The most famous spies in history. The most famous spies of the USSR and Russia Famous women spies
The history of scouts and spies has always attracted people. After all, it seems that such work is full of adventures and dangers. But history has confirmed that espionage is not exclusively a male occupation. Women did this too. The recent scandal with Anna Chapman has again revived interest in representatives of this secret profession. Who were the most famous female spies in history?
The most famous spy of all time is Mata Hari (1876-1917). Her real name is Margarita Gertrude Celle. As a child, she managed to get a good education, as her father was rich. For 7 years, the girl lived in an unhappy marriage on the island of Java with a drinking and dissolute husband. Returning to Europe, the couple divorced. To earn a livelihood, Margarita begins her career first as a circus rider, and then as a dancer. oriental dances. Interest in the East, ballet and erotica was so great that Mata Hari became one of the celebrities of Paris. The dancer was recruited by German intelligence before the war, during which she began to cooperate with the French. The woman needed the money to cover her gambling debts. It is still not known for certain what high-ranking fans told her, and what Mata Hari passed on as an agent. However, in 1917, she was captured by the French military, who quickly sentenced her to death. On October 15, the sentence was executed. The true cause of the death of the artist, perhaps, was her numerous connections with high-ranking French politicians, which could affect their reputation. Most likely, the role of Mata Hari as a spy is exaggerated, but the dramatic story about a seductive agent has attracted the interest of cinema.
(1844-1900) better known by her nickname La Belle Rebel. At times civil war in America she was a spy for the southern states. The woman passed on all the information received to General Shtonevall Jackson. No one could have guessed espionage activities in the innocent inquiries of the soldiers of the army of the Northern States. There is a known case when on May 23, 1862 in Virginia, it was Boyd who crossed the front line in front of the northerners to report on the impending offensive. The spy was shot with rifles and cannons. However, the woman dressed in a blue dress and bonnet was not afraid. When the woman was seized for the first time, she was only 18 years old. However, thanks to the exchange of prisoners, Boyd was released. But a year later, she was arrested again. This time, a link was waiting for her. In her diaries, the spy wrote that she was guided by the motto: "Serve my country until the last breath."
(1833-1893). And the northerners had their spies. Polina Kushman was an American actress, during the war she also did not remain indifferent. And she was eventually caught and sentenced to death. However, the woman was later pardoned. With the end of the war, she began to travel around the country, talking about her activities and exploits.
From left to right: Regina Renchon ("Tigee"), wife of Georges Simenon, Simenon himself, Josephine Baker and her first husband, Count Pepito Abbitano. Who is fifth at the table is unknown. And there is, probably, a waiter, always ready to add champagne.
Josephine Baker(1906-1975). The real name of this American was Frieda Josephine McDonald. Her parents were a Jewish musician and a black washerwoman. She herself, because of her origin, suffered a lot - already at the age of 11 she learned what a pogrom in the ghetto is. In America, Baker was not loved because of the color of her skin, but in Europe fame came to her during the Paris tour of the "Revue Negre" in 1925. An unusual woman walked around Paris with a panther on a leash, she was nicknamed "Black Venus". Josephine married an Italian adventurer, thanks to which she acquired the title of count. However, the place of her activity remained the Moulin Rouge, she also starred in erotic films. As a result, the woman made a great contribution to the development and promotion of all types of Negro culture. In 1937, Baker easily renounced American citizenship in favor of French, but then the war began. Josephine became actively involved in the action, becoming a spy for the French resistance. She often visited the front and even trained as a pilot, received the rank of lieutenant. She also financially supported the underground. After the end of the war, she continued to dance and sing, acting in television series along the way. Baker devoted the last 30 years of her life to raising children, whom she adopted in different countries peace. As a result, a whole rainbow family of 12 kids lived in her French castle - a Japanese, a Finn, a Korean, a Colombian, an Arab, a Venezuelan, a Moroccan, a Canadian and three Frenchmen and a resident of Oceania. It was a kind of protest against the policy of racism in the United States. For her services to her second homeland, the woman was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and the Military Cross. At her funeral, on behalf of the country, official military honors were rendered - she was escorted off with 21 rifle volleys. In the history of France, she was the first woman of foreign origin to be commemorated in this way.
By the way, everyone is discussing how beautiful Chapman is. Do you like her?
On the anniversary of the execution of Mata Hari, Izvestia recalls the most famous women of the "golden age" of world espionage.
On October 15, 1917, Mata Hari, a dancer, courtesan, spy and double agent, was executed in France on charges of spying for Germany. Before the execution, she refused the blindfold that was due to the condemned.
Face to face with the firing squad, Mata Hari blew a kiss - according to one version, to the soldiers who shot her, according to another - to the lawyer present there, and part-time to her last lover.
