insisted on innocence and did not give out a single phrase of connection with Soviet intelligence.
Neither their real name came to light, nor what they had been doing for 12 years in the United States. But the Russian colonel, who took the surname Abel when he was arrested, was already serving his time in an American prison. The person to whom they passed classified information in New York. Here I see some kind of discrepancy. Didn't the American special services really cooperate with their British colleagues, didn't they exchange information? No, something is not right here, and I am sure that over time this “something” will also come out.
In England, the whole trinity flatly refused to cooperate with the court and with the British counterintelligence. The Kroger spouses did not even want to discuss the proposal to change their surnames and take them out of the country in exchange, of course, for what. Maybe that's why the verdict was harsh - Helen is 20 years old, Peter, like Ben, 25. This decision was received by all three, at least outwardly, with professional indifference. They kept him for all nine years of running through Her Majesty's prisons.
Morris was transferred from cell to cell, transported from place to place. They were afraid that they would run away or decompose the prisoners with their ideas. He also sat with the criminals: the intelligence officers hoped that the inmates would break the Russian spy, and even then ... But Cohen found a common language with them. In a corner of a large room in his apartment on Patriarch's Ponds, a hefty teddy blue bear nestles - a prison birthday present from the famous robber of the century - a gang stole a million pounds from a mail carriage.
An employee of the British Secret Intelligence Service, George Blake, who for many years passed on its secrets to Soviet intelligence, was tried in the same 1961 and sentenced to forty-two years. And suddenly, by some miracle or through an oversight, Cohen and Blake ended up together in London's Scrub prison and became friends for the rest of their lives. They talked about everything in the world, except for one thing - even from his closest friend Blake hid the preparations for his escape.
George escaped, ”Morris smiled broadly. - There was nothing else to do.
And he, who had not yet had time to learn anything about Blake's evening escape, was transferred the next morning from Scrub to the prison on the Isle of Wight. From here no one ran away and will not run away - from the island to the nearest land, thirty miles. The regime is harsh, the climate is disgusting, the food is disgusting. And if not for books and not love, he might have gone mad.
Yes, love - a component not listed in their dossier on this or on the other side, helped to endure nine years of imprisonment. She and Helen wrote letters to each other, and it stifled the pain and humiliation. The expectation of small envelopes, where the number of pages was severely limited by law, was alarming, sometimes painful. Receiving news from a loved one turned into a holiday. They also corresponded with Ben. But these are already other letters and a different story. As soon as Morris did not call his Leontine - Mat, and Sarge, and my dear, and my beloved, and my dear dear ... Tenderness in every word and every letter. Lona responded in kind.
They met rarely and only under the supervision of the jailers. Then he wrote to her about these meetings, remembering every moment, every second. They lived with hopes, supported each other as best they could. Probably, thanks to the letters, Morris survived the serious illnesses that tormented him in the prison cell.
However, in their messages - not only love with the harsh prison routine. There - and philosophical reasoning, and references to distant history, and faith in yourself, in Russian friends. What are even these lines by Morris about the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service, addressed to Helen: "I have no doubt that if they do not move heaven and earth for us, then they pound both hands and feet at the door of God." But could Morris really know what efforts were being made in Moscow to secure their release? Or felt? Did you believe?
No, it was not in vain that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service allowed to publish more than seven hundred pages of correspondence between the Coen spouses, as well as Konon Molodoy. Probably, illegal intelligence agents have never appeared before the public in a purely epistolary genre, as in these two serious volumes.
What kind of love is this! When we met Morris, Helen had been gone for a long time. However, sometimes it seemed that she had just left and was about to return from the bakery on Bronnaya. Her things remained in the room in their places ... Portraits and photographs. The owner of the apartment all the time recalled her as if she were alive: "Helen says ... Helen thinks ... You know how risky Helen is ..." He was not henpecked or hopelessly in love. They were united by a deep, light feeling.
After nine years in prison, the Coen-Kroger spouses were exchanged for British intelligence officer Gerald Brook. The most enormous obstacles were: the KGB could not recognize them as their own. I had to act through the Poles. And from London, under the flashes of cameras, they flew to Warsaw. In Moscow in the fall of 1969, Young - Lonsdale was waiting for them, back in 1964, exchanged for the Englishman Grevshiy Wynn, a messenger of the traitor Penkovsky.
