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The Illegal: The Hunt for a Russian Spy
in Post-War London
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If one has seen The Americans, beginning to read this reminds one inevitably of it all, not due to events but the sheer theme, within a page or two.
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If one has seen The Americans, beginning to read this reminds one inevitably of it all, not due to events but the sheer theme, within a page or two.
It takes slightly longer for it to dawn that this might just be a true story.
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"It was gloomy on the first Wednesday in October as Lonsdale sat in a stuffy room and watched his classmates file in for the start of their Chinese course. The choice of course was not an accident. The class was not comprised of the normal twenty-year-old students. Most were nearly a decade older. About half were foreign or had a business background. Lonsdale was in that category. But the other half wore the uniform of pinstripe suits and bowler hats that marked them out as part of the British establishment – civil servants. And among them, Lonsdale knew, were some spies. This was where they were sent to learn the language ready for a foreign posting.
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"It was gloomy on the first Wednesday in October as Lonsdale sat in a stuffy room and watched his classmates file in for the start of their Chinese course. The choice of course was not an accident. The class was not comprised of the normal twenty-year-old students. Most were nearly a decade older. About half were foreign or had a business background. Lonsdale was in that category. But the other half wore the uniform of pinstripe suits and bowler hats that marked them out as part of the British establishment – civil servants. And among them, Lonsdale knew, were some spies. This was where they were sent to learn the language ready for a foreign posting.
"Studying Chinese was easy for Lonsdale. That was because he already spoke the language (he had even helped write a textbook in Moscow). The hardest part was hiding that fact. But it gave him plenty of time to work out who was who on his course. In a break between lectures, he found himself next to a tall, relaxed man wearing a tweed jacket and light-grey trousers. He was another Canadian – Tom Pope from Ottawa. As often happens, the foreigners and Brits kept themselves separate. But slowly the ice broke. Tom Pope, it turned out, threw a mean, martini-fuelled party and all the students came along with friends and other hangers-on to his place in Bayswater. Lonsdale was always at the centre of things – a good storyteller who would wave his hands as he talked. He knew all about theatre and culture but could also drop in the odd reference to having been a lumberjack in Canada. He was an avid amateur photographer and brought along his camera with a flash and took some snaps at one party and asked others to do the same. He promised he would send them round. At one party, another student, an American slightly worse for wear, turned to Lonsdale. ‘Hey, Gordon, I want to share with you a discovery,’ he said furtively. ‘Except for you and me, they are all spies here.’i"
"Most spies work under diplomatic cover in a foreign country – posing as something like a second secretary for trade. Everyone knows this happens and so embassies are closely watched. MI5 in Britain for instance carefully assessed each Soviet diplomat posted to London to try and work out if they were an undercover intelligence officer and their movements were restricted and monitored. If such a spy is caught in the act, they have diplomatic immunity and can be declared persona non grata and expelled. There is no risk of prison. Other spies work under non-official cover. Lots of countries do this – a spy posing as a businessman to meet an agent for instance. This makes it harder to find them but also means they have no protection if captured. An American businessman meeting a Russian diplomat in Moscow might still arouse suspicion and investigation though. So Russia takes this a step further. A true Russian illegal is not just living under cover of a different occupation but takes on an entirely different nationality. The Russian will not – to all appearances – be Russian but instead German or Canadian. This makes them immeasurably harder to find.
"Most spies work under diplomatic cover in a foreign country – posing as something like a second secretary for trade. Everyone knows this happens and so embassies are closely watched. MI5 in Britain for instance carefully assessed each Soviet diplomat posted to London to try and work out if they were an undercover intelligence officer and their movements were restricted and monitored. If such a spy is caught in the act, they have diplomatic immunity and can be declared persona non grata and expelled. There is no risk of prison. Other spies work under non-official cover. Lots of countries do this – a spy posing as a businessman to meet an agent for instance. This makes it harder to find them but also means they have no protection if captured. An American businessman meeting a Russian diplomat in Moscow might still arouse suspicion and investigation though. So Russia takes this a step further. A true Russian illegal is not just living under cover of a different occupation but takes on an entirely different nationality. The Russian will not – to all appearances – be Russian but instead German or Canadian. This makes them immeasurably harder to find.