Immortalized in many books and films, Mata Hari has become one of the most famous female spies in world history. But far from the only one. XX century, with its passion for luxurious outfits and beautiful life, which was seething against the backdrop of wars redrawing the map of the world, brought to light a whole galaxy of women whose main weapon in the struggle for information was their beauty and love.
Codename H-21
Mata Hari couldn't dance. This was repeatedly stated by her first husband, a Dutch officer. She herself indirectly confirmed this, attributing her success to a carefully thought-out legend, as well as the decision to perform almost naked.
When in 1905 she, either running away from her husband, or simply leaving him after a divorce, arrived in Paris under her real name and practically without money, the Dutchwoman Margareta Gertrud Zelle had no choice but to impress the sophisticated public, and she succeeded.
In 1895, at the age of 18, she married Captain Rudolph McLeod by advertisement. The marriage was unsuccessful, but together with her husband, the future Mata Hari lived for several years in Indonesia, where she was actively engaged in studying local traditions in order to escape from family troubles.
She later used this knowledge to create the famous image of an exotic princess - a performer of oriental dances. In the wake of the exotic fashion that then swept the Old World, the image enjoyed incredible success - by the beginning of the First World War, she was a famous artist and a successful courtesan, among whose admirers were high-ranking politicians and officers.
But Mata Hari was useful not only with her connections. With the outbreak of war, the Netherlands declared neutrality and she, the owner of a Dutch passport, could move freely between the divided front lines of Germany and France.
When and how she was recruited by German intelligence is not known exactly. But it is known that she was given the code name H-21, and in 1916 French counterintelligence officers received the first information about her espionage in favor of Germany.
After that, Mata Hari was recruited (it is also possible that she herself offered her services to French intelligence, valuing them at a million francs).
With a small mission, she was sent to Spain, where the French intercepted a German radiogram, from which it followed that the "agent H-21" continued to work for the Germans - perhaps the Germans specifically issued the disclosed agent to the enemy. After that, she was arrested and, despite the efforts of the lawyer Mata Hari, who knelt before the court, she was sentenced to death.
Photo provided by the press service of Channel One
Many historians believe that in reality the effect of the work of Mata Hari for both the Germans and the French was minimal, but even if this was the case, she performed her role with incredible chic - to the very end.
In 1934, 17 years after her death, The New Yorker devoted an article to the story of Mata Hari. On the day of her execution, she was dressed in "an elegant suit made especially for the occasion and a pair of new white gloves," the text emphasized.
A woman who loves and loves
Maria Zakrevskaya-Benkendorf-Budberg, common-law wife of Maxim Gorky and HG Wells, diplomat, baroness, whom the British suspected of working for German intelligence and the OGPU, the OGPU - in cooperation with the British and Germans, and Germany, respectively, of working for the intelligence of the USSR and the UK.
An aristocrat, the wife of the diplomat Ivan Benckendorff, before the revolution, she and her husband lived in Berlin and in Estonia, where Benckendorff had a family castle. After her husband was killed by her own peasants, Maria moved to Petrograd, where she began an affair with the English diplomat Lockhart (later head of the British committee in charge of propaganda and foreign intelligence during World War II).
In 1918, Lockhart was at the center of the "Three Ambassadors Plot" scandal and was expelled from the country on charges of attempting to organize a coup d'état. Mura, as her relatives called her, was arrested along with him, but later unexpectedly released.
According to one version, it was then that she could have been recruited by Soviet intelligence.
Shortly thereafter, Maria Budberg became first secretary, and then civil wife Gorky, who was 24 years older than her. She spent all the years of his life abroad with the writer, but when Gorky was about to return to Russia in 1933, Mura did not follow him.
She moved to London, where she became the civil wife of the writer Herbert Wells, whom she had known since 1914. She remained with him until the writer's death in 1946.
“She was, first of all, a beloved and loving woman,” Vladimir Barakhov, director of the archive of A. M. Gorky, later recalled about her.
The reason for Moura's accusations of espionage was frequent relocations, close relations with the most influential people of her time, the connection with Lockhart left by the Cheka without consequences, as well as archival documents published by the British intelligence service MI-5, which say that the baroness living in London may be a spy for the Soviet government.
However, if these accusations had any basis, Maria Budberg turned out to be happier than many of her colleagues - neither before nor after her death in 1974 they were never confirmed.
"Kursk Nightingale" in the service in Paris
The daughter of peasants from the Kursk province, the performer of Russian romances Nadezhda Plevitskaya rose to the zenith of fame on the eve of the First World War - in 1909 she was noticed at the Nizhny Novgorod fair by the famous Opera singer Leonid Sobinov and brought to St. Petersburg.
