Russian-American stories. No heroes were expected in their homeland

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Morris Henrikhovich Cohen
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[[Lua error in Module:Wikidata/Interproject on line 17: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value). |Works]] in Wikisource

Morris Genrikhovich Cohen(operational pseudonym - Peter Kroger; July 2 ( 19100702 ) , New York - June 23, Moscow) - Soviet intelligence officer of American origin, Hero of the Russian Federation (the title was awarded posthumously in 1995).

Biography

Family

Excerpt characterizing Cohen, Morris Genrikhovich

– Did the church ever find this tomb? – I asked quietly.
- Yes, Isidora. The servants of the Devil, with the help of dogs, found this cave. But even they did not dare to touch what nature had so hospitably embraced. They did not dare to light their “purifying”, “sacred” fire there, since, apparently, they felt that this work had long been done for them by someone else... Since then, this place has been called the Cave of the Dead. There and much later, in different years The Cathars and Knights of the Temple came to die, their followers, persecuted by the church, hid there. Even now you can still see old inscriptions left there by the hands of people who once sheltered... The most different names there they intertwine together with the mysterious signs of the Perfect... There the glorious House of Foix, the persecuted proud Trencaveli... There sadness and hopelessness come into contact with desperate hope...

And one more thing... Nature has been creating its own stone “memory” there for centuries of sad events and people who deeply affected its great loving heart... At the very entrance to the Cave of the Dead there is a statue of a wise owl, who has been protecting the peace of the dead for centuries...

– Tell me, Sever, the Cathars believed in Christ, didn’t they? – I asked sadly.
The North was truly surprised.
- No, Isidora, that’s not true. The Cathars did not “believe” in Christ, they turned to him, spoke to him. He was their Teacher. But not by God. You can only believe blindly in God. Although I still don’t understand how a person can need blind faith? This church once again distorted the meaning of someone else's teachings... The Cathars believed in KNOWLEDGE. In honesty and helping other, less fortunate people. They believed in Good and Love. But they never believed in one person. They loved and respected Radomir. And they adored the Golden Mary who taught them. But they never made a God or a Goddess out of them. They were for them symbols of Mind and Honor, Knowledge and Love. But they were still PEOPLE, though they completely gave themselves to others.
Look, Isidora, how stupidly the churchmen distorted even their own theories... They argued that the Cathars did not believe in Christ the man. That the Cathars supposedly believed in his cosmic Divine essence, which was not material. And at the same time, says the church, the Cathars recognized Mary Magdalene as the wife of Christ, and accepted her children. Then, how could children be born to an immaterial being?.. Without taking into account, of course, the nonsense about the “immaculate” conception of Mary?.. No, Isidora, there is nothing truthful left about the teachings of the Cathars, unfortunately... Everything what people know has been completely perverted by the "holy" church to make this teaching seem stupid and worthless. But the Cathars taught what our ancestors taught. What do we teach? But for the clergy this was precisely the most dangerous thing. They couldn't let people know the truth. The Church was obliged to destroy even the slightest memories of the Cathars, otherwise how could it explain what it did to them?.. After the brutal and total destruction of an entire people, HOW would it explain to its believers why and who needed such a terrible crime? That is why nothing remains of the Qatari teachings... And centuries later, I think it will be even worse.
– What about John? I read somewhere that the Cathars supposedly “believed” in John? And even his manuscripts were kept as a shrine... Is any of this true?
- Only that they really deeply revered John, despite the fact that they had never met him. – North smiled. – Well, one more thing is that, after the death of Radomir and Magdalena, the Cathars actually had the real “Revelations” of Christ and the diaries of John, which the Roman Church tried to find and destroy at all costs. The Pope's servants tried their best to find out where the damned Cathars hid their most dangerous treasure?! For if all this had appeared openly, the history of the Catholic Church would have suffered a complete defeat. But, no matter how hard the church bloodhounds tried, luck never smiled on them... Nothing was found except a few manuscripts of eyewitnesses.
That is why the only way for the church to somehow save its reputation in the case of the Cathars was only to distort their faith and teaching so much that no one in the world could distinguish truth from lies... As they easily did with the lives of Radomir and Magdalena.
The church also claimed that the Cathars worshiped John even more than Jesus Radomir himself. Only by John they meant “their” John, with his false Christian gospels and the same false manuscripts... The Cathars, indeed, revered the real John, but he, as you know, had nothing in common with the church John-“ baptist."
– You know, North, I have the impression that the church has distorted and destroyed ALL world history. Why was this necessary?
– In order not to allow a person to think, Isidora. To make obedient and insignificant slaves out of people, who were “forgiven” or punished by the “holiest” at their discretion. For if a person knew the truth about his past, he would be a PROUD person for himself and his Ancestors and would never put on a slave collar. Without the TRUTH, from being free and strong, people became “slaves of God”, and no longer tried to remember who they really were. This is the present, Isidora... And, frankly, it does not leave too bright hopes for change.

Morris and Leontine Cohen are the spy spouses who prevented World War III...

Alina MAKSIMOVA, especially for “Crime”

The intelligence couple Morris and Leontine Cohen were born in the USA, but all their lives they considered themselves citizens of Soviet Russia. They did a lot to prevent the third world war, which America almost started. Possessing an atomic bomb, American politicians were confident in their superiority and rattled their weapons with might and main. Only after the Russians acquired the same weapons in the United States did they give them back. The Cohen couple were one of those who brought the atomic bomb to the USSR. Only after the collapse Soviet Union their names were declassified, and the spouses were awarded the titles of Heroes of Russia. Posthumously.

PASSIONS FOR LEFT IDEAS

Morris Cohen was born on July 2, 1910 in the East Side suburb of New York. His parents were from Russian Empire, and left for the United States to escape Jewish pogroms. Which at the beginning of the 20th century happened quite often in Ukraine, where the elder Cohens lived. But they did not hate their homeland and passed on their love for Russia to their son.

Morris showed good results in rugby while still in school and managed to get a sports scholarship to Columbia University. Almost immediately after graduating from university, he went to Spain, where the civil war was flaring up. In October 1937, during the battle of Fuentes de Ebro, he was wounded in both legs and ended up in hospital. Where he attracted the attention of Soviet intelligence officer Alexander Orlov, who recruited the young American. In Spain at that time there were several schools in which Soviet intelligence officers were among the most different countries were trained in the basics of intelligence activities. There, after his recovery, Morris underwent training.

Leontina’s path to becoming a scout turned out to be more tortuous. She was born on January 11, 1913 in a family of immigrants from Poland. Lona, as her friends and relatives called her, grew up during an economic crisis called the Great Depression. This crisis has affected not only the United States, but also many European countries. At the same time, the USSR demonstrated stunning economic growth. Which seemed to prove the superiority of the socialist model over the capitalist one. Leontina was an activist in the trade union movement from her early youth, and at the age of 18 she joined the Communist Party.