"Moscow specialised in this approach because in the first few decades after the 1917 revolution many countries did not have formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union so there was no option of diplomatic cover. Other types of cover – such as business – were also problematic. In addition, there was a pool of ideologically motivated men and women of other countries who were willing to spy for the Soviet Union and who could either use their nationality or adopt a new one to aid the worldwide spread of communism. Some of the greatest illegals operated in Europe in the thirties, including those responsible for recruiting and running Kim Philby and the Cambridge Spies. Their successes created a powerful mythology within Soviet intelligence about this breed apart (also creating a related fear in the eyes of their adversaries). In the mid-1950s the decision was taken to build new illegal networks in Britain and America.
"Recruiting and training illegals takes an enormous investment. But patience has always been a characteristic of Russian espionage. An illegal will not just travel in and out of a country for a short period. They live and immerse themselves in their new identity and nationality for years. This takes their ability to move and work clandestinely to a whole other level. But it also takes a remarkable degree of skill to sustain one’s cover without mistake over such a long period. Men and women capable of such work are few and far between and require huge investment. ... "
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"Gordon Lonsdale told everyone he had been born on 27 August 1924 in Ontario. His father was Jack Lonsdale, who walked out on his mother a year after he was born. That was all a lie. The real story was far more extraordinary. Gordon Lonsdale was Konon Molody, born in Moscow.iv His grandfather was from Ukraine but travelled to the far east of Russia to try and make his fortune in the fur trade. His grandmother was from the Lamut tribe in Kamchatka, which is where Molody inherited his slightly Asiatic features. In his false legend he ascribed this to a Native American grandmother – everything, he knew, had to have an explanation. Molody’s father was a prominent scientific writer in Moscow; his mother was a doctor. His sister was born in 1917 and Konon arrived on 17 January 1922. When Konon’s father died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage in October 1929, the family was plunged into poverty.
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"Gordon Lonsdale told everyone he had been born on 27 August 1924 in Ontario. His father was Jack Lonsdale, who walked out on his mother a year after he was born. That was all a lie. The real story was far more extraordinary. Gordon Lonsdale was Konon Molody, born in Moscow.iv His grandfather was from Ukraine but travelled to the far east of Russia to try and make his fortune in the fur trade. His grandmother was from the Lamut tribe in Kamchatka, which is where Molody inherited his slightly Asiatic features. In his false legend he ascribed this to a Native American grandmother – everything, he knew, had to have an explanation. Molody’s father was a prominent scientific writer in Moscow; his mother was a doctor. His sister was born in 1917 and Konon arrived on 17 January 1922. When Konon’s father died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage in October 1929, the family was plunged into poverty.
"In 1931 one of his mother’s sisters came to visit. She had left Russia for faraway California. She was shocked by the destitute situation her sister and the children had found themselves in. They were half starving, Konon desperate for every scrap of food. The aunt suggested she could take the children with her to America for a better life. Konon’s sister refused. But nine-year-old Konon may have been persuaded by the promise of a bicycle. Getting him out required an exit permit. Strings had to be pulled. Konon’s mother knew the wife of the novelist Maxim Gorky, who in turn knew the head of the secret police. This may have been the moment young Konon was first noticed. Next stop was Estonia, where another aunt lived. A false birth certificate provided by a priest allowed him to pose as an illegitimate child and procure an American visa."
Here is the surprising part. He worked hard at school and joined Berkeley, but when his mother wrote to ask him to make a choice, chose to return home and joined army, disntiguishing himself in war in Byelorussia.
"After the war, he entered the Institute of Foreign Trade to study law and Chinese. But a friend recalled that soon after graduating in June 1951, Molody simply vanished."