Soon Plevitskaya was already singing at court - while Nicholas II, who called her the "Kursk nightingale", listening to Plevitskaya, lowered his head and cried, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna gave her a diamond brooch for inspirational singing.
After the revolution, Plevitskaya, together with her husband, White Guard General Nikolai Skoblin, moved to Paris, where in 1930 she was recruited by the OGPU: taking advantage of the fact that the singer actively toured Europe, her husband collected the necessary information in emigrant circles.
In 1937, trying to put Nikolai Skoblin at the head of the most influential emigrant organization, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), the NKVD, with the assistance of Skoblin and Plevitskaya, kidnapped General Yevgeny Miller, who headed the union, in Paris.
After that, Skoblin fled the country and later died in Spain under unclear circumstances.
Plevitskaya was sentenced to 20 years hard labor and died in a French prison in 1940 - shortly after France was occupied by Germany.
Dancer with the Order of the Legion of Honor
Another woman who put her stage fame at the service of intelligence was the American-French dancer Josephine Baker. Starting her career in the 1920s in the United States, she moved to Paris by the 1930s. It was in her performance that the public of the French capital first saw the Charleston dance.
On the eve of the war, Josephine Baker shone in the Folies Bergère cabaret, and after the occupation of France, she began working for French intelligence - fortunately, fame and charm made her a welcome companion for the Germans, Japanese and Italians. Baker recorded the data received from them on the scores with invisible ink.
After the liberation of France, the dancer was awarded the Resistance and Liberation medals, the Military Cross badge and, in 1961, the Order of the Legion of Honor. During the war years, she was also promoted to lieutenant and received a pilot's license. After the death of Josephine Baker, a crater on Venus was named in her honor.
"Mother" of female ninjas
But espionage became a women's profession long before the turn of the 20th century. Back in the 16th century, the wife japanese samurai Mochizuki Chiyome put the training of female spies on stream. On the instructions of her husband's uncle, a major military leader Takedoya Shingen, she opened a boarding house in the village of Nazu, in which, under the guise of charity, she accepted orphaned girls.
However, along with basic education, her pupils received an idea about other subjects - for example, how to extract information by any means available to them, and also, according to some reports, were engaged in martial arts.
Mochizuki Chiyoma is often credited with creating the first school that trains female ninjas, but in fact, her pupils were primarily engaged in collecting the information necessary for the commander Shingen, freely traveling around the country in the form of geishas, fortune tellers and actresses.
Evgenia Priemskaya
What do we know about these mysterious people living among us? After all, it is not in vain that films are made about them, books are written ...
It is known that these cloak and dagger warriors wage their war and in Peaceful time. But for whom and in the name of what do they act? Let's say one thing: do not underestimate these people. Yes, they do not win wars, but they significantly change the balance of power on the military, political and economic map.
Information rules the world, so secret special agents are still needed by every state.
(October 4, 1895 - November 7, 1944)
Perhaps one of the most famous spies can safely be called Richard Sorge. This is a Soviet spy from World War II. Moreover, he is considered one of the outstanding scouts of the century.
Since he worked in Japan for many years, the Soviet Union did not recognize Sorge as its agent for 20 years. Only on November 5, 1964, Sorge was declassified and awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. True, posthumously.
They say that only thanks to Nikita Khrushchev, the name of Richard Sorge was immortalized in the USSR, conferring on him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. It is also widely believed that the silence about Richard Sorge and his associates is a consequence of Stalin's personality cult.
October 18, 1941 Sorge was arrested by the Japanese police and in September 1943 sentenced to death penalty by hanging on a piano string.
April 18, 1944
Robert Hanssen was an FBI agent. He was convicted of espionage in favor of the USSR and Russia.
He began to cooperate with the Soviet Union in 1979, however, even after its collapse, he continued to transfer a lot of secret information.
People who knew the superspy closely speak of him as an extremely bright and outstanding person. Here is how a woman who lived next door to the Hansen family in Chicago and knew Robert as a child recalls him: “When he played with my son, I was sure that nothing would happen to my child.”
Hanssen collaborated with Soviet and Russian intelligence from 1979 until his arrest in 2001. The investigation managed to prove 13 episodes of espionage.
As a result, he was arrested only in 2001 in Virginia. When he was taken to prison, he asked: "Why did it take you so long to catch me?"
Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of pardon and is currently serving it in a maximum security prison. ADX Florence, in Colorado.
*(ADX Florence-Administrative Maximum Facility - super maximum security prison)
(January 1, 1912 - May 11, 1988)
Kim Philby is one of the leaders of British intelligence, a communist, an agent of Soviet intelligence since 1933.
However, it was only in 1963 that the British managed to understand that he was leading a double life.