Morris and Lona were introduced by a mutual friend at an anti-fascist rally in New York in 1939.

du. A young member of the International Brigade, who had just returned from Spain, struck the young communist in the very heart. The young people quickly found common language and then fell in love with each other. Morris hesitated for some time, but eventually admitted to his beloved that he was working for Soviet intelligence. And he invited Lone to become his wife and partner in illegal work.

The decision to work for intelligence was not easy for Leontina. Since this meant cutting off all ties with the Communist Party and, in general, with people who held “left-wing” (that is, socialist) views. But in the end Lona agreed. According to the recollections of people who knew the Cohens in those days, the couple made just the perfect pair of intelligence officers. One of the intelligence officers who worked in New York in the early forties, Yuri Sokolov, later wrote:

“Morris and Lona were inseparable as loving spouses, as friends, and as colleagues in intelligence work. Almost always when we talk about Morris, we actually mean both.”

Lona's initially excessive impulsiveness and love of risk was balanced by her husband's composure and caution. Morris and Lona became liaisons between illegal immigrants in the United States and the Soviet station. But gradually the couple began to be entrusted with very serious tasks.

NEWEST MACHINE GUN AND “ATOMIC” NAPKINS

In 1941, the Cohens were tasked with obtaining documentation for a new aircraft machine gun that was being produced at a plant in Hartford. At that time, the United States had not yet officially entered the Second world war(this will happen in December 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), and therefore did not particularly share their military developments with the allies.

Leontyna managed to meet a certain young engineer (his name has not yet been declassified, only the pseudonym “Frank” is known), who agreed to cooperate. But he didn’t have access to the documentation. But he was responsible for quality control of products. Over the course of several days, “Frank” carried out individual parts of the newest machine gun from the factory and handed them over to Lona. When all the parts were taken out, the Cohen couple packed what they had taken from the factory into a double bass case and transported it to the USSR Consulate in New York. Experienced intelligence officers working in the United States at that time were simply stunned by this. They thought that the Cohens would get the drawings, but they brought them the machine gun itself.

In 1942, Morris was drafted into the army. Morris took part in the operations of American troops in Algeria in 1942 and the landing in Sicily in 1943. After the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944, the corps in which Cohen served was transferred to Europe. He met the end of the war with the rank of corporal, with several military awards. He celebrated the victory on the Elbe, together with Soviet soldiers.

While Morris fought in Europe, Leontyne continued to work for Soviet intelligence in the United States. In 1943, she was assigned to focus on the Manhattan Project. This is what the work on the atomic bomb was called in the USA. The main developments were carried out in the secretive and closed town of Los Alamos. Among the scientists working on the project, Soviet intelligence had a source of information. But communication with him was difficult. Scientists from Los Alamos were released into neighboring cities only once a month.

Leontina managed to buy a referral from a New York doctor for the treatment of lung disease in Albuquerque, located near Los Alamos. Lona had to wait four weeks to meet her source. During this time, she managed to arouse suspicion among FBI employees, of whom there were simply indecent numbers in Albuquerque.

After the documents were finally received and Leontina tried to travel to New York, the FBI decided to thoroughly search the suspicious person right next to the train. The documents were hidden in a box with napkins, and it would definitely have been shaken up. But Lona was not at a loss. She calmly presented her bag for inspection, and then began to sneeze deafeningly. She took out a box of napkins from the bag she was searching, pulled out a couple, and gave the box itself to the FBI agent. He automatically took it and continued to hold it the entire time while his colleagues inspected the girl’s things and even searched her herself. And Lona occasionally turned to him for another napkin to blow her nose. As the train was leaving the platform, the FBI finally released Leontyne. Already walking into the carriage, Lona “suddenly remembered” about the napkins, snatched them from the FBI man’s hands and jumped onto the departing train. A few days later, the secret documents were already delivered to Moscow.

In February 1945, when it was already absolutely clear that Nazi Germany virtually over, the Yalta Conference of leaders of three countries took place: the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. On which the fate of post-war Europe was decided. US President Franklin Roosevelt, who had sympathy for the communists and understood that the Soviet Union made the greatest contribution to the victory over Germany, agreed to Joseph Stalin’s demands regarding the development of Eastern Europe. In fact, giving the Soviet Union all the countries that were conquered by Soviet troops.

Everything changed on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died and Harry Truman became president. Who believed that the communist idea is no less harmful to the world than Nazism. Truman viewed the USSR not as an ally, but as an enemy. During the Post-Dame Conference in July-August 1945, the US President tried to achieve a revision of previously reached agreements. And he seemed to have a trump card: the day after the start of negotiations, July 18, 1945, Truman received the long-awaited message. First test atomic bomb was super successful, and the Americans had super weapons. This is exactly what Truman tried to hint to Stalin, but the Soviet leader only grinned.

In early August 1945, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese died, cities were literally wiped off the face of the earth. And all this from just two bombs! Stalin, who had previously been quite skeptical about the creation of atomic weapons, was impressed. The USSR did not have an adequate response to these weapons. But they had an army that defeated the Nazis and accumulated vast experience in combat operations. Which, by and large, the Americans did not have. They fought the Japanese rather sluggishly. And as soon as the Red Army entered the war and defeated the Kwantung Army, the world saw with its own eyes which army was stronger. But the atomic bomb was a serious trump card.

Soviet scientists were ordered to create something similar as soon as possible. The fact that Kurchatov back in 1939 spoke about the possibility of using the split atom in military technology and about its destructive power, and Kurchatov was sent to hell, was forgotten. Scientists were ordered to create a Soviet atomic bomb as quickly as possible. But the Soviet Union was losing greatly in this race. The most recent developments in this area were from the USA, Great Britain and Germany. But the Americans made sure that German nuclear scientists did not fall into the hands of the Russians. However, some of the German scientists Soviet troops It was possible to capture and take it to the Union. But the USSR was still far behind. Kurchatov argued that the creation of an atomic bomb could take a decade. Which, in conditions of greatly complicated relations with the United States, was like death. Truman, confident in the superiority of American weapons, became increasingly impudent, threatening the USSR with nuclear weapons. The only thing that stopped him from starting a third world war was that the United States had too few atomic bombs.

Soviet intelligence officers in America were entrusted with an almost impossible task: they were obliged to obtain as much material as possible on the Manhattan Project. To achieve this goal, the famous Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher, better known as Rudolf Abel, was sent to the United States. The Cohen couple became his main contacts.

In 1949, the USSR tested the first Soviet atomic bomb. US exclusive in the area nuclear weapons ended, and Truman immediately toned down his threats to the Soviet Union. And the intelligence officers played a huge role in the fact that the USSR had adequate weapons. And the Cohen couple were among them.

ARE YOU NOT WAITING FOR HEROES IN YOUR HOMELAND?

But between the capitalist and communist worlds began " cold war" Which in America was aggravated by the “witch hunt”. This was the name of the violent persecution of communists and all sorts of unreliable people (mainly with socialist views) in the late 40s - early 50s in the USA.