Wouldn't thst be a common enough occurrence, for those distinguished in that institute? And did Russians talk about colleagues? Without fear of vanishing themselves as a consequence?
"There are scant details of either Molody’s or any other illegal’s training by the KGB. As well as the spycraft, there was the need to live your cover. Being an illegal requires not just knowing a language like a native but how it is used, the idioms, the nuances, the jokes, the cultural references to films or sports. ‘It is also necessary over time to learn to think in a foreign language,’ Lonsdale later said, and even when surprised to make sure you swear in it. You had to retain control in all situations, never giving in to impulsive actions or words which might give you away. The consequences of every action needed to be thought through, but you also had to do this so quickly that it looked effortless. As any child knows, one lie can quickly lead to another to cover it up, but these could all too easily get you into trouble if they did not conform to the story you had adopted. It was not like the way other spies learnt their cover identity by heart – where they had been born and where they went to school – so they could respond if asked. If you were an illegal you had to inhabit that other identity, not just dredge it up when confronted. An illegal does not adopt his cover. He becomes it. But somehow he must do it without losing sight of his true self."
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"In November 1954 Molody took a boat from Seattle to Vancouver. His accent meant he could not pass as English in London so he would become Canadian. The grey weather and rain of Vancouver, he would later say, was good preparation for London. Again, he walked the streets – not to shake surveillance but to soak up life and the geography of the city. He entered Canada using the identity of a ‘live double’ – a living Canadian communist who had handed over his passport. But in Canada he needed to find a stronger cover. That meant assuming the name of a ‘dead double’. This would be Gordon Lonsdale – a child born in Canada in 1924 but who had emigrated to the Soviet Union with his Finnish mother and died there in 1943. Molody first got hold of an identity card and then, in Toronto, the real prize – a Canadian passport."
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"In November 1954 Molody took a boat from Seattle to Vancouver. His accent meant he could not pass as English in London so he would become Canadian. The grey weather and rain of Vancouver, he would later say, was good preparation for London. Again, he walked the streets – not to shake surveillance but to soak up life and the geography of the city. He entered Canada using the identity of a ‘live double’ – a living Canadian communist who had handed over his passport. But in Canada he needed to find a stronger cover. That meant assuming the name of a ‘dead double’. This would be Gordon Lonsdale – a child born in Canada in 1924 but who had emigrated to the Soviet Union with his Finnish mother and died there in 1943. Molody first got hold of an identity card and then, in Toronto, the real prize – a Canadian passport."
"In London, Lonsdale worked his way into interesting circles – civil servants and spies on his course but also American military personnel stationed in Britain. While studying, Lonsdale began to think about what cover he could use next. He knew from his time in America that jukeboxes were a huge part of the culture but they had not yet crossed the Atlantic. So, in October 1956 he bought two machines from the Automatic Vending Company which he sited in cafes. Soon he joined the company as a director and manager of the company. He moved into supplying other vending machines, especially for bubblegum. In February 1960 he became director of another company which made a prize-winning security lock. All of this helped justify his travel around the country and his frequent trips to Europe. He seemed to relish life as a Western businessman."
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Harry Houghton was a low level British posted in Poland at the British embassy who sold secrets to Polish for money. He was sent back to Britain without his treachery being discovered, which made him more valuable to KGB and he sold more valuable secrets, dealing with submarines and more. After his wife left him and he was transferred, he recruited Bunty, a woman who had access to valuable documents. Handlers from embassy might be followed by MI5, so Harry and Bunty were handed over to Lonsdale.
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Harry Houghton was a low level British posted in Poland at the British embassy who sold secrets to Polish for money. He was sent back to Britain without his treachery being discovered, which made him more valuable to KGB and he sold more valuable secrets, dealing with submarines and more. After his wife left him and he was transferred, he recruited Bunty, a woman who had access to valuable documents. Handlers from embassy might be followed by MI5, so Harry and Bunty were handed over to Lonsdale.