After the end of World War II, Philby is sent east. He becomes the head of the British intelligence headquarters in Istanbul. In the late 1940s, he began to work closely with the United States, the main goal of which was the destruction of communist power. Largely due to the actions of this intelligence officer, many British and American operations directed against Soviet power, were unsuccessful.
Philby died in 1988 in honor, Hero of the Soviet Union.
(September 26, 1907 - March 26, 1983)
Anthony Blunt is an English art historian and double agent of the British MI5 and the Soviet NKVD, a member of the famous Cambridge Five, in which he was together with Kim Philby.
Through Blunt, the Soviet embassy received information in advance about all actions directed against embassy workers. Blunt was very successful in opening the diplomatic correspondence of governments foreign countries in exile. On several occasions, Blunt provided valuable information about the Wehrmacht's strategy towards Russia.
After the war, Blunt's connection with the KGB was practically cut off. He left MI5 and became curator of the royal art gallery in 1946, and in 1947 was appointed director of the Culthord Institute.
However, in 1979, he secretly confessed who he was all this time and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher publicly fired him. And Queen Elizabeth II stripped Blunt of his knighthood.
February 16, 1953
Christopher Boyes is an informant for the Soviet secret services. For two years, he collaborated with the Soviet special services - he photographed secret documentation about satellites and handed them over for further shipment to Soviet intelligence agencies.
He worked for Soviet intelligence because of the protest against the US war with Vietnam. After his arrest in 1977, he was convicted of spying for the USSR for forty years in prison.
Meanwhile, in February 1980, he escaped from a federal prison and was already preparing to be transported to the USSR, but was detained by FBI agents.
On January 21, 1980, Boyce escaped from prison and after that was involved in 17 bank robberies in the states of Idaho and Washington. Hiding from the law under the name of Anthony Edward Lester, Boyce developed a plan to fly to the Soviet Union, where, in his opinion, he could receive the rank of officer Armed Forces THE USSR.
Christopher Boyce was released on parole from prison on September 16, 2002, after serving just over 24 years. In October 2002, Boyce married Kathleen Mills. In July 2008, Boyce was released from parole and was completely free.
26 May 1941
Aldrich Ames - former head of the CIA counterintelligence division, head of the Soviet department of the CIA's foreign counterintelligence department.
Worked for the USSR for almost 10 years. Thanks to his information, a whole galaxy of CIA agents in the ranks of the KGB and the GRU was arrested.
The US Senate Intelligence Committee later stated in a report that Ames' activities "led to the loss of virtually every valuable source of information in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War."
On February 21, 1994, Aldrich Ames was arrested by the FBI in Arlington. The Ames Affair caused a major political scandal in the United States. After numerous accusations against the CIA, its head, James Woolsey, was forced to resign.
In 1994, he was sentenced to life in prison with confiscation of property, which he is currently serving in the Allenwood maximum security prison in Pennsylvania.
By the way, Ames came to intelligence because he did not have enough financial resources. Ames even tried once to rob a buck to pay off his debts. However, he decided that it would be much safer and more interesting to sell classified information to other countries. And so it began.
May 12, 1918 - June 19, 1953 (Julius)
September 28, 1915 - June 19, 1953 (Ethel)
It is impossible not to recall the famous married couple Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. These are American communists accused of spying for the Soviet Union and executed for it in 1953.
Rosenberg worked for Soviet intelligence from the early 1940s. He then recruited his wife Ethel, her brother David Greenglass and his wife Ruth. Rosenberg and his "entourage" constantly transmitted to Moscow data on the latest secret technologies in the American military industry.
The full list of the information he provided remains secret. Although it is known that in December 1944 he obtained and handed over to Feklisov detailed documentation and a sample of the finished radio fuse. This product has been highly appreciated by our experts.
Even after half a century, many details of the work of the Rosenberg group continue to be kept secret. It's not just the traditional "closedness" of the special services. After all, if it is officially recognized that the group under the leadership of Antenna not only existed, but also actively worked, then we will have to take a fresh look at the history of the origin and formation of domestic radio electronics.
(January 1, 1908 - December 3, 1963)
In November 1945, Bentley, better known as "The Fox" and "Myrna", became disillusioned with communist ideals and achieved a high meeting with the head of the FBI, Edgar Hoover.
After a conflict with her Moscow leadership, she herself went to the FBI and "surrendered" more than 100 agents.
February 23, 1982
Chapman is a former intelligence officer expelled from the United States. She was accused of not informing the American authorities about her cooperation with a foreign government.
The reason for the arrest was that she was seen several times in the company of one Russian official. According to the intelligence services, Chapman transmitted information to this official by wireless communication.
Chapman pleaded guilty to illegal cooperation with Russia and went home along with nine other defendants in this case in exchange for four Russian citizens who were previously accused of spying for the United States and Great Britain.