The Cohen couple's reputation was tarnished. Leontina was noted for her membership in the Communist Party, and Morris fought in Spain on the side of the Republicans. The leadership of Soviet intelligence decides to remove the Cohens from possible attack. In 1950, the intelligence spouses were transferred to the USSR. Where they study radio business and learn modern encryption methods. In 1954, under the name of the Kroger couple, immigrants from New Zealand, they were transferred to the UK. Where at that time the Soviet intelligence officer Konon Molodoy (pseudonym Ben) was very active. Managed to quickly become part of the highest circles of the English establishment. Cohen-Kroger became Ben's closest assistants and his connection with Moscow.

Work continued in England for five years, and then Ben was arrested. This happened as a result of the betrayal of Polish intelligence officer Michal Goleniewski. Michal collaborated with American and British intelligence for quite a long time, transmitting to them encryption codes that passed through him. He did not know either the Cohens or Young, but most of the encryption messages sent by the Cohens from England passed through Poland. Using these documents, British counterintelligence was able to identify Konon Molodoy. And while checking his connections, they also found the Cohen-Kroger spouses.

In mid-1961, Morris and Leontina listened to the verdict of a British court: the husband - 25 years old, the wife - 20. British and American intelligence services tried for a long time to recruit the spouses, but in vain. And in 1969, the English intelligence officer Gerald Brooke failed in the USSR. The leadership of Soviet intelligence offered the British an exchange: Brooke for the Kroger couple. The British agreed.

Leontina and Morris arrived in Moscow in October 1969 and applied for Soviet citizenship. But then suddenly the all-powerful (at that time) CPSU ideologist Mikhail Suslov reared up. Having learned that some Americans had been awarded Soviet orders (both spouses were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and Friendship of Peoples), and were now demanding Soviet citizenship, he sharply opposed it. Suslov did not understand for what kind of merit Americans could become citizens of the USSR. But Yuri Andropov, who headed the KGB of the USSR at that time, was not afraid to enter into conflict with Suslov and achieved a personal meeting with Leonid Brezhnev. At which he told me something. The Cohens received Soviet citizenship. Until the early 90s, they worked in training schools for Soviet intelligence officers.

Leontine died at the end of 1992, Morris passed away in June 1995. Just a month before he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. Leontine Cohen was awarded this title in 1996.

02.07.1910 - 23.06.1995
Hero of the Russian Federation

Monuments

Tombstone

Cohen Morris (operational pseudonym Peter Kroger) is a former employee of the First Main Directorate of the USSR State Security Committee.

Born July 2, 1910 in New York (USA). A Jew, his father was from the Kyiv province, his mother was from Vilna (Vilnius). He graduated from college and in 1935 from Columbia University. Taught history at high school. I was never a communist, but I acutely felt the danger of fascism for the world.

After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he managed to sneak into Spain illegally and in 1937–1938 fought heroically as part of the International American Brigade named after Abraham Lincoln. He was wounded in battle.

There, in Spain, he was recruited by Soviet intelligence. In November 1938 he was returned to the United States as a liaison agent. In 1941 he married Leontina Petka, who adopted his surname. They were like-minded in their beliefs. Therefore, when over time he informed her about his work for Soviet intelligence, Leontyne agreed to help him.

When the United States entered the war against Hitler, Morris immediately joined the American Army, fighting as part of the US Expeditionary Forces in Western Europe, awarded with military decorations. After demobilization in November 1945, he returned to his homeland, where he resumed cooperation with Soviet intelligence. However, after the Cohen resident Anatoly Yatskov left for Europe, contact was soon lost. It was resumed in 1948 by the legendary Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher (known throughout the world as Colonel Rudolf Abel). He successfully worked in his illegal residency, but in 1950, due to the threat of failure, he and his wife were transferred to Moscow.

From 1950 to 1954 he worked in the Illegal Intelligence Directorate of the MGB, and later in the KGB of the USSR. In 1954, together with his wife, under the name of the New Zealand spouses Peter and Helen Kroger, they were transported to the UK. For several years they carried out successful work on transferring secret information on rocket technology to Moscow. However, in January 1961, Morris Cohen was betrayed by a traitor from Polish intelligence, M. Goleniewski, and the couple were arrested. All the information necessary for the arrest and sentencing was provided to the British by the US CIA. As a result, already in March 1961, Morris Cohen was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Leontina Cohen was sentenced to 20 years in prison (although, unlike her husband, her involvement in working for Soviet intelligence was not proven at all).

After complex, lengthy negotiations in August 1969, Morris and Leontine Cohen were exchanged for a British intelligence agent arrested in the USSR and returned to the USSR. Their experience and knowledge were needed by Soviet intelligence, and they were invited to work in Directorate “S” (illegal intelligence) of the First Main Directorate (foreign intelligence) of the KGB of the USSR. To work there you needed Soviet citizenship. The documents were completed quickly, but when it was the turn to put the last and most important signature - the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.A. Suslov - he began to sharply object. Not wanting to delve into the details of the long and dangerous work of the Cohen spouses for the benefit of the USSR, not understanding the full value of the information they obtained, Suslov stated that they were failed agents and were unworthy of being Soviet citizens. There was a long delay, as the leadership of the Soviet foreign intelligence was afraid to argue with the all-powerful chief ideologist of the CPSU. However, there were decent people who reported what had happened to the Chairman of the KGB, Yu.A. Andropov. By the way, he himself was afraid to conflict with Suslov, but in this matter he literally went ahead. Andropov raised the issue at the next meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, categorically demanding that the Cohens be granted Soviet citizenship. At the same time, he stated that they brought more benefits to the Soviet Union than many high-ranking party workers. L.I. Brezhnev supported Andropov without hesitation and demanded an immediate positive solution to the issue. The Secretary General's order was carried out, and soon Andropov achieved the awarding of the Cohen couple with Soviet orders.

Until the end of his life, Morris Cohen worked in teaching and analytical work in the KGB of the USSR and the SVR of Russia. Lived in the city of Moscow. Died on June 23, 1995. He was buried in Moscow at the Kuntsevo cemetery, next to Leontina, who died three years earlier. The Hero's last and highest award was almost a month late...

By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 20, 1995 for courage and heroism shown during a special task Cohen Morris awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).

Awarded the Order of the Red Banner, Friendship of Peoples, medals

In the Russian Federation in 1998, a postage stamp was issued in honor of the Hero of Russia Morris Cohen.

Biography

Family

Born on July 2, 1910 in New York into a Jewish family of immigrants from the Russian Empire (his father was a native of the Kyiv province, his mother was from Vilna).

He graduated from Columbia University thanks to an athletic scholarship he received while playing rugby. After graduating from university, he taught history for some time.

Intelligence service

In 1937, as part of the international brigade, he volunteered for civil war to Spain, where he was wounded. While in Spain, he came to the attention of Soviet foreign intelligence (he was recruited by Alexander Orlov). He agreed to cooperate, allegedly wanting to participate in the joint fight against the Nazi threat. In 1938, on instructions from Soviet intelligence, Cohen returned to the United States as a liaison agent. In 1941, he married Leontine Teresa Petke, whom he met at an anti-fascist rally in New York. The wife fully shared her husband’s life ideals and views.

