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.

The founder of British Secret Service-Sir Vernon Kell

The founder of British Secret Service - Sir Vernon Kell (Part-2)

Vernon Kell and his company

   The Germans made another attempt to throw a spy ring in Britain, but they could make absolutely no headway. Vernon Kell had appealed to the public through the newspapers that it should help to get the German spies arrested by giving full information regarding suspicious characters. Information regarding suspected spies started to poor in. the room of a Norwegian journalist was searched because he was to quiet and kept himself detached from people. The journalist did turn out to be a foreign spy. He was found in possession of invisible ink which has been kept in a bottle labeled as “throat wash”.

   It was Vernon Kell who was responsible for the arrest of Carl Hans Lody, a German spy residing in America. His arrest led to the decisive victory over Germany by the British. In the year 1914 Carl Hans Lody reached Scotland posing to be a tourist in the month of September. He sent a telegram to his Swedish contact which read, ”Hope we will soon defeat the wretched Germans.”

Peter the Great-Emperor of Russia

  Peter the Great-Emperor of Russia (Part-1)

Peter the Great

   Peter the Great was a clever despot. His full name was Peter Alekseyevich Romanov. He had fits of manic-depression in which he would indulge in the worst kinds of brutalities and take delight in them. Typically of his horribly cruel behavior was the way he treated hundreds of men and women who, he alleged, were plotting to overthrow him. They were mercilessly whipped which tore their flesh, their bones were broken on the wheel and then grilled on slow fire. Could the Devil be more ruthless than him?

   Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich’s fourteenth child was Peter (total sixteen, but two of them died in childhood). Nathalie Naryshkina’s was Tsar Alexis’s second wife and Peter was her first child, Peter was merely three years old at the time of the Tsar’s death in 1676. Tsar Alexis was succeeded by his eldest son, Fedor, a boy of 14, from his first wife Maria Miloslavskaya. Fedor was sickly and he died childless at 20. He left a brother, Ivan - a half-blind and mentally deficient boy of 15.

   Immediately after the death of Fedor (April 27, 1682) Peter’s mother succeeded in nominating Peter as his, successor. This was resented by Sophia Alexseyevna Romanov, the eldest of the six daughters of Peter’s father by his first wife. Sophia organized a military revolt which began on March 15 and resulted in the brutal murder of Peter’s maternal uncles and other supporters. She took control of the government in her hands on May 17. On May 26, she announced Ivan the first and Peter the second Tsar and herself became the regent for the duration of the minority of her brothers. She first refused regency, as a comic act on her part, and then accepted it on May 29, 1682. Thus she became Russia’s first woman ruler since the rule of Princess Olga in the tenth century. Sophia was not beautiful by any count. She was madly in love with Prince Vasili Golitsin, one of her father’s advisers, and he became Sophia’s most trusted counselor.

Sir Vernon Kell-The founder of British Secret Service

       Sir Vernon Kell, the founder of British Secret Service (Part-1)

Sir Vernon Kell, the founder of MI-5

Sir Vernon Kell, the man who failed all the attempts of Germany to win the First World War. He was the founder of British Secret Service, MI-5, succeeded in getting all information from the German spy, Carl Hans Lody. This helped to defeat Kaiser’s German Army during the First World War. During his term Sir Vernon Kell displayed a rare kind of skill and insight which helped Britain to get rid of all German spies.

   With the beginning of the 20th century the German dictator Kaiser Wilhelm II started preparations for attacking Britain. In the year 1902 the German spies had begun to infiltrate into Britain. Within seven to eight years, German spied had spread themselves all over England. Every bit of information was being sent to Germany. A counter espionage organization was formed in Britain. It was called MO-5 which was later changed MI-5. Till today this is Britain’s largest espionage organization. Captain Vernon Kell was the founder of this organization. With a rare kind of skill he was able to break the German Spy Wing, which was an event of historical importance.

   Vernon Kell did something very unusual. He attached his own organization to the Special Branch of the Scotland Yard. Patrick Quinn, the Superintendent of the Scotland Yard Special Branch gave his full cooperation to Vernon Kell. This helped a great deal towards the success of MI-5. In 1910 Kaiser Wilhelm II came to Britain to attend the funeral of King Edward VII. His delegation included a Naval Captain, who often visited a barber’s shop on London’s Caledoniam Road. Vernon Kell had long suspected that the shop had something to do with the German spies, as it was run by a German called Carl Gustav Ernst. Vernon Kell thought that a person who had come with the royal delegation could easily get a barber called to his residence for hair cut. To get his suspicions confirmed, Vernon Kell got the officer followed by his own men. Letters addressed to the barber were also opened and read.