By the way, while living in the UK, Anna made acquaintance with one of the members of the House of Lords. Now the lords are trying to figure out which one of them was with her. However, none of them themselves admitted to having ties with Chapman.
Today, Anna is actively engaged in entrepreneurship, works on television, participates in fashion shows ... The program "Secrets of Anna Chapman" has been one of the highest rated programs on the REN TV channel for several years now.
The history of scouts and spies has always attracted people. After all, it seems that such work is full of adventures and dangers. But history has confirmed that espionage is not exclusively a male occupation.
Among the names of spies, Mata Hari stands out, the recent scandal with Anna Chapman has again revived interest in representatives of this secret profession. Let's talk about the most famous female spies in history.
Mata Hari. The most famous spy of all time is Mata Hari (1876-1917). Her real name is Margarita Gertrude Celle. As a child, she managed to get a good education, as her father was rich. For 7 years, the girl lived in an unhappy marriage on the island of Java with a drinking and dissolute husband. Returning to Europe, the couple divorced. To earn a livelihood, Margarita begins her career first as a circus rider, and then as an oriental dancer. Interest in the East, ballet and erotica was so great that Mata Hari became one of the celebrities of Paris. The dancer was recruited by German intelligence before the war, during which she began to cooperate with the French. The woman needed the money to cover her gambling debts. It is still not known for certain what high-ranking fans told her, and what Mata Hari passed on as an agent. However, in 1917, she was captured by the French military, who quickly sentenced her to death. On October 15, the sentence was executed. The true cause of the death of the artist, perhaps, was her numerous connections with high-ranking French politicians, which could affect their reputation. Most likely, the role of Mata Hari as a spy is exaggerated, but the dramatic story about a seductive agent has attracted the interest of cinema.
Belle Boyd (1844-1900) is better known by her nickname La Belle Rebel. During the American Civil War, she was a spy for the southern states. The woman passed on all the information received to General Shtonevall Jackson. No one could have guessed espionage activities in the innocent inquiries of the soldiers of the army of the Northern States. There is a known case when on May 23, 1862 in Virginia, it was Boyd who crossed the front line in front of the northerners to report on the impending offensive. The spy was shot with rifles and cannons. However, the woman dressed in a blue dress and bonnet was not afraid. When the woman was seized for the first time, she was only 18 years old. However, thanks to the exchange of prisoners, Boyd was free. But a year later, she was arrested again. This time, a link was waiting for her. In her diaries, the spy wrote that she was guided by the motto: "Serve my country until the last breath."
Polina Cushman (1833-1893). And the northerners had their spies. Polina Kushman was an American actress, during the war she also did not remain indifferent. And she was eventually caught and sentenced to death. However, the woman was later pardoned. With the end of the war, she began to travel around the country, talking about her activities and exploits.
Yoshiko Kawashima (1907-1948). Yoshiko was a hereditary princess, a member of the royal family of Japan. The girl got used to someone else's role so much that she loved to dress in men's clothes and had a mistress. As a member of the imperial family, she had direct access to Pu Yi, a representative of the royal Chinese dynasty. In the 1930s, he was about to become the ruler of the province of Manchuria, a new state under Japanese control. In fact, Pu Yi would become a puppet in the hands of the cunning Kawashima. At the last moment, the monarch decided to give up this honorary title. After all, it was she who, in fact, would rule the entire province, listening to the orders of Tokyo. But the girl turned out to be more cunning - she planted poisonous snakes and bombs in the royal bed in order to convince Pu Yi of danger. He eventually succumbed to Yoshiko's persuasion and in 1934 became Emperor of Manchuria.
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe (1910-1963). This woman was engaged in Washington not only in diplomatic activities. The intelligence career began with her marriage to the second secretary of the American embassy. He was 20 years older than Amy, she traveled the world with him, not hiding her many novels. The husband did not mind, because he was an agent of British intelligence, the wife's entertainment helped to obtain information. After the unexpected death of her husband, the agent "Cynthia" goes to Washington, where he continues to help the country with cheap temptation and bribery. With the help of a bed, the Englishwoman obtained valuable information from French and Italian employees and officers. Her most famous espionage stunt was the opening of the French ambassador's safe. By skillful action, she was able to do this and copy the maritime code, which later helped the Allied forces to carry out the landings in North Africa in 1942.
Gabriela Gast
Gabriela Gast (born 1943). This woman studied politics at a good school, but, having visited the GDR in 1968, she was recruited by intelligence officers there. The woman fell in love with the handsome blond Schneider, who turned out to be a Stasi agent. In 1973, a woman managed to get a position in the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany in Pullach. In fact, she was a spy for the GDR, transferring the secrets of the Western part of Germany there for 20 years. Communication with Schneider continued all this time. Gabriela had the pseudonym "Leinfelder", during her service she managed to climb the career ladder to the highest government official. The agent was exposed only in 1990. The following year, she was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison. After being released in 1998, Gast now works in a typical Munich engineering office.