During World War II in 1942, he was mobilized into the army and participated in hostilities in Europe; in 1945 he was demobilized and returned to the United States. In December of the same year, contact with him was restored. Despite the defeat of Nazism, Morris Cohen without hesitation agreed to continue cooperation with Soviet intelligence. However, until 1948, communication with the agent was frozen due to the sharp aggravation of the situation of anti-Sovietism and spy mania in the United States.

In 1949, the Cohen couple became liaison officers for the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel. They worked with him until 1950, when, due to the threat of failure, they were transported to the USSR.

In 1954, together with his wife, he was sent to the UK (with passports in the name of the New Zealand spouses Peter and Helen Kroger), where he was the radio operator of the intelligence officer Konon Molodoy. From 1955 to 1960 transferred to the "Center" large number important classified materials, including missile weapons, which were highly praised by specialists.

Failure

As a result of the betrayal of the head of the operational equipment department of Polish intelligence, Goleniewski, recruited by the CIA, British counterintelligence MI5 learned that Soviet agents were working in the British Navy. Based on information received from the CIA, it was possible to establish their identities and record the transfer of materials to Konon Molodoy.

On January 7, 1961, Konon Molody was arrested, and after some time, studying his contacts, MI5 contacted the Cohen couple, who were in contact with the intelligence officer. At the trial, Molodoy denied the couple’s involvement in intelligence activities, but despite the fact that the British court was unable to prove the Kroger couple’s involvement in working for Soviet intelligence, based on information provided by the United States, Peter was sentenced to 25 years, and Helen to 20 years in prison.

Liberation and move to the USSR

In August 1969, the British authorities agreed to exchange the Cohen couple for MI5 agent Gerald Brooke, who was arrested in the USSR. In October of the same year the exchange took place. The couple settled in Moscow and received Soviet citizenship. Morris Cohen devoted the rest of his life to training future specialists of the USSR intelligence agency.

On June 23, 1995, M. G. Cohen died. He was buried in Moscow at the Kuntsevo cemetery, next to his wife, who had died three years earlier, also a Hero of the Russian Federation.

BOMB ON A SAUVER

Morris and Lona Cohen

During the war, Morris and Lona Cohen obtained the secret of creating an atomic bomb for the USSR.

They were awarded the titles of Heroes of Russia posthumously, but I managed to meet Morris Cohen (aka Peter Kroger, Sanchez, Israel Oltmann, Briggs, Louis...) shortly before his death. Perhaps I am the only Russian journalist who is so lucky. Our conversation in the summer of 1994 lasted about four hours and helped us understand a lot in the very complex and confusing story of their life with Lona.

In the United States, Morris and Lona Cohen led a network of agents called the Volunteers. During the war, drawings and samples of modern weapons were obtained. In the States they worked with six Soviet liaison officers, including the legendary Abel. The role of the Cohens in obtaining atomic secrets during the Great Patriotic War is invaluable. To avoid failure, they were taken out of the United States by Soviet intelligence.

After three years of study in Moscow, they were sent to England as assistants to the Soviet illegal immigrant Konon Molodoy, aka Gordon Lonsdale. As a result of the betrayal of a Polish intelligence defector, Morris and Lona were arrested. After nine years in prison they were exchanged. They received Soviet citizenship and lived in the center of Moscow until the end of their days. Despite the apparent abundance of materials about the Cohen spouses, their intelligence activities are not fully disclosed. Some previously unknown details are described in this chapter.

For some reason it seemed to me that Morris lived somewhere in a holiday village behind a high fence or in some special apartment far from the center. It turned out: we are almost neighbors. A large house on the Patriarch's Ponds, an incurious elevator operator, a strong nurse tactfully supporting the elbow of a limping, harrier-haired old man with a cane.

His Russian is far from perfect, but Morris is quite capable of communicating with the surrounding staff. However, the Foreign Intelligence Service officer assigned to him, who visits Cohen several times a week, speaks impeccable English. Yes, and Morris preferred to communicate with me in native language. When we occasionally switched to Russian, Morris addressed me as “you.” However, he only spoke “you” to the nurses and others.

A tour of the comfortably, but without frills, furnished three-room apartment does not allow you to forget who you are visiting. In prominent places are photos of our two illegal intelligence officers - Fischer - Abel and Molodoy - Lonsdale. It just so happened that the Coens had the chance to work with both. With the first in the USA, with the second in the UK. Nearby there is a framed photograph of Yuri Andropov; he looked into this apartment when he was chairman of the KGB of the USSR. Portraits of Morris and Lona, painted, as the owner explains to me, “by a comrade from our Service.” I know, I know what kind of comrade this is. Colonel of the SVR, honored cultural worker, artist Pavel Georgievich Gromushkin was entrusted with creating a whole series of portraits of our illegal immigrant heroes.

And next to it - in some dissonance with this officialdom - are cheerful and colorful wall newspapers, postcards, sometimes written in large children's handwriting. Morris was not forgotten by the grandchildren and great-grandsons of the Russian security officers, with whom he and Lona risked beyond the cordon. The slightly dry, somewhat academic apartment is warmed by warmth. I was told that after Lona's death from cancer in 1993, Morris really missed this warmth and became sad. But the caring “attached” officers from the SVR did not allow me to fall into depression.

In addition to photographs, books also spoke about the owner’s rare profession. For most readers, it is intelligence history; for Morris, it is his own. Leaning heavily on a stick, he takes out the tome and opens it on the right page: “The English write that I did such and such. Not quite like that." Or: “In the USA they still believe that... Let them remain in their delusions.”

And in the corridor there is a large drawing of a Spanish house with columns, near which Morris lingers for a long time: “Take a closer look at the mansion, what columns, huh? I’ll explain it to you later.” And memories began of the civil war in Spain, where he arrived under the name of Israel Oltmann, of comrades who had already passed away. He gives accurate, I would say, sharp, biting characterizations, and speaks of some without any respect, especially a couple of talkative Frenchmen. Several people from the International Brigade were still alive at that time. My guide Morris corresponded with someone from Moscow: a museum in memory of internationalists was being created, and Morris had something to convey to it. One friend, with whom Morris fought side by side in Spain, wanted to come, the formalities seemed to be settled, but he suddenly fell silent and disappeared. Morris had tears in his eyes - it seemed like his friend was no longer there. They went on the attack together, fought as part of the International Brigade against Franco, fascism...

It was fascism that then pushed many people, even those far from Marxism, into the arms of the Land of the Soviets. The Spanish Civil War - the first and open clash in arms with the emerging brown threat - united and rallied thousands of anti-fascists, unwittingly turning them into a huge preparatory and selection class for the Soviet intelligence school. From there, from Spain, dozens, if not hundreds, of the most devoted people stepped into the ranks of secret fighters. Among them was Morris Cohen.

