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. 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. Why does the Government what James Donovan to negotiate the Trade? Yet, the relentless search to identify the person who had brought the hollow nickel to New York, as well as the person for whom the coded message was intended, continued. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Abel, Federal Bureau of Investigation - Biography of Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, Rudolf Abel - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). [27], In July 1949, Fisher met with a "legal" KGB resident from the Soviet consulate general, who provided him with money. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Abel, who was born in Newcastle as William Fisher and once worked at Swan Hunter in Wallsend, went on to become a Russian spy during the Cold War. this is just under two hours. [65], Fisher served just over four years of his sentence. 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. Place seems right. Several former intelligence agents who had defected to the free world from communist-bloc nations were contacted. 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. display. According to the second one, he was Martin Collins, born June 2, 1897, also in New York. Fisher was assigned New York lawyer James B. Donovan, and the two developed a strong rapport. Updates? Sorry, Jimmy, she said. In 1949, Hyhnen freely obtained Maki's birth certificate. They contained shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, cuff links, and numerous other trick containers. He had returned to the Soviet Union in October 1956. He was tried in a federal court in Brooklyn and in October was found guilty on three counts of espionage and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. This man was followed down Fulton Street to a nearby subway station. [6] In 1896, he was arrested for sedition and sentenced to three years internal exile. Operating as a Soviet spy in New York City, he was imprisoned for espionage following a high-profile trial in 1957. [10] However, in 1938 he was dismissed from the NKVD, which the OGPU had been renamed to in 1934. [27] Grigulevich gave Fisher a genuine birth certificate, a forged draft card and a forged tax certificate, all under the name of Emil Robert Goldfus, along with $1,000. On July 3, 1951, Hayhanenthen living in Turku, Finlandvisited the United States Legation in Helsinki. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. The U.S. government then used Abel to secure the release of Powers, whose Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft had been forced down near Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), in the central Soviet Union, on May 1, 1960. Following his return to Russia what happened to Rudolf Abel? What sentence does Francis Gary Powers receive from the Soviet Court? In 1948, the KGB had called Hyhnen to Moscow where they issued him a new assignment. Decided March 28, 1960. Abel v. United States. Fisher was subsequently indicted to stand trial as a Russian spy. In his five years in prison, Abel kept his silence, but the latter prophecy came true in 1962 when he was exchanged for Powers in Berlin. Fisher knew that the FBI's use of his rank could have only come from Hyhnen. When the New York detective contacted him, Jimmy handed over the hollow nickel and the photograph it contained. [12] Though Fisher was not as hard-working as Henry, he showed aptitude for science, mathematics, languages, art and music, inherited in part from his father's abilities. He had arrived in the United States in October 1916 and became a naturalized American citizen at Grand Rapids, Michigan on December 30, 1930. In the spring of 1955, Fisher and Hyhnen visited Bear Mountain Park, and buried $5,000, (equivalent to $50,578 in 2021), destined for the wife of the Soviet spy Morton Sobell, who in 1951 was sentenced to thirty years in jail. During World War II, he again trained radio operators for clandestine work behind German lines. He became friends with two other convicted Soviet spies. Afterward, Fisher sent Donovan two rare manuscripts as a show of his appreciation. That happened, and five years later, Rudolf Abel walked across the Glienicke Bridge between Potsdam and East Berlin, where he was met by Soviet intelligence. [27][29] The Volunteer network grew to include "Aden" and "Serb", nuclear physicists contacted by Hall, and "Silver". Although the FBI was convinced that it had finally identified the Soviet espionage apparatus which was responsible for the hollow Jefferson nickel, only one half of the mystery posed by this coin since its discovery in June 1953 had been solved. [27] Fisher, as Kayotis, then travelled aboard the RMSScythia from Le Havre, France, to North America, disembarking at Quebec. 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. The message apparently was intended for Hayhanen and had been sent from the Soviet Union shortly after his arrival in the United States. Cain then became a fugitive because his brother's innocent blood put a . 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. Additionally, the kind of typewriter which had been used in preparing the coded message could not be identified. Best Known For: Soviet spy William Fisher, a.k.a. The two ladies who had changed the newboys dollar on the evening of June 22 were located. The face of the coin was a 1948 Jefferson nickel. Kitty Harris, a former pupil of Fisher's, had spent a year in Santa Fe during the war, where she passed secrets from physicists to couriers. He died in 1971. One of the coins seemed to have a peculiar ring. The two men were brought to separate sides of the Glienicker Bridge, which connects East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. [45], When Hyhnen announced himself at the embassy on 4 May, he appeared drunk. It read: 1. In Washington, each effort to decipher the microphotograph met with failure. Since the FBI Laboratory maintains a reference file concerning typewriters manufactured in the United States, a foreign-made typewriter undoubtedly was involved. They sold their belongings and left their Idaho farm for New York to book passage on a ship to Europe. In keeping with instructions contained in a message he received from Soviet officials, Hayhanen was met by Mark at a movie theater in Flushing, Long Island, during the late summer of 1954. Corrections? Please check.. TRANSMIT INSERTIONS SEPARATELY.5. Upon his return to New York in 1956, he found that his carefully constructed network had been left to disintegrate in his absence. In 1927, the family migrated to Estonia. Another was the base of a lamp post