Ruth Werner (1907-2000). The German communist Ursula Kuczynski was already actively involved in political activities in her youth. However, having married an architect, she was forced to move to Shanghai in 1930. It was then that she was recruited by the Soviet special services, giving the pseudonym "Sonya". Ruth collected information for the USSR in China, collaborating with Richard Sorge. The husband did not even suspect what his wife was actually doing. In 1933, a woman took a special course at an intelligence school in Moscow, then returning to China, she continued to collect valuable data. Then there was Poland, Switzerland, England... Sony's informants even served in the US and European intelligence. So, with its help, invaluable information about the creation of an atomic bomb in the USA was obtained directly from the project engineers! Since 1950, Werner lived in the GDR, writing several books there, including the autobiographical Sonya Reports. It is curious that twice Ruth went on missions with other scouts, who, only according to impeccable documents, were listed as her husbands. However, over time, they really became such, out of love.
Violette Jabot (1921-1945). This Frenchwoman was already a widow at the age of 23, she decided to join the ranks of British intelligence. In 1944, a woman was sent to occupied France on a secret mission. She landed by parachute. At the destination, Violetta not only transmitted to the headquarters data on the number and location of enemy forces, but also carried out a number of sabotage actions. The April part of the tasks was completed, the woman returned to London, where her little daughter was expecting her. In June, Jabot is back in France, but now the mission ends in failure - her car delays, the cartridges for the shootout run out ... However, the girl was captured and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which became famous for its brutal torture and medical experiments on prisoners. After going through a series of tortures, Violetta was executed in February 1945, just a few months before the Victory. As a result, she became only the second woman in history to be posthumously awarded the George Cross (1946). Later, the scout was awarded the "Military Cross" and the medal "For Resistance".
From left to right: Regina Renchon ("Tigee"), wife of Georges Simenon, Simenon himself, Josephine Baker and her first husband, Count Pepito Abbitano. Who is fifth at the table is unknown. And there is, probably, a waiter, always ready to add champagne.
Josephine Baker (1906-1975). The real name of this American was Frieda Josephine McDonald. Her parents were a Jewish musician and a black washerwoman. She herself, because of her origin, suffered a lot - already at the age of 11 she learned what a pogrom in the ghetto is. In America, Baker was not loved because of the color of her skin, but in Europe fame came to her during the Paris tour of the "Revue Negre" in 1925. An unusual woman walked around Paris with a panther on a leash, she was nicknamed "Black Venus". Josephine married an Italian adventurer, thanks to which she acquired the title of count. However, the place of her activity remained the Moulin Rouge, she also starred in erotic films. As a result, the woman made a great contribution to the development and promotion of all types of Negro culture. In 1937, Baker easily renounced American citizenship in favor of French, but then the war began. Josephine became actively involved in the action, becoming a spy for the French resistance. She often visited the front and even trained as a pilot, received the rank of lieutenant. She also financially supported the underground. After the end of the war, she continued to dance and sing, acting in television series along the way. For the last 30 years of her life, Baker devoted herself to raising children whom she adopted in different countries of the world. As a result, a whole rainbow family of 12 kids lived in her French castle - a Japanese, a Finn, a Korean, a Colombian, an Arab, a Venezuelan, a Moroccan, a Canadian and three Frenchmen and a resident of Oceania. It was a kind of protest against the policy of racism in the United States. For her services to her second homeland, the woman was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and the Military Cross. At her funeral, on behalf of the country, official military honors were rendered - she was escorted off with 21 rifle volleys. In the history of France, she was the first woman of foreign origin to be commemorated in this way.
Nancy Wake
Nancy Wake (Grace Augusta Wake) (born 1912). The woman was born in New Zealand, unexpectedly receiving a rich inheritance, she moved first to New York, and then to Europe. In the 1930s she worked as a correspondent in Paris, denouncing the spread of Nazism. With the invasion of France by the Germans, the girl, along with her husband, joined the ranks of the Resistance, becoming its active member. Nancy had the following nicknames and pseudonyms: "White Mouse", "Witch", "Madame Andre". With her husband, she helped Jewish refugees and Allied soldiers to cross out of the country. Afraid of being caught, Nancy left the country herself, ending up in London in 1943. There she was trained as a professional intelligence officer and returned to France in April 1944. In the Overan region, the intelligence officer was engaged in organizing the supply of weapons, as well as recruiting new members of the Resistance. Soon, Nancy learned that her husband had been shot by the Nazis, who demanded that he indicate the location of the woman. The Gestapo promised 5 million francs for her head. As a result, Nancy returns to London. In the post-war period, she was awarded the Order of Australia and the George Medal. Wake published her autobiography White Mouse in 1985.