What did they do after returning to their second homeland? To many. In addition to being taught to young followers, Lona embarked on a long and perilous journey with the fearless General Pavlov. We traveled to the continent of the country, important for Soviet intelligence, where our illegal immigrants settled. The pretext was a good one. A wealthy antiquarian accompanied by his wife looks out for valuable exhibits for his collection. How did Lona decide on this? After all, if she was arrested, she would be sentenced to life imprisonment.
There were also travels - including to a distant neighboring country. But about these trips - complete silence.
Morris convinced me that it was here, in Russia, that he was at home. When I asked if he was bored here without his compatriots, without his native English, he was offended:
I'm dating George Blake. A man of the highest intellect. It remains to be seen whether I would have had acquaintances of this class if Lona and I had stayed in New York. We were friends with all those who worked with us in the States and England. And when we ended up in Moscow, this personal friendship, mixed up in a common cause and feelings, grew into a family friendship. Ben is gone, and his wife is visiting me. And Johnny's wife too. And Claude - Yuri Sokolov. Milt (Abel - Fisher. - N. D.) died, but we see his daughter Evelyn. We were, as fate would have it, friends there. By their own will, they remained friends here as well.
On my own I would add that meetings, for example, with Blake, and with others, have become, in my opinion, more frequent in last years life. Earlier, Morris and Lona's social circle seemed to be limited in a certain way. I would like to know what they were doing at the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service ...
The Coens were friends in Moscow with another married couple of illegal scouts - Hero of the Soviet Union Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Levonovna Vartanyan. I noticed that, despite the harsh reality of their profession, they all had features that were somewhat forgotten by us. The Vartanyans, Coens, Abel, Sokolov, and George Blake were to some extent idealists. They sacredly believed in the idea, in the impeccable correctness of the path chosen by the Country of Soviets. At the first and, alas, the last our meeting, Morris convinced me that communist ideals would return anyway, and today it was not possible to build an impeccable society just because we ourselves were simply not properly prepared for it.
Well, love really works wonders. Love for the homeland, for the woman, for the cause you serve.
Morris Cohen died in early July 1995 in an untitled Moscow hospital. Even among our compatriots, there are few people who loved Russia as passionately and optimistically as Morris loved it. Cohen knew so much and took so much with him. I once happened to see footage Morris made for official use. And even there the bill follows the bill. But I got the impression that the Krogers had time to work on another continent.
In his apartment on the Patriarch's Ponds, I asked when anything else of their secret affairs with Lona would be declassified. Morris replied without hesitation: "Never" - never.
The funeral procession ceremoniously moved along the Novo-Kuntsevsky cemetery. It was last way Morris Cohen to Lona, buried in the same place, on the land with which he has become akin for sure forever.
From the book Illegals 1. Operation "Enormous" author Chikov Vladimir MatveevichFrom the memoirs of Leontina Cohen We accepted our arrest on January 7, 1961 without panic, because we were to some extent already prepared for it. I remember it was a pity to leave the books and the several thousand dollars and British pounds we honestly earned hidden in them. However, all this
From the book One Life - Two Worlds author Alekseeva Nina IvanovnaFrom the Memoirs of Leontina Cohen When we first met Morris, he seemed to me almost a holy man. Then I preferred to beware of him, because people with the faces of saints often did such things that their hair stood on end. But Morris behaved
From the book of the Pre-Raphaelites: a mosaic of genres author Dickens CharlesFrom the memoirs of Leontina Cohen When necessary, Morris knew how to carry out his political line. He had the simplest way to do this - he seemed to agree with your arguments and at the same time did so that the question in the end was always decided in his favor. Perhaps he
From the book The Secret Family of Vysotsky author Kudryavov Boris PavlovichFrom the memoirs of Morris and Leontina Cohen 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
From the book The main enemy. Secret war for the USSR author Dolgopolov Nikolay MikhailovichFrom the memoirs of Leontina Cohen Before the last meeting with Claude, I met with Perseus, who had unexpectedly arrived from Chicago. At that time he gave me the latest amazing information that the Pentagon generals, together with scientists, had already planned to bombard
From the book The most piquant stories and fantasies of celebrities. Part 2 author Amills RoserA major lawyer, Mr. Morris, Lydia Aleksandrovna Golitsyna, volunteered to go to New York to meet with her very good acquaintance, with whom she worked in France after the liberation of the city from the Nazis, where he held a major post as a representative of the American
