The famous intelligence officer was born in 1903 in the UK. His parents were Russian revolutionaries exiled to Europe for their activities. At birth, the child will be named William Fisher (in honor of Shakespeare). The name Rudolph Abel will be assigned to him after his arrest, when he will be a spy in the USA.
Childhood
Father Heinrich Fischer was from a family of Russian Germans living in the Yaroslavl province. He was a convinced Marxist and met Lenin back in the 1990s. An activist and propagandist, he was arrested and sent abroad. Mother was a native of Saratov and was also engaged in revolutionary activities. Together with her husband, she distributed the Iskra newspaper among the workers.
Interestingly, Abel's father constantly changed his names to confuse the tsarist secret police who were persecuting the revolutionaries. Therefore, the tradition of calling Heinrich in different ways has been preserved in the family. So, the younger Fisher addressed him in letters as Andrey.
A child with many talents from early childhood. He was gifted in the natural sciences, and enjoyed drawing and playing musical instruments. His artistic talent helped him in the US when one of his portraits was presented to then President John F. Kennedy.
As a child, Rudolf Abel was distinguished by the character of a naughty. With a friend, he hijacked the boats of English fishermen, even though he could not swim and was terribly afraid of water.
Homecoming
The future Abel Rudolf Ivanovich did not have time to finish his studies in England, because a revolution took place in Russia. The Bolsheviks came to power, and his family, as the oldest members of the organization, returned to Moscow and even lived in the Kremlin. Mother became friends with Lenin's sister Maria. However, life in Russia was almost immediately overshadowed by tragedy. Once the family went to swim in the river, and the older brother of the young man, Harry, drowned in it.
In the twenties, Rudolf Abel often changed jobs. At first he was an interpreter in the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Later he entered one of the newly opened Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops.
The year 1925 came, and Abel Rudolf Ivanovich ended up in the army. He became a radio operator in a radiotelegraph regiment. In the service, he became interested in technology, which helped him in his future career. Along the same line, he later got into the Research Institute of the Air Force. There he was a brilliant radio technician. Then he married Elena Lebedeva, a musician who played the harp. The couple had an only daughter.
Finally, in 1927, knowledge of foreign languages and family ties lead Abel to the OGPU, or rather, to the foreign intelligence department. Here he was able to apply all his talents. At first he was a full-time translator, later he turned out to be a radio operator again.
Work for foreign intelligence
Ablethe young man was sent to the UK. He was helped by the fact that he himself was born in this country and lived there part of his childhood. For almost all of the 30s, Abel carried out illegal assignments for intelligence. In particular, he was a radio operator for European stations in Norway and the UK.
One of his most delicate assignments of that time was an order to persuade the famous physicist Pyotr Kapitsa to return to his homeland. He lived and taught in Oxford, only returning to the USSR for the holidays. However, Stalin personally wanted the scientist to be left in the country in any way, since at that time there was an outflow of qualified personnel.
Therefore, very soon a new friend and guest Rudolf Abel appeared in the family of the scientist. The intelligence officer's biography allowed him to easily gain confidence in Kapitsa, if only because he himself was well versed in physics. In addition, the illegal had an excellent language - he convinced the scientist that the country of the Soviets has all the conditions for life and work.
He assured that Pyotr Leonidovich could always return to England. However, when he ended up in the USSR, the border was closed for him, and he remained at home.
At the end of the 1930s, the NKVD went through mass purges, which Rudolf Abel did not escape. Photos of that time could catch him at the All-Union Chamber of Commerce, where he got a job after his dismissal. However, he was lucky: he was not shot or even arrested.
Besides, the war began, and the former intelligence officer was returned to duty. Now he trained radio operators who were supposed to go toback to the Germans. It was in those years that another intelligence officer, Rudolf Abel, became his friend. William Fisher's pseudonym is taken from here.
US service
True, that wasn't his only alias. When Abel was sent to the USA after the war, the intelligence officer lived with different passports, he was also called a Lithuanian and a German artist. New York became his place of residence, where he started his own photo studio, which played the role of an effective cover. It was from here that he led the vast intelligence network of the USSR in America.
His official nickname was Mark. In the late 1940s, he worked with the famous Coen spies. Abel's activity was effective - specific documents and information were received in the country.
Arrest
However, in 1957, the intelligence officer was handed over to the CIA. There is a traitor in his entourage. It was radio operator Vic, who gave the American authorities information about the spy network.
When the arrest took place, Fischer introduced himself as Rudolf Abel. It was under this name that he went down in history. Despite the fact that he pleaded not guilty, the court sentenced him to 32 years in prison. Abel was in solitary confinement in Atlanta and would have remained there until the end of his term, if not for the attempts of Soviet intelligence to return his resident.
Liberation
When American pilot Francis Powers was shot down near Sverdlovsk in 1960, he was also sentenced to 10 years in the Vladimir Central. However, the diplomacy of the two countries agreed to exchangeprisoners.
The operation was carried out in Berlin on the Glienicke Bridge on February 10, 1962. It was the border between the Western and Eastern worlds, where two political systems touched. Soon the bridge was called "spy", as there were at least three more cases of exchange of discovered spies after that. In addition to Powers, student Frederick Pryor returned to the United States, arrested on suspicion of espionage.
Rudolf Abel returned to public service after a short treatment. He began to teach and trained young scouts. In 1968, he became known throughout the country thanks to the detective "Dead Season". The film was based on the facts of his biography, and the scout himself became an adviser to the picture.
William Fisher passed away in 1971 after battling lung cancer. He is buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery. The story of his life inspired the writer Vadim Kozhevnikov to create the popular novel The Shield and the Sword, which was later filmed.