Christine Keeler (born 1943). The former British model, by the will of fate, turned out to be a "call girl". In the 60s, it was she who provoked a political scandal in England, called the Profumo Case. Christine herself acquired the nickname Mata Hari of the 60s. Working in a topless cabaret, she simultaneously entered into a relationship with the British Minister of War John Profumo and the USSR Naval Attache Yevgeny Ivanov. However, one of the ardent admirers of the beauty pursued her so persistently that the police became interested in this case, and later the journalists. It turned out that Kristin fished out secrets from the minister, then selling them to her other lover. In the course of the high-profile scandal that broke out, Profumo himself resigned, soon the prime minister, and then the conservatives lost the election. The minister who was left without work was forced to get a job as a dishwasher, while Christine herself earned even more money for herself - after all, the beautiful spy was so popular with journalists and photographers.
Once upon a time, women were considered creatures weak and good for nothing. This is what gave them a great cover for espionage activities. “Women have a distinct advantage in covert wars because they are able to multi-task,” Tamir Pardo, head of Israel’s national intelligence Mossad, told the Israeli publication Lady Globes.
I have a friend who can look her husband straight in the eye, and even under the pressure of irrefutable evidence, swear by oath that, for example, this handbag was bought at an incredibly huge discount (which is not true).
The other has a password email her young man and access to his profiles in social networks, while he himself, of course, is blissfully unaware of monitoring his every virtual step, from a seemingly inexperienced girlfriend in technology.
When I bone them with my friend Jimmy, he graciously explains that they are "angels in disguise." “Women,” he says, “are born with an extra helix in their DNA. Men can carry around with their gadgets, while women have an antenna built into them. He's born spies."
Russian spy disguised as a city and country dweller
As joking as Jimmy's explanation sounds, there's something to it.
Last week, in a somewhat shocking departure from normal protocol, the head of Israel's national intelligence agency, the Mossad, took it upon himself to speak positively about female agents. “Women have a clear advantage in covert wars because they are able to multi-task,” Tamir Pardo told Israeli publication Lady Globes. He also added that women "play roles better" and outperform men when it comes to "suppressing egos in order to achieve operational goals."
“Women are better at assessing situations. Contrary to stereotypes, women are superior to men when it comes to understanding a territory, reading a situation, or spatial awareness. If they are good, then they are excellent.
In popular culture, a certain opinion is being forced on us - popular protagonists of spies are men like James Bond or Jason Bourne, who promote the myth that the best spies are men, and women contribute, acting mainly as a "honey trap".
The merit of the Prado is that he significantly raised the role of women in perhaps one of the most dangerous professions on Earth. “We are all afraid,” he said. "Fear does not take into account gender differences."
Simon Cohen, a young Israeli, told me: “When I was serving, I noticed that most of the instructors were women. When asked why, I was told that women give more returns, because they, apparently, study better ... ”.
One of the CIA's most closely guarded secrets
Lindsey Moran worked for the CIA for five years. Having been trained at the infamous "Farm" in techniques such as surveillance, counter-surveillance, and survival techniques such as weapon handling and defensive driving [driving backwards while looking only in the rearview mirror], she was then sent to Eastern Europe with the task of recruiting agents to receive and transmit intelligence data to the CIA.
She told me that the CIA's best-kept secret is that the agency's best operatives are women. “The women I trained with and later served with were the best recruiters of foreign agents, the cornerstone of intelligence work.”
So what makes women the best in this profession?
People skills
The ability to easily make friends, read people - determine their motivation and weak spots. “When we are taught to 'identify and evaluate' potential sources, then everything comes naturally to women. I felt like I've been doing this all my life,” Lindsey explains.
Applied Wits vs. Physical Strength
Contrary to popular belief that you need to be in good physical shape to outwit the enemy, it's really a matter of being able to identify the danger posed by a person or situation, in other words, being quick-witted, which is the key to survival in the field.
“Women are already determined to ensure the safety of their environment. We're always on the lookout for dangerous situations, and we're on the lookout for suspicious types, people who might follow us. We compensated for the "weakness of our sex" by developing "applied cunning."
Women have a "nurturing instinct"
The main activity of an officer - which is only a technical term for an agent or spy - is the processing of foreign assets, or "sources". You can even say that it differs little from the maternal role. “You train your sources to be safe. Often, you have to deal with not the most reliable and changeable people - whose behavior is similar to that of a child - and you must protect them from all kinds of misfortunes.
Women are the best listeners
Handling an agent requires listening to their concerns and concerns. “Many of the men in my group were taught how to listen or how to receive information. For us women, it comes naturally,” says Lindsey.