From the book of Hogarth author German Mikhail YurievichMorris strife for Morris Time passed, our visas ran out. - What will happen next? - we asked in bewilderment. After all, the lawyers have not yet done anything about our legalization and the introduction of the "bill", as they promised. Mr. Jolis, along with Kira went to their office and asked,
The cat left the book, but the smile remained author Danelia Georgy NikolaevichWilliam Morris How I Became a Socialist Essay Translated by Valentina Sergeeva The editor asked me to talk about the above transformation, and I think it might really be useful if readers are willing to look at me as a representative
From the book He lived between us ... Memories of Sakharov [collection ed. B.L. Altshuler and others] author Altshuler Boris LvovichPrivate life on a silver platter At the end of October, a court hearing was held. On it, the journalist said that no Constitution, no law will protect our privacy, if we ourselves do not protect it. - Leaving the house, we lock our apartment with a key, although the Constitution
From the author's bookBomb on a Silver Platter The illegal Morris and Lona Coens are considered one of the most successful married couples in Soviet intelligence, largely thanks to them that the secrets of the American atomic bomb were obtained. Lona and Morris were awarded the title of Heroes of Russia posthumously, but with
From the author's book From the author's bookHOGART VERSUS MORRIS These things consisted in the fact that Hogarth - this time against his will - was embroiled in yet another scandalous story. It began in 1727, the same year that George II ascended the throne. Since then in the life of William Hogarth again came a streak
From the author's book"PHILIP MORRIS" Before leaving for Israel, I visited Sergei Bondarchuk. - How much to ask for a script? - I asked him. - Ask for a hundred thousand dollars. - Dollars ?! - Dollars. Wait. - Sergei took a box out of the box. - What is your watch? - he asked. - "Flight". Present
From the author's bookMorris Pripstein Sakharov, Scientists and Human Rights To burn in a fire that is in the very thick of hell - This is the fate of those who remain indifferent In the era of moral tests. President J.F. Kennedy (paraphrasing Dante) As you serve science, you feel like you belong to a worldwide brotherhood
Cohen Morris (1910-1995). Soviet intelligence officer. Born in New York into a family of immigrants from Russia. He graduated from college and in 1935 Columbia University, worked as a history teacher at high school... In 1937-1938. participated in the Spanish Civil War, fought with the Francoists in the Abraham Lincoln International Brigade, was wounded. From 1938 he collaborated with Soviet intelligence; in November 1938 he was sent to the United States as a liaison agent.
In 1942 he was drafted into the US Army. Participated in hostilities against the Nazis in Europe. In November 1945 he was demobilized and, upon returning to the United States, resumed cooperation with Soviet intelligence. However, contact with him was terminated and restored only in 1948. Together with his wife, Leontina kept in touch with especially valuable sources of information from the residency. In 1949-1950. worked in the illegal residency of V. Fischer (Rudolf Abel), due to the threat of exposure, together with his wife he was transported to Moscow. He worked in the Office of Illegal Intelligence.
Since 1954, together with his wife, he worked in England as a liaison agent for K. Young (Gordon Lonsdale) on the passports of New Zealand citizens Peter and Helen Kroger. Contributed to the transfer of classified information on rocketry to Moscow. As a result of the betrayal of the Polish intelligence officer M. Golenevsky, who became a CIA agent, in early January 1961 he was arrested (together with L. Cohen) by British counterintelligence. At the trial in the highest criminal court, Old Bailey (in March 1961) was sentenced to 25 years in prison on the basis of information provided by the Americans. In August 1969, with the consent of the British government, the Coen-Kroger spouses were exchanged for an agent of the British intelligence service, J. Brook, who was arrested in the USSR. In October they returned to Moscow. In subsequent years he worked in the "C" Department of the PGU of the KGB - illegal intelligence.
Hero of Russia (1995, posthumously). Decorated with the Orders of the Red Banner, Friendship of Peoples.
Used materials of the book: V. Abramov. Jews in the KGB. Executioners and victims. M., Yauza - Eksmo, 2005.
Cohen Morris. Born July 2, 1910 in New York into a family of immigrants from Russia. His father was from near Kiev, and his mother was born in Vilno. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Coen family emigrated to the United States.
After college, Morris attended Columbia University, graduating in 1935. He worked as a history teacher in high school. In 1936 he joined the US Communist Party.
The Spanish Civil War did not leave Cohen indifferent, and in July 1937 he went there as a volunteer. He fought on the side of the Republicans as part of the Abraham Lincoln International Brigade. Was injured.
In 1938, Cohen was involved in secret collaboration with Soviet intelligence. In November of the same year, on the instructions of the Center, he returned to the United States, where he was used by the New York station as a liaison agent. In June 1941 he married Leontina Petka, who became his reliable assistant in intelligence activities.
