The Stealing of Atomic Secrets

    The Stealing of Atomic Secrets - Part 1

Igor Gouzenko

   The disclosures that the former Soviet Union had organized a wide network of spies to steal the secrets of making an atom bomb, exploded in the face of its war time allies, U.S.A., England and Canada. They could hardly believe what the defector Igor Gouzenko had to tell them about this stealing. The Anglo-American group was spending money like water on this project, while the Russians got information regarding the atom bomb with ease. It certainly saved them a lot of time on research. This sensational spy scandal caused a permanent rift between the communist block on one side and the western allies on the other.

   Igor Gouzenko was greatly troubled. He had been working as cypher clerk to the military attaché in the Soviet legation in Ottawa. He was in Canada for the last two years and had immensely enjoyed his stay. He did not want to go back to the rigorous life in the Soviet Union after having tasted the pleasures of a free Society in Canada. His wife Swetlana and son Andrei were also perturbed about going back to Russia.

   It was really a “do or die” decision for him. Either he swims or sinks, he thought as he made up his mind to defect. He amassed a stack of secret papers from the “Soviet Legation”, copies of cables from and to Moscow agent index cards with cover names and pages from the case book of the military attache, Colonel Nicolai Zabotin. The papers also revealed the workings of a spy ring which was supplying information to the Soviet Union that enabled Russia to catch up with the Western countries in the manufacture of atomic weapons.

   After collecting all the information as proof of his honesty, Igor Gouzenko presented himself at the gate of the British High Commission. Victory was being celebrated there with big party. He asked the gate-man to reach some documents to the High Commissioner. The Canadian Prime Minister-Mackenzie King was astonished as he saw these papers. The atom bomb had already been dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, causing untold suffering to the unfortunate inhabitants of that city. The city became a mound of rubble within minutes and some 80,000 people suffered instant death. Those who survived were maimed for life. It had proved to be a powerful weapon for destruction. The Canadian Prime Minister-Mackenzie King was supposed to be a friend of Soviet Union and now he saw the evidence of their duplicity. That was on September 6, 1945. He immediately flew off to inform President Truman of United States and Clement Atlee, the Prime Minister of England.

Canadian Prime Minister-Mackenzie King

   The kingpin of this entire operation was Anatoli Yakovlev. He was a GRU officer posted in New York as Soviet consul-general. He used two sets of people to get at the American atomic bomb secrets. Julius Rosenberg was used by him as an agent and he also took advantage of the old professional spy Harry Gold. In this way he was able to gather confidential atomic information. Harry Gold was used as a contact man for the British scientist Klaus Fuchs who was the prime supplier of this information. Harry Gold also acted as courier for information from Julius Rosenberg and David Greenglass. Apart from the lead players of this operation, Anatoli Yakovlev was helped by Elizabeth Bentley, his agent in Washington. Altogether there were twenty agents active in Canada including two experts in sending messages in code language. One of them, Emma Volkin, was employed in the external affairs department in Canada. The other was Kay Wilshar who worked in the British High Commission.






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