The two men met again in London during a Soviet trade mission in spring 1961. During his two-week stay in London, Penkovsky was subjected to several interrogations by MI6, as well as the CIA. The two secret service agencies had little to hide from each other, especially as the British, when faced with such an important decision, preferred to have the collaboration of their big brother on the other side of the Atlantic.
Penkovsky was clearly not the only member on the Soviet trade mission and therefore had to hide these meeting from his fellow delegates. During the day he would fulfil the mission he was supposed to be undertaking: collecting commercial and scientific information for Soviets. In short, fulfilling the role of a spy. Then every evening at his hotel, he would discretely leave his room and visit those of his British and American counterparts.
The western authorities were quickly convinced of Penkovsky's sincerity. They analysed the information he gave to them and after comparing it with their own findings, realised that he was telling the truth. This meant that a fantastic opportunity was now open to them: if they were able to maintain contact with the Russian spy after his return to Moscow, they would have an agent in the Soviet secret service for the very first time. When other Soviet agents had defected to the West in the past and revealed their secrets, they were no longer of any use. In Penkovsky's case, however, the British and Americans were hoping they had found a permanent source of information. It was almost a ‘Philby' in reverse.
Yet the information still needed to be collected, which meant that contact with Penkovsky had to be maintained. This was obviously going to be much harder after Penkovsky had gone back to Moscow. In this respect, Greville Wynne would be available to help as he was able to meet Penkovsky in Moscow without arousing suspicion. However, he was only able to get to Moscow every four days, which meant that as well as using dead-letterboxes, they had to think up even more complicated and risky procedures that would enable them to exchange the documents that Penkovsky had copied.
These furtive encounters in the street had to be carefully planned, but what did they involve? One way was for two people to brush past each other and without stopping, discretely pass an envelope from one hand to another. However, this method would not work if it was always the same two people as one or both of them could already be under surveillance. This was one of the reasons why the secret service had to have a large staff, which was luckily the case for the western authorities in Moscow. For several months, Penkovsky worked hard delivering his information. According to some estimates, by the end of the operation he had passed over more than 5000 documents to the West.
In September 1961, Penkovsky once more went on an ‘official' trade mission, but this time to Paris. Once more, his friend Greville Wynne was waiting for him. Penkovsky handed over numerous documents but informed him that he believed he was being watched in Moscow. The English businessman wisely advised him to remain in the West. However, the colonel was concerned about his family: if he defected, the KGB would likely arrest his wife or mother. So in spite of the danger, he returned to the USSR.
His suspicions were justified: Penkovsky was under surveillance. Thanks to their own agents who had infiltrated the British secret service, the KGB now knew that the intelligence agency had a highly-placed informant. However, their identity remained a mystery. Consequently, all senior intelligence officers who might have had contact with westerners were put under surveillance. They also increased their surveillance on all western diplomats, as they were convinced that the traitor must have a case officer who was working under cover within the diplomatic corps.
Penkovsky was under no more suspicion than the others, but this extraordinary surveillance operation had to bear fruit sooner or later. The KGB observed that
Penkovsky often met with the wife of a British diplomat, Janet Chisholm, and so the colonel was put under constant surveillance. The apartment immediately above his own on Rue Gorsky was immediately taken over by the KGB, who proceeded to drill a hole in the ceiling and install a small camera. In order to safely search his apartment and install more microphones, the KGB managed to poison Penkovsky, who was consequently hospitalised as a result. During his absence, the KGB searched his apartment and found photography equipment that had been given to Penkovsky by the intelligence agency.
The traitor that they had been trying for months to track down had now been discovered. However, the KGB did not arrest Penkovsky as they wanted to find out who his contacts were and what information he had passed on. Last but not least, the they wanted to try and use Penkovsky to provide false information to the western authorities. But how would they do this? Penkovsky was an expert in missiles, and so there was every reason to believe that he had disclosed Soviet secrets on this matter. Yet, the greatest of these secrets was itself based on a bluff as the Russians had managed to successfully convince the Americans that they had intercontinental rockets equivalent to their own. This was completely untrue. In fact, at this time the Russian arsenal was around four times smaller than that of the US, with only seventy-five intercontinental missiles. Penkovsky was obviously aware of this and had no doubt told the US as such. This meant that the Soviets had to come up with a plan, and quickly. And so, the origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis can be traced back to the betrayal of one man.
[Oleg Penkovsky
I lived my life surrounded by the leaders of the Soviet Union and I wanted them to die as a