in Fort Tryon Park. How did the Supreme Court rule in Rudolf Abel's Case? Mark also sent Hayhanen on trips alone. One of these was Morton Sobell, whose wife had failed to receive the $5,000 embezzled by Hyhnen. [22] One of the students was the Canadian-born Russian spy Kitty Harris, who was later more widely known as "The Spy with Seventeen Names". According to Hayhanen, Mark was a colonel in the KGB and had been engaged in espionage work since approximately 1927. Questioned about the hollow bolt, Hayhanen said that trick containers such as this were often used by the espionage apparatus which he served. The information which he provided was applied by FBI Laboratory experts to the microphotograph from the Jefferson nickel. [32][69], After his return to Moscow, Fisher was employed by the Illegals Directorate of the KGB's First Chief Directorate, giving speeches and lecturing school children on intelligence work, but became increasingly disillusioned. (2001). Hayhanen was born near Leningrad on May 14, 1920. While efforts were being made to decode the message on the microphotograph, FBI agents in New York launched an investigation to find the source of the hollow coin. IT IS TOO EARLY TO SEND YOU THE GAMMAS. Two months later, however, he was conscripted by the Communists secret police, the NKVD. In the intelligence and counterintelligence field, patience is more than a virtue. 26. ENCIPHER SHORT LETTERS, BUT THE LONGER ONES MAKE WITH INSERTIONS. At Donovan's initial meeting with Fisher, the latter accepted Donovan as his defense counsel. WE WISH YOU SUCCESS. [71], Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel on a 1990 USSR commemorative stamp. The court sentenced Abel to 30 years imprisonment. Wait a moment and try again. Now I need your help.. While the surveillance continued at 252 Fulton Street, other FBI agents made daily checks on the dead drops that Hayhanen stated he and Mark had used. For the next seven months the hollow nickel travelled around the New York City economy, unopened. [2][4] On 15 November 1957, Judge Mortimer W. Byers imposed on Fisher a total sentence of thirty years and fines of $3,000. From 1953 to 1957, continuing efforts were made to solve the mystery of the hollow coin. It is an absolute necessity. 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. A lady answered the door. The real Eugene Nicolai Maki was born in Enaville, Idaho on May 30, 1919. [17], Fluent in English, Russian, German, Polish and Yiddish,[18] Fisher worked for the Comintern as a translator following his family's return to the Soviet Union. As the spies waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a white line divided East from West. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel ( Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 - 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. Thats Mark.. However, on 21 October 1952, as instructed by Moscow, Reino Hyhnen left a thumbtack on a signpost in New York's Central Park. She disappeared for a moment, then returned with a purse in her hand. The detective had received his information from another police officer whose daughter was acquainted with the newsboy. While his KGB training continued, Hayhanen worked as a mechanic in the City of Valga, Estonia. The four powers were to discuss tensions in the two Germanys and negotiate new disarmament treaties. [43], By early 1957, Fisher had lost patience with Hyhnen and demanded that Moscow recall his deputy. On November 14, 1948, he disembarked from the ship at Quebecand quickly dropped out of sight. The lawyer even appealed Fishers 45-year prison sentence on the grounds that the search of his studio had been unconstitutional, though the Supreme Court upheld the original ruling in 1960. Hollow Nickel/Rudolf Abel One of the nation's most fascinatingand ultimately significantspy cases began in the summer of 1953, when a Brooklyn newspaper boy dropped a nickel he had just. [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. [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. [45], During Fisher's detainment the FBI had been searching his hotel room and photo studio, where they discovered espionage equipment including shortwave radios, cipher pads, cameras and film for producing microdots, a hollow shaving brush, and numerous "trick" containers including hollowed-out bolts. [45] Fisher, unsuspecting, advised Hyhnen to leave the U.S. immediately to avoid FBI surveillance and handed him $200 for travel expenses. Powers returned to the United States and wrote of his view of Francis Gary Powers, (born August 17, 1929, Jenkins, Kentucky, U.S.died August 1, 1977, Encino, California), pilot who was captured on May 1, 1960, while on a reconnaissance flight deep inside the Soviet . FBI mugshot of William August Fisher, a.k.a. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Russian: ), real name William August Fisher (11 July 1903 15 November 1971), was a Soviet intelligence officer. The action remained secret until it was successfully completed. After leaving the United States, the Maki family settled in Estonia. [59] The Brooklyn Bar Association approached several prominent trial lawyers with political ambitions, all of whom declined the case. Rudolf Abel was born William Fisher in England in 1903. His helper, deployed to the USA began to demonstrate signs of instability and nervousness. [27], On 26 November, Fisher met with Soviet "illegal" Josef Romvoldovich Grigulevich (codenamed "MAKS" or "ARTUR"). The Cohens were quickly spirited to Mexico before moving on to Moscow. During this period, Fisher posed as a photographer and painter named Emil R. Goldfus and immersed himself in a Brooklyn artistic community. The trail of the hollow nickel ended when a thirteen-year-old newsboy was collecting for his weekly deliveries. Moments later, FBI agents saw him take a subway to 28th Street, and they stood by unnoticed as he emerged from the subway and walked to the Hotel Latham on East 28th Street. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. He had come to the United States in 1948 or 1949, entering by illegally crossing the Canadian border. 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. As identification symbols, Hayhanen wore a blue and red striped tie and smoked a pipe. 27. She was to join him in the United States on February 20, 1953four months after his arrival here. Svirin had been in and out of the United States on several occasions between 1939 and 1956. On November 15, 1957, Brooklyn judge Mortimer W. Byers sentenced Soviet spy Rudolf Abel to consecutive terms of 30, 10, and 5 years in prison and fined him $3,000. End of preview. 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