He walked along all the steps leading to becoming friends of the USSR. A member of the League of Young Communists, who, as a child, heard John Reed in New York's Times Square and until his last days considered him “ best speaker in my life." At night, student agitator Cohen posted leaflets on the student campus. Then he turned into a distributor of communist press and party organizer. Despite the nagging of teachers who tried to fail the young and persistent communist in the exams, he received a diploma as a history teacher. And he voluntarily went to study the practical course of historical truths during the civil war in Spain.

He was lucky and unlucky. He commanded a platoon, fired and didn’t miss, but in the battle of Fuentes d’Ebro he was seriously wounded: both legs were shot. He was treated in a Barcelona hospital for almost four months. He himself helped nurse the bedridden, who together with him cursed Franco with the greater fury, the more often the damned general won victories. The battle was drawing to a close - and a very unhappy one for them.

Probably, not only the volunteers from the International Brigades understood this, but also the advisers from the USSR who looked after them. It was impossible to miss the favorable moment for recruitment. Where will you find and gather such a mass that completely supports the Soviets?

And so in 1938, an adviser from the USSR sent 50–60 convalescents directly by truck to a two-story mansion, the view of which Morris showed me in the hallway. This mansion - how many people, I wonder, have passed through it? - and brought Cohen to Moscow.

He was the third American to be invited “for an interview.” Not everyone who was spoken to or offered the opportunity agreed to go on reconnaissance missions. And Morris said “yes!” without hesitation.

Some authors write that Cohen is the last recruitment of resident Alexander Orlov before escaping to the United States. However, Morris strongly denied this assertion in a conversation with me. There was another person and another conversation in that mansion with four columns. But the result is the same: in 1939, when an international exhibition opened in New York, a young boy who had arrived from Moscow sat down with Cohen in a cafe not far from it. He looks like a Jew, just like Cohen. I suspect that in a hard transcription, Morris's surname would sound more like Kogan. And the real name of the Soviet security officer who met him was Semenov Semyon Markovich. An Odessa boy from a poor Jewish family, graduated from the Moscow Textile Institute and since 1937 served in the NKVD. In the USA, he managed to do two important things at once - study at the University of Massachusetts, from which he later received a diploma, and also work in the residency of Soviet foreign intelligence under the pseudonym “Twain”.

Compatriots and almost the same age liked each other. Cohen invited Twain to come to his home. There, in Morris's modest home, and not in a cafe in front of everyone, a new friend handed him a broken comb. The “material password,” as they say in intelligence, corresponded exactly to the half of the comb captured by Morris from Barcelona. Twain became the first - out of six - Soviet curator to start working with Louis. This operational pseudonym was assigned to Morris at the Center. In 1941, already married, Louis recruited, with the permission of Moscow, his wife Leontina, or Lona for short, who received the code name Leslie.

In two or three fairly reputable foreign publications, Cohen is called, with a certain degree of doubt, an American, but Lona was enrolled as a Soviet intelligence officer: illegally brought to the States, Leontina married Morris fictitiously. Nonsense. Leontine Teresa Petke was born in 1913 in Massachusetts. Her parents emigrated to America from Poland, and Slavic blood truly flowed in her veins. A member of the US Communist Party, a trade union activist, she met her future husband where she logically should have met: at an anti-fascist rally. She guessed about her husband’s connections with the Russians, and then, when he was allowed to open up to his wife, she immediately agreed to work for the Soviet Union out of selfless motives. Truly disinterested, because, as one of the six Russian intelligence officers-curators of the Cohens told me, any attempt to give them a reward was met with a decisive refusal. In the end, it was agreed that the “Volunteers”, so for understandable reasons, but without Morris’s knowledge, dubbed his group in Moscow, would accept money not for the information obtained, but exclusively for operational needs: the purchase of films, cameras, train trips and by taxi. So one day Morris and Lona took out a new machine gun from a military factory. This episode from their intelligence activities was remembered by Morris because the barrel was heavy, long and did not fit into the hired cab. I had to squeeze it into the trunk of a car with a diplomatic license plate, please guess which country.

But we saved on taxis,” Morris joked.

By the way, Lona-Leslie “got” the fully assembled machine gun. Shortly before the death of Lona Cohen, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia helped her dream come true: her sister came to Moscow from the United States. I was planning to come again... Formally, entry into the States was not closed to Mrs. Cohen. No formal charges were brought against her or her husband.

True, when a Soviet intelligence officer under the name Abel was arrested in New York in 1957, two passport photographs of the spouses were found in his things. FBI agents asked the neighbors of the Cohen couple, who had already disappeared by that time, if they had ever seen this man. The neighbors were genuinely hesitant. It seems that one Christmas, a similar modestly dressed man visited Morris and Lona.

Having reached the USSR, the Cohens accepted Soviet citizenship, and Morris proudly showed me his rather tattered passport, saying that he was a citizen of Russia, like me, and asked never to call him Mister again. Or comrade, or just Morris, well, Peter. He himself was a little confused proper names, and talking about his wife, he called her differently each time - Leslie, Lona, Leontina, Helen. Once a completely unusual name came out, which for obvious reasons I have no right to name.

The couple had no children, and the reasons for this are not difficult to guess. Although there is another version. While playing American football, Morris was kicked in the groin. And this is where the funny story begins. The statistics for America's favorite game are kept impeccably. And largely thanks to this very football, the Americans discovered that Morris Cohen is truly one of our own, a native, and not sent from the USSR. In college, not at university, this player, born in New York in 1910, played for the student team and even received an athletic scholarship. Morris confirmed that early years was a passionate gambler. “Maybe that’s why my knee, which was broken during the game in Mississippi, still hurts and aches at night. And in another fight, I was hit so hard right between my legs that I was taken off the field on a stretcher. They treated me for a long time...” And he sighed heavily.

Cohen did not know whether he had any relatives left in the United States. The father was from somewhere near Kyiv, the mother was born in Vilna, and they lived in New York in terrible poverty on the East Side. The family never spoke Russian.

People who knew the Cohen couple quite closely in Moscow, as well as Colonel Yuri Sergeevich Sokolov, one of the six liaison officers who worked with them in the United States, claim that the illegal intelligence officers had perfect compatibility. Lona seemed to be in charge, but decisions were made both in the USA and later in England and in Moscow by the silent Morris. Lona chirped in Russian, he immersed himself in books in English. True, during the meeting he admitted to me that now he cannot read for a long time - his eyes hurt.

He looked at my long list of questions typed in English through a huge magnifying glass. There were no answers to many of them - he showed himself to be a great master of sidestepping. He talked about his difficult New York childhood, about his father - first a janitor, then a vegetable seller. I realized that many secret meetings took place in my father’s greengrocer’s shop. Apparently, his father not only guessed about his illegal work, but even sometimes helped him.

With pleasure, Morris recalled only the textbook episode that happened during the Great Patriotic War - the removal of drawings from the secret atomic laboratory in Los Alamos, where Leslie distinguished herself so much. I cannot help but cite it, despite the fact that this feat is described in many books and included in many intelligence textbooks in different countries as an example of not only the courage of an illegal intelligence officer, but also his resourcefulness and composure.

