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.

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.