In June 1960 they handed over documents on underwater detection devices, including sonar, related to Dreadnought.
CIA got anonymous letters written in German, from someone not known and codenamed SNIPER, telling about Poland getting information about two spies in Britain, one in British intelligence and other in navy; they were codenamed LAMBADA1 and 2.
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MI5 got after Houghton almost immediately, but something embarrassing emerged. Mrs Houghton had told various authorities about his selling secrets to communists, but they had, all but her welfare officer, taken this as jealous ranting of a wife in process of a divorce. Even MI5 had labeled her allegations spiteful, because they never investigated.
MI5 got after Houghton almost immediately, but something embarrassing emerged. Mrs Houghton had told various authorities about his selling secrets to communists, but they had, all but her welfare officer, taken this as jealous ranting of a wife in process of a divorce. Even MI5 had labeled her allegations spiteful, because they never investigated.
They saw Houghton and his girlfriend meeting the handler, Lonsdale, whom they followed. He behaved like a spy, but was only a businessman, which didn't make sense. MI5 trailed him to Midlands Bank where he left something before flying to U.S., and a quiet word to the bank authority had MI5 get their hands on his spy equipment, cameras and films and one time code pads. They were able to copy everything.
He'd in reality flown to meet his wife in East Europe, maintaining his real life and identity as a loving husband and father; in London he played a playhouses with a lot of glamour women, none constant, none close. On his return MI5 followed him to a house belonging to the Peter and Helen Kroger couple, who said they were Canadian but held New Zealand passports. They were illegals supporting Gordon Lonsdale in his work. MI5 codenamed them KILLJOYS. They were in reality Morris Cohen, born of Russian parents in N.Y., and his wife Lona born of Polish parents, and he'd been noticed by Soviet intelligence when he fought in Spanish civil war. Lona had played a key role in their career, obtaining documents about atomic bomb from an agent by going to New Mexico with excuse of a treatment for tuberculosis. They had flown to Moscow after Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested.
The Kroger couple had a bungalow close to RAF Northholt and hid a powerful radio transmitter that could contact Moscow directly. MI5 used a neighbour's house for surveillance, and a neighbouring apartment in London for electronic and radio surveillance.
They wanted to wait to catch other agents run by Lonsdale, but Houghton was doing damage. CIA came to say SNIPER was defecting next day. Then Soviets would know that whatever he knew was blown, so Lonsdale might vanish. The three were arrested as they walked together after she'd handed over a basket. It carried admiralty files. Kroger were arrested next, and the two houses - Kroger bungalow and Lonsdale apartment - yielded much including the high power radio transmitter.
They had a hard time establishing Lonsdale false identity, which happened with help of Canadians who knew about the real Gordon Lonsdale and knew the boy had died. Of the five, Lonsdale received the longest sentence, in the trial which was embarrassing for British authorities, especially the admiralty. But they knew Lonsdale was running other agents, and maintaining silence, having been sacrificed to protect others, possibly a mole inside MI5.
Elwell, who'd been in Colditz Castle as a prisoner during WWII, tried to get him to make a deal, but to no avail. Elwell lacked the power to offer the deal Lonsdale might take; money he said he'd make easily by selling rights to his story, and he was loyal to his country. U.S. had swapped his old handler Abel in 1962 for Gary Powers, so Lonsdale knew KGB would take care of him too. In April 1964 he was exchanged for Greville Wynne who was a businessman and had been used as a go-between for Oleg Penkowsky.
Back in Russia, he didn't fit in, they couldn't trust he hadn't turned, and he died suddenly of heart attack at forty-eight, after heavy drinking sometimes as recalled by his son.
Russia still had, in eighties, a hundred illegals out and another hundred in training as estimated by West. In 2010 four couples were arrested by FBI in U.S., all Russian illegals.
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June 05, 2020 -
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June 05, 2020 -
December 02, 2020 - December 03, 2020.
Published by
Amazon Publishing,
Seattle
eISBN: 9781503957466
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