The war was on, and in June 1942 Cohen was mobilized. He served in different places, even somewhere in Alaska. So there was no way out of the army. So Johnny, another liaison officer of the Volunteers group, also the legal Soviet intelligence officer Anatoly Yatskov, had to send Lona Cohen to a meeting with the unknown agent Perseus in Los Alamos, not far from New York. She had to take it from a stranger young man, who worked in a secret atomic laboratory, “something” and transfer this “something” to Yatskov, or, as Morris said, “to ours” in New York. Lona had no idea what exactly she was going for.

With difficulty, she received leave from a military plant and was slightly protected by the certificate of a New York doctor: she was going to the Albuquerque resort to treat her lungs. And this is not far from Los Alamos or Carthage, as they called it in the Center. But in Albuquerque they also kept an eye on visitors, so Lona settled in Las Vegas, a town whose name is absolutely similar to the name of the casino capital of the world. I rented a room from some railway worker and was treated, taking procedures. Before leaving, she was shown a photo of the agent, who later went down in history under the name Perseus.

Those who worked in the nuclear laboratory were allowed out of the closed zone into the city only once a month on Sundays. On this day, he and Lona were supposed to meet in Albuquerque on a busy square near the temple. Here, in my unenlightened opinion, the station was too clever, deciding that a password alone was not enough. Perseus had to hold a magazine in his right hand and a yellow bag in his left, from which a fish tail would stick out. And not just fish - but catfish. If the bag is turned towards Leslie with the front side with the pattern on it, then you can approach Perseus with confidence: there is no surveillance. This was followed by the exchange of passwords and the handing over of the bag.

Leslie was pretty nervous. Her vacation was already ending, but Perseus still didn’t come. They say that even a successful but risky secret meeting takes away a month of a scout’s life. And Perseus showed up only on the fourth Sunday. He held the magazine not in his hand, but in his bag. The young guy also forgot the password, then admitted to Leslie that he was confused about what day the meeting should take place.

But the nerve cells were not wasted in vain. Between the fish, it really was a catfish, and the magazine there were one and a half hundred documents. I will add on my own behalf: their importance and significance were such that relatively soon the creator of the Soviet atomic bomb, Kurchatov, reported to Beria about their content, and he reported to Stalin.

Morris also told me a detail that, over the years since our meeting with him, has remained unsolved. It turned out that Lona came to those parts more than once.

Her first trip almost ended in failure. Neither Leslie, which is understandable, nor the station, which is a shame, suspected that everyone leaving the towns near Los Alamos was searched at the station. Thank God Leslie discovered this on the way to railway station. Deliberately hesitating, she jumped onto the platform with a heavy suitcase a few minutes before the train departed and rushed to her carriage. Clearly demonstrating the full extent of her own defenselessness, she turned directly to the intelligence officer who was inspecting the passengers’ belongings. She acted out a scene of losing the ticket, and thrust into his hands a box of tissues, in which one and a half hundred “atomic” documents were hidden. The train had already started moving when Leslie finally “found” the ticket. The employee who searched her still held the box and barely had time to give it to the “absent-minded” lady when the train had already started moving.

Leslie narrowly avoided failure. And in the Soviet Union, who knows, they might not have produced their own atomic bomb on time: the thread would definitely have reached out to Perseus, and one of our most valuable “atomic” agents would have been neutralized.

Morris Cohen knew the man's real name. He himself turned to him with a request to lead him to the Russians: he was aware that Cohen worked at Amtorg. Morris was instructed to have a frank conversation with the young man. They met at the Alexander restaurant and continued, as I understood, in my father’s shop. Thus began Perseus’ collaboration with Soviet intelligence. Morris, of course, did not mention his name. He only dryly noted that in the entire Foreign Intelligence Service there were two or three people left who could remember the true name of Perseus - a brilliant scientist. The mere mention of the reward made the boy furious, according to Morris. He worked unselfishly, like the rest of Cohen's group. I only got in touch with Morris and Lona and another “our friend.” Now that Morris is gone, we have managed to find out the name of this “comrade” - this is the American journalist Kurnakov, who worked for our intelligence. The chain is quite short. The traitors did not know Perseus; the arrested scouts, even if they had guessed about his existence, did not reveal him. And at the end of the conversation, Cohen stunned me by saying: “I hope that Perseus is still living a quiet, peaceful life in the USA. He has something to be proud of."

Now, years later, I, of course, understand that Cohen knew about the fate of Perseus and was sure that his name would never be revealed. But the great Cohen was wrong. Perseus's real name is Theodore (Ted) Hall. After the war, he withdrew from cooperation with Soviet intelligence. He lived in the USA until 1962, then moved to England, where he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory and made several outstanding discoveries in the field of biophysics. I got seriously ill and last days spent in a villa on the French coast, opposite Britain. His work “for the Russians” became known due to the betrayal of archivist Mitrokhin, who fled Russia abroad. But Hall, who along with his wife held left-wing views in his old age, was firm and proudly did not answer questions from journalists, as well as open accusations of spying for the Soviets. He died of cancer in 1998, finally saying that “if the USSR and the USA had not had nuclear parity, things could have ended in a nuclear war. If I helped avoid this scenario, then I will agree to accept the accusations of betrayal.”

Leontyne and Morris lasted in the United States in their incredibly daring roles for about twelve years. Lona's impulsiveness, emotionality, and love of risk were balanced by Morris's cold prudence and caution. In addition, the residents who worked with them took care of this couple. But in 1950, the Center realized: “Volunteers” were under threat. They began to slowly be taken out of the game. And so Colonel Abel’s liaison Yuri Sergeevich Sokolov, who worked under the diplomatic roof, one day came straight to the Cohens’ home. Having violated all intelligence commandments, he spent a long time convincing Morris and Lona that they had to leave. Fearing wiretapping, they had a loud conversation about something extraneous, and about the main thing - corresponding on paper. Lona was burning the scribbled sheets of paper in the bathroom, which was filled with clouds of smoke at the end of a protracted conversation.

Morris convinced that it was stupid to leave just now, when the work had been established. They can do so much and if necessary, they will go illegal for this purpose, using other people’s passports. Sokolov, aka Claude, persuaded us not to take risks. And when Morris wrote on the paper: “Is this an order?”, the answer to him was Sokolov’s “Yes!” And then Cohen wrote: “So there is nothing to discuss. We agree."

In the summer of 1950, they were in full swing preparing to leave. A legend was invented for friends. It was so similar to the truth, so intertwined with the life they led, that suspicions did not arise even among those close to them.

Soon they had passports in the name of the Sanchez spouses. Providence dictated: we must get away urgently. After all, Claude Sokolov miraculously did not fail them, accidentally breaking the rules, drove through a red light, and was almost arrested. And in his hands he had their passports with new names. Many would be delighted to travel by steamship on the route New York - the Mexican port of Veracruz, and at someone else's expense. But not Morris and Lon. When he said goodbye to his father, Morris told me, he “emotionally broke down and almost missed the ship. Father also realized that we would never see each other again. One of the hardest moments of my life."