In 1942, Cohen was drafted into the army, took part in the battles against the Nazi troops in Europe. At the end of 1945 he was demobilized and returned to New York. Together with his wife Leontina, he secured a secret connection with a number of the most valuable sources of residency.
At the beginning of 1949, the Coens were included in the illegal spy William Fischer (Rudolph Abel). In 1951-1954 they were in Moscow, where they underwent special intelligence training. In 1955, they left for England as an illegal intelligence officer Konon Molodoy. For five years, the residency has successfully mined a large amount of highly valuable classified documentary information from the British Admiralty and naval forces NATO.
In January 1961, Cohen was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In August 1969, he was exchanged for British citizens arrested in the USSR and left for Moscow. In 1970 he was admitted to Soviet citizenship. Until the last days of his life he continued to work in illegal intelligence. Died June 23, 1995.
For outstanding contribution to providing state security of our country Morris Cohen was awarded orders Of the Red Banner and Friendship of Peoples, many medals, as well as a badge "For service in intelligence." By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 20, 1995, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
Antonov V.S. Foreign Intelligence Service. History, people, facts. M., 2013, p. 131-132.
Read on:
Cohen Leontine (1913-1992), wife of Morris.
"Persons in civilian clothes" (biographical reference book about the employees of the Soviet special services).
A family
Born on July 2, 1910 in New York into a Jewish family of immigrants from the Russian Empire (father - a native of the Kiev province, mother - from Vilno).
Graduated from Columbia University thanks to an athletic scholarship he received while playing rugby. After graduating from university, he taught history for some time.
Intelligence Service
In 1937, as part of an international brigade, he volunteered for the civil war in Spain, where he was wounded. While in Spain, he came to the attention of Soviet foreign intelligence (he was recruited by Alexander Orlov). He agreed to cooperate, allegedly wishing to participate in a joint struggle against the Nazi threat. In 1938, on instructions from Soviet intelligence, Cohen returned to the United States as a liaison agent. In 1941 he married Leontine Teresa Petka, whom he met at an anti-fascist rally in New York. The wife fully shared the ideals of life and the views of her husband.
During World War II in 1942 he was mobilized into the army and took part in hostilities in Europe, in 1945 he was demobilized and returned to the United States. In December of the same year, contact with him was restored. Despite the defeat of Nazism, Morris Cohen agreed to continue cooperation with Soviet intelligence without hesitation. However, until 1948, the connection with the agent was frozen due to the sharp aggravation of the anti-Sovietism and spy mania in the United States.
In 1949, the Coen couple became liaisons for the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel. They worked with him until 1950, when, due to the threat of failure, they were transported to the USSR.
In 1954, together with his wife, he was sent to Great Britain (with passports in the name of the New Zealand spouses Peter and Helen Krogers), where he was the radio operator of the reconnaissance officer Konon Molodoy. From 1955 to 1960 he handed over to the "Center" a large number of important classified materials, including those on missile weapons, which were highly appreciated by specialists.
Failure
As a result of the betrayal of the head of the operational technology department of Polish intelligence Golenevsky, recruited by the CIA, the British counterintelligence MI5 learned that Soviet agents were working in the British Navy. Based on information received from the CIA, it was possible to establish their identity and record the transfer of materials to Konon Molodoy.
On January 7, 1961, Konon Molodiy was arrested, and after a while, studying his contacts, MI5 contacted the Coen spouses who were in contact with the intelligence officer. At the trial, Molodyy denied the family couple's involvement in intelligence activities, but despite the fact that the British court failed to prove the involvement of the Kroger couple in working for Soviet intelligence, on the basis of information provided by the United States, Peter was sentenced to 25 years, and Helen was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Liberation and move to the USSR
In August 1969, the British authorities agreed to the exchange of the Coen spouses for the MI5 agent Gerald Brook, who was arrested in the USSR. In October of the same year, an exchange took place. The couple settled in Moscow and received Soviet citizenship. Morris Cohen devoted the rest of his life to training future specialists of the USSR intelligence department.
M.G. Cohen passed away on June 23, 1995. He was buried in Moscow at the Kuntsevo cemetery, next to his wife, who died three years earlier, also a Hero of the Russian Federation.
Awards
- On July 20, 1995, by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, for the successful implementation of special tasks to ensure state security in conditions associated with a risk to life, the heroism and courage shown in this case, Morris Cohen (posthumously) was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
- For his outstanding contribution to ensuring the state security of the USSR, he was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and Friendship of Peoples.