Rudolf Abel
| Rudolf Abel | |
|---|---|
Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel on a 1990 USSR commemorative stamp
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| Allegiance |
 Soviet Union
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| Rank | Colonel |
| Operation(s) |
World War II (1944–1945) Soviet Cold War spy (1948–1957) |
| Award(s) | Order of the Red Banner |
| Codename(s) | Andrew Yurgesovich Kayotis |
| Emil Robert Goldfus | |
| Mark Collins | |
| MARK | |
| ALEC | |
| ARACH | |
| Martin Collins | |
| Robert Callan | |
| Frank | |
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| Birth name | William August Fisher |
| Born |
July 11, 1903 Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom |
| Died | November 15, 1971 (aged 68) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Cause of death |
Lung cancer |
| Buried | Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Nationality |
 United Kingdom Soviet Union
|
| Parents | Heinrich Matthaus Fisher Lyubov Vasilievna Fisher |
| Spouse | Elena Stepanovna Fisher |
| Children | Evelyn Fisher |
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Russian: Рудольф Иванович Абель), real name Vilyam "Willie" Genrikhovich Fisher (Вильям "Вилли" Генрихович Фишер), (July 11, 1903 – November 15, 1971) was a Soviet intelligence officer. He adopted his alias when arrested on charges of conspiracy by FBI agents in 1957.
Born in the United Kingdom to Russian émigré parents, Fisher moved to Russia in the 1920s and served in the Soviet military before undertaking foreign service as a radio operator in Soviet intelligence in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He later served in an instructional role before taking part in intelligence operations against the Germans during World War II. After the war, he began working for the KGB, which sent him to the United States where he worked as part of a spy ring based in New York City.
In 1957 the U.S. Federal Court in New York convicted Fisher on three counts of conspiracy as a Soviet spy for his involvement in what became known as the Hollow Nickel Case and sentenced him to 30 years' imprisonment at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Georgia. He served just over four years of his sentence before he was exchanged for captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. Back in the Soviet Union, he lectured on his experiences. He died in 1971 at the age of 68.
Fisher was born William August Fisher on July 11, 1903, in Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, the second son of Heinrich and Lyubov Fisher. Revolutionaries of the Tsarist era, his father was an ethnic German from Russia and his mother was of Russian descent. Fisher's father, a revolutionary activist, taught and agitated with Vladimir Lenin at Saint Petersburg Technological Institute. In 1896 he was arrested for sedition and sentenced to three years internal exile. As Heinrich Fisher had served a sentence for offences against the Russian state, he was forced to flee to the United Kingdom in 1901, the alternative being deportation to Germany or imprisonment in Russia for avoidance of military service. While living in the United Kingdom, Fisher's father, a keen Bolshevik, took part in gunrunning, shipping arms from the North East coast to the Baltic states to help the proletariat.
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Wikipedia