So Lona and Morris Cohen disappeared without a trace from an apartment on New York's East 71st Street. After waiting, as agreed for some time, the father with a sigh informed his friends that his son and his wife had left the States to try their luck in other places and had closed their bank account.

And they did not get to Moscow by the shortest route. First, Mexico and a Soviet foreign intelligence safe house. Then France, Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia. The Geneva-Prague section turned out to be the most dangerous. Flights to the capital of socialist Czechoslovakia - once a week, tickets are sold out. Helen - Lona was on edge. The race across countries exhausted all the nerves. And they decided to take a risk and move to Prague across the German border.

But there was one difficulty. Americans were required to receive an insert in their passport to travel to the countries of the socialist commonwealth. It was issued by the State Department or US consulates abroad. The last thing the Cohen couple, now traveling under the name Briggs, wanted to go there was. Anything could have happened during their short journey. Maybe they are already wanted all over the world?

We traveled by train, without the insert in our passport. We hoped it would pass. But they ran into a document check. The Germans dropped them off the train, and a stern officer ordered: “Follow me!” They were detained on Saturday night, and the officer immediately began calling the nearest American consulate. Fortunately, the phone did not answer: the weekend is sacred for diplomats.

It was stupid to get caught like that, after all they had done and after so many miles of travel. However, the Briggs spouses could have been slowed down at the airport. Not an arrest yet, but very, very close. It was necessary to act, to do something, and Mrs. Briggs raised a typical American scandal - she yelled at the Germans: “Who, in the end, won the war - the States or you? You have no right to detain the American delegation." The delegation was still the same. But this is typical of Lona's style: the more difficult the situation, the faster she oriented herself and acted more decisively.

The border guards wavered and brought in some sleepy fellow - an American army sergeant. He, half asleep, quickly entered into the position of his compatriots, thrown off the train by “these Germans.” It was, however, even worse than he imagined. The guy immediately and in front of the Briggs telephoned his military superiors. But they answered that the general, on whom everything depended, would arrive at nine in the morning.

The sergeant clearly sympathized with the nice couple, brought Liebe Frau Milch wine from somewhere, and the Briggses began to celebrate their idiotic detention with him. Lona, having replaced her anger with mercy, invited two German officers. She was separated. The wine was consumed faster and faster - bottle after bottle. However, the general, to whom the sergeant, despite everything, disciplinedly called, was not there either at nine in the morning or at ten. Maybe he also went on a spree? And the sergeant, wanting to help his own, tried to ask someone in Munich about the poor Briggs. It seemed like the mousetrap was slamming shut.

And suddenly it turned up - an opportunity. Every scout is always waiting for him, but the chance rarely appears. First of all, we ran out of wine. Secondly, the sergeant was in a hurry to go on a date with Gretchen. Thirdly, the German border guard officers got drunk and, at the command of a junior American, had difficulty putting their illegible squiggles into the passports of such sociable American spouses. And fourthly, the train to Prague just arrived. The red-haired sergeant kindly seated his new acquaintances in it. He even threw their suitcases onto the shelves. In short, on November 7, 1950, the Coens celebrated in Prague.

True, something didn’t work out in the Czech capital, and no one was waiting for them there, contrary to the agreements. Contacting anyone proved difficult. They felt safe in the hotel. They were startled by a knock on the door, but it was just a maid politely inquiring if the guests needed the telephone number of the American Embassy. Helen said no.

Due to various circumstances that are not yet clear, they had to spend a month in Prague. And yet, waiting for the transfer to Moscow was calmer for the spouses than in Paris or Berlin.

Arriving at Vnukovo airport upset them a lot and even scared them: again no one met them. Thoughts came into my head:

“What if Stalin arrested the comrades we worked with?” We went through passport control, customs - no one. Noticing the confusion of foreigners hanging out at the airport exit, the bus driver offered to drop them all off there - at the American embassy. Brushing aside the annoying offers, they asked to be taken to the only Moscow hotel they had heard about. At National they were immediately placed in a good room without a reservation.

Evening came. They had no rubles, and the hotel refused to accept dollars. With some effort we managed to order tea and cookies to our room. And then friends from their Service burst into their room. Now Leslie and Louis were home and drinking something stronger than fragile Frau Milch.

Further in the biography of the Cohen spouses there is a three-year failure, which Morris did not want to make up for. I'll have to do it for me. After a short rest, they began to study with Soviet teachers what they had spent 12 years learning in practice “at self-training courses” in the USA, namely, the work of an illegal intelligence officer.

Be that as it may, around Christmas 1954, a pleasant married couple settled in at 18 Penderry Rise in Catford, south-east London. Peter and Helen Kroger came to the UK from New Zealand. The 44-year-old head of the family bought a small used bookstore nearby.

At first, his business progressed sluggishly. Sometimes I got confused about finances. The neighbors also realized that the intelligent, gentle Peter was a beginner second-hand book dealer. Illegal resident Konon Young, also businessman Gordon Lonsdale, well known to them from working in the USA under the nickname Ben, was of the exact opposite opinion. He now has a couple of reliable radio operators. For six years in London, the trio managed to do a lot.

They worked until 1961. The arrest took them by surprise, although a few days before the failure they sensed surveillance. British counterintelligence had never seen as many spy paraphernalia as were immediately found in the house on Penderry Rise. They had already served their sentence, and in the garden and in the house they kept coming across hidden, buried objects, the purpose of which was beyond any doubt.

The reason for the arrest is tragically banal - betrayal. The scout sold it to Poland, which was then friendly to us. The trial lasted only eight days. Friend Ben - Lonsdale got 25 years. He courageously took all the blame upon himself, shielding the Kroger couple in every possible way. And they, despite tons of evidence in the form of radio transmitters and other things, insisted on innocence and did not reveal a connection with Soviet intelligence in a single phrase.

Neither their real name nor what they did for 12 years in the United States came up. But a Russian colonel had already served his time in an American prison and took the surname Abel upon arrest. The person they were passing secret information to in New York. There seems to me some kind of discrepancy here. Did the American intelligence services really not cooperate with their British colleagues and exchange information? No, something is wrong here and, I’m sure, over time this “something” will also come to light.

In England, the whole trio flatly refused to cooperate with both the court and British counterintelligence. The Kroger couple didn’t even want to discuss the proposal to change their last name and take them out of the country in exchange, it’s clear for what. Maybe that’s why the sentence was harsh - Helen is 20 years old, Peter, like Ben, is 25. This decision was accepted by all three, at least outwardly, with professionally acted indifference. They kept it throughout the nine years of wandering around Her Majesty's prisons.

Morris was transferred from cell to cell, transported from place to place. They were afraid that he would run away or corrupt the prisoners with his ideas. He also sat with criminals: the intelligence officers hoped that the cellmates would break the Russian spy and then... But Cohen found a common language with them. In the corner of the large room of his apartment on Patriarch's Ponds perched a huge teddy blue bear - this is a prison birthday gift from the famous raider who committed the “robbery of the century” - the gang stole a million pounds sterling from a mail car.

