Spy Scandal-Stealing of Atomic Secrets

    The Stealing of Atomic Secrets - Part 2

Dr. Alan Nunn May

   Igor Gouzenko was removed with his family to a safe place. He had informed that the code names of the British scientists who leaked out information about the atom bomb were Alec and Golia. The western intelligence agencies intercepted a telegram from the Soviet embassy in Canada which informed Moscow that Alec was proceeding to London.

   It was immediately identified that this Alec was none other than Dr. Alan Nunn May. He was a passionate Communist. He worked at Tube Alloy Projects which was a code name for the atom bomb project. It was decided to shift the atomic research project to Canada for better safety. Then it facilitated better co-ordination with the American project. Dr. Alan Nunn May was in contact with Colonel Zabotin, the GRU officer in Ottawa. For two and half years after 1943, Dr. Alan Nunn May made frequent visits between Chalk River and Montreal. He also visited the American project at the Argonne laboratory in Chicago. Dr. Alan Nunn May was supplied information about atomic energy and Uranium. He gave the Russians a report about the A-bomb trial at New Mexico and also supplied a sample of Uranium-235. He was arrested in March 1946 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

   Another principal character in this drama was Emil Julius Klaus Fuchs. He revealed to the Soviet Union details of construction of atomic and plutonium bombs. It is said that he was involved in making the Russians catch up with research in atomic weapons in the western countries. He was also employed in Tube Alloy Projects. He used to make reports to Simon Kremer of the military attaché’s department at the Soviet embassy in London.

Peter the Great-The Tsar of Russia

   Peter the Great - The Emperor of Russia (Part-3)

Peter the Great - Tsar of Russia

   Peter asked Alexei Petrovich to retire to a monastery and threatened to treat him as a criminal in case of his refusal. Alexei did not refuse and sent his acceptance immediately. Peter was puzzled and in the meantime, he reached Copenhagen at the head of a victorious army. In August 1716, he wrote to Alexei from Copenhagen to again retire to a monastery or report to him in the battlefield. Alexei decided to go to Copenhagen and as soon as he crossed Russia’s boundaries and he instead of heading towards Copenhagen, reached Vienna and beseeched his wife’s brother-in-law, Charles VI, to grant him refuge. Charles sent him, near Naples for safety. But Peter would not tolerate his son’s escape. On the one hand, he assured Alexei Petrovich forgiveness if he returned to him and, on the other hand, he threatened to occupy the Roman Empire by force in case Charles did not surrender and extradite Alexei.

   Alexei Petrovich was left with no option. Charles dared not incur the wrath of the Tsar. Thus, Alexei returned to Moscow on January 31, 1718. On February 3, Peter assembled high clergy and state officials and Alexei name all those who had helped him in his escape to Vienna, if he wanted to attain Peter’s forgiveness. Alexei had nothing to hide as he was not hatching a conspiracy against his father. He disclosed the requisite names. He also agreed to renounce his right to the throne in favor of Catherine’s son, Peter.

   Peter was in his fury and he alleged that Alexei’s mother, Eudoxia Lopukhina, was involved in this plot. He asked for the nuns from the convent in which Eudoxia was incarcerated and had them flogged mercilessly to pressurize them into admitting that she was really involved. But the nuns failed to company.

   Peter was bent upon humiliating Eudoxia and her son, Alexie Petrovich. He charged her of an illegitimate affair with an army officer named Glebov. Glebov was impaled and his friend, the Bishop of Rostov, was broken on a wheel. Eudoxia Lopukhina was banished to a remote Siberian convent to ultimately die of cold and hunger.

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.

Emperor of Russia-Peter the Great

      Peter the Great - Tsar of Russia (Part-2)

Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich

   Peter was a man of harsh and volatile temperament. Human life was of no consequence to him and models of justice he ignored at will. He did not spare even the woman he loved and flirted with and made them not only bend but break before him.

   He had his first wife locked in a convent (monkery) and later she was ordered to take to the veil. He ordered his first mistress, Anna Ivanova Mons, into prison on learning that she had another lover. He had a short affair with one Marie Hamilton who later chose to mart Peter’s assistant, Ivan Orlov and gave birth to a child who died soon thereafter. Peter charged her of infanticide and sentenced her to death. Peter personally attended her execution.

   When Peter was 25 years old, he declared that he had discovered a plot against his life. The conspirators aimed at the re-establishment of Sophia’s regency with Peter’s infant son on the throne. Peter let loose a reign of terror and put a number of his military officers through torture chambers and executed them.
 
   As many as 1,700 men and women were charged with sedition. They were interrogated and mercilessly whipped which tore their flesh, their bones broken on the wheel and grilled on slow fire. Most of them, unable to bear the torture, made false confessions to the sedition charges. Then there were mass executions. Gallows and execution blocks were erected in the Red Square, around the convent in which Sophia was detained. Peter personally kept a record of executions in his diary: On September 30, 201 men were sent to gallows on October 11, 144: on October 12, 205; on October 13, 144; on October 17, 109; on October 18, 63; on October 19, 106; and on October 20 it was 2.