An employee of the British Secret Intelligence Service, George Blake, who for many years passed on its secrets to Soviet intelligence, was tried in the same 1961 and sentenced to forty-two years. And suddenly, by some miracle or oversight, Cohen and Blake ended up together in London's Scrube prison and became friends for the rest of their lives. They talked about everything in the world, except for one thing - even from his closest friend, Blake hid his preparations for escape.

“George escaped,” Morris smiled widely. - There was nothing else left.

And he, who had not yet had time to learn anything about Blake’s evening escape, was transferred the next morning from Scrube to prison on the Isle of Wight. No one has run away from here and will not run away - from the island to the nearest land there are about thirty miles. The regime is harsh, the climate is disgusting, the food is disgusting. And if it weren’t for books and love, he could have gone crazy.

Yes, love, a component that was not listed in their dossier on either this or that side, helped them endure nine years of imprisonment. He and Helen wrote letters to each other, and this drowned out the pain and humiliation. The wait for the small envelopes, where the number of pages was strictly limited by law, was alarming and sometimes painful. Receiving news from a loved one turned into a holiday. They also corresponded with Ben. But these are different letters and another story. As soon as Morris called his Leontine - and Mat, and Sarge, and my dear, and my beloved, and my dear darling... Tenderness in every word and every letter. Lona responded in kind.

They met rarely and only under the supervision of jailers. Then he wrote to her about these meetings, remembering every moment, every second. They lived with hopes and supported each other as best they could. It was probably thanks to the letters that Morris survived the serious illnesses that tortured him in a prison cell.

However, their messages contain not only love with the harsh prison routine. There are philosophical arguments, and appeals to distant history, and faith in oneself, in Russian friends. Consider these lines from Morris about the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service addressed to Helen: “I have no doubt that if they do not move heaven and earth for us, then they are pounding with their hands and feet on the door of the Lord God.” But Morris couldn’t really know what efforts were being made in Moscow to achieve their release? Or did you feel it? Did you believe it?

No, it’s not for nothing that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service allowed the publication of more than seven hundred pages of correspondence between the Cohen spouses, as well as Konon Molodoy. Probably never before have illegal intelligence officers been presented to the public in a purely epistolary genre, as in these two serious volumes.

What kind of love is this! When we met Morris, Helen had been long gone from this world. However, sometimes it seemed as if she had just left and was about to return from the bakery on Bronnaya. Her things remained in the room in their places... Portraits and photographs. The owner of the apartment always remembered her as if she were alive: “Helen says... Helen thinks... You know how risky Helen is...” He was not henpecked or hopelessly in love. They were united by a deep, bright feeling.

After nine years in prison, the Cohen-Kroger couple were exchanged for British intelligence officer Gerald Brooke. There were enormous obstacles: the KGB could not recognize them as their own. I had to act through the Poles. And from London, under the flashes of cameras, they flew to Warsaw. In Moscow in the fall of 1969, Molody-Lonsdale was waiting for them, having been exchanged back in 1964 for the Englishman Grevshiy Wynne, a liaison of the traitor Penkovsky.

What did they do when they returned to their second homeland? To many. In addition to teaching her young followers, Lona made a long and risky journey with the fearless General Pavlov. We traveled around the countries where our illegal immigrants settled on an important continent for Soviet intelligence. The excuse was a good one. A wealthy antique dealer, accompanied by his wife, is looking for valuable exhibits for his collection. How did Lona decide to do this? After all, if she had been arrested, she would have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

There were also trips - including to a distant neighboring country. But there is complete silence about these trips.

Morris convinced me that it was here, in Russia, that he was at home. When I asked if he was bored here without his compatriots, without his native English, he was offended:

I'm dating George Blake. A man of the highest intelligence. It remains to be seen whether I would have had acquaintances of this class if Lona and I had stayed in New York. We were friends with all those who worked with us in the States and England. And when we found ourselves in Moscow, this personal friendship, implicated in a common cause and feelings, grew into a family one. Ben is gone and his wife is visiting me. And Johnny's wife too. And Claude - Yuri Sokolov. Milt (Abel - Fischer. - N.D.) died, but we see his daughter Evelyn. We were, by fate, friends there. Of their own free will, they remained friends here too.

On my own behalf, I would still add that meetings, for example, with Blake, and with others, have, in my opinion, become more frequent in recent years life. And before, Morris and Lona's social circle seemed to be limited in a certain way. I would like to know what they were doing at the headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service...

The Cohens were friends in Moscow with another married couple of illegal intelligence officers - Hero of the Soviet Union Gevork Andreevich and Gohar Levonovna Vartanyan. I noticed that despite harsh reality their professions, they all had traits that were somewhat forgotten by us. The Vartanyans, Coens, Abel, Sokolov, and George Blake were to some extent idealists. They firmly believed in the idea, in the impeccable correctness of the path chosen by the Country of the Soviets. At our first and, alas, last meeting, Morris convinced me that communist ideals would return anyway, and today an impeccable society could not be built only because we ourselves were simply not properly prepared for it.

Well, love really does work wonders. Love for your homeland, for a woman, for the cause you serve.

Morris Cohen died in early July 1995 in an unnamed Moscow hospital. Even among our compatriots there are few people who loved Russia as passionately and optimistically as Morris loved it. Cohen knew so much and took so much with him. I once had a chance to see footage taken by Morris for official use. And even there, bill follows bill. But I got the impression that Krogers had time to operate on yet another continent.

In his apartment on Patriarch's Ponds, I asked when else any of his secret affairs with Lona would be declassified. Morris answered without hesitation: “Never.”

The funeral procession moved decorously through the Novo-Kuntsevo cemetery. This was Morris Cohen’s last journey to Lona, who was buried there, along the land with which he became close forever.

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Private life on a silver platter At the end of October, a court hearing took place. On it, the journalist said that no Constitution, no law will protect our privacy if we do not protect it ourselves. - When leaving the house, we lock our apartment with a key, although the Constitution

From the author's book

A bomb on a silver platter Illegal immigrants Morris and Lona Cohen are considered one of the most successful married couples in Soviet intelligence. It was largely thanks to them that the secrets of the American atomic bomb were obtained. The title of Hero of Russia was awarded to Lona and Morris posthumously, but with

From the author's book

From the author's book

HOGARTH VERSUS MORRIS These matters consisted in the fact that Hogarth - this time against his will - found himself drawn into another scandalous story. It began in 1727, the same year that George II ascended the throne. Since then, William Hogarth's life has gone through a period again.

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“PHILIP MORRIS” Before leaving for Israel, I visited Sergei Bondarchuk. - How much should I ask for the script? - I asked him. - Ask for a hundred thousand dollars. - Dollars?! - Dollars. Wait. - Sergei took a box out of the drawer. - What kind of watch do you have? - he asked. “Flight.” Present

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Morris Pripstein Sakharov, scientists and human rights To burn in the fire that is in the very heat of hell - This is the fate of those who remain indifferent In the era of moral tests. President J.F. Kennedy (paraphrasing Dante) Serving science makes you feel like you belong to a global brotherhood