Female spies love to invent operational legends
According to her, women always have an advantage in creating plausible explanations for why they might need to meet a man in a parked car, in a hotel room or in a secluded place in a restaurant on the outskirts of the city. “The standard legend is that we are in a relationship. It is plausible under any circumstances anywhere in the world.”
This is the reality of spy games for women. As for the movies, let's just wait until some Jane replaces the movie James...
famous spies
The most famous spy of all time is Mata Hari(1876-1917). Her real name is Margarita Gertrude Celle.
As a child, she managed to get a good education, as her father was rich. For 7 years, the girl lived in an unhappy marriage on the island of Java with a drinking and dissolute husband. Returning to Europe, the couple divorced. In order to earn a livelihood, Margarita begins her career first as a circus rider, and then as an oriental dancer. Interest in the East, ballet and erotica was so great that Mata Hari became one of the celebrities of Paris.
The dancer was recruited by German intelligence before the war, during which she began to cooperate with the French. The woman needed the money to cover her gambling debts. It is still not known for certain what high-ranking fans told her, and what Mata Hari passed on as an agent.
However, in 1917, she was captured by the French military, who quickly sentenced her to death. On October 15, the sentence was executed. The true cause of the death of the artist, perhaps, was her numerous connections with high-ranking French politicians, which could affect their reputation.
Most likely, the role of Mata Hari as a spy is exaggerated, but the dramatic story about a seductive agent has attracted the interest of cinema.
Bell Boyd(1844-1900) better known by her nickname La Belle Rebel. During the American Civil War, she was a spy for the southern states. The woman passed on all the information received to General Shtonevall Jackson. No one could have guessed espionage activities in the innocent inquiries of the soldiers of the army of the Northern States.
There is a known case when on May 23, 1862 in Virginia, it was Boyd who crossed the front line in front of the northerners to report on the impending offensive. The spy was shot with rifles and cannons. However, the woman dressed in a blue dress and bonnet was not afraid.
When the woman was seized for the first time, she was only 18 years old. However, thanks to the exchange of prisoners, Boyd was released. But a year later, she was arrested again. This time, a link was waiting for her. In her diaries, the spy wrote that she was guided by the motto: "Serve my country until the last breath."
Polina Kushmen(1833-1893). And the northerners had their spies. Polina Kushman was an American actress, during the war she also did not remain indifferent. And she was eventually caught and sentenced to death. However, the woman was later pardoned. With the end of the war, she began to travel around the country, talking about her activities and exploits.
Yoshiko Kawashima(1907-1948). Yoshiko was a hereditary princess, a member of the royal family of Japan. The girl got used to someone else's role so much that she loved to dress in men's clothes and had a mistress.
As a member of the imperial family, she had direct access to Pu Yi, a representative of the royal Chinese dynasty. In the 1930s, he was about to become the ruler of the province of Manchuria, a new state under Japanese control.
In fact, Pu Yi would become a puppet in the hands of the cunning Kawashima. At the last moment, the monarch decided to give up this honorary title. After all, it was she who, in fact, would rule the entire province, listening to the orders of Tokyo.
But the girl turned out to be more cunning - she planted poisonous snakes and bombs in the royal bed in order to convince Pu Yi of danger. He eventually succumbed to Yoshiko's persuasion and in 1934 became Emperor of Manchuria.
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe(1910-1963). This woman was engaged in Washington not only in diplomatic activities. The intelligence career began with her marriage to the second secretary of the American embassy. He was 20 years older than Amy, she traveled the world with him, not hiding her many novels.
The husband did not mind, because he was an agent of British intelligence - the wife's entertainment helped to obtain information. After the unexpected death of her husband, the agent "Cynthia" goes to Washington, where he continues to help the country with cheap temptation and bribery. With the help of a bed, the Englishwoman obtained valuable information from French and Italian employees and officers.
Her most famous espionage stunt was the opening of the French ambassador's safe. By skillful action, she was able to do this and copy the maritime code, which later helped the Allied forces to carry out the landings in North Africa in 1942.
Gabriela Gast(born 1943). This woman studied politics at a good school, but, having visited the GDR in 1968, she was recruited by intelligence officers there. The woman fell in love with the handsome blond Schneider, who turned out to be a Stasi agent. Gabriela in 1973 managed to get a position in the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany in Pullach.
In fact, she was a spy for the GDR, transferring the secrets of the Western part of Germany there for 20 years. Communication with Schneider continued all this time. Gabriela had the pseudonym "Leinfelder", during her service she managed to climb the career ladder to the highest government official.
The agent was exposed only in 1990. The following year, she was sentenced to 6 years and 9 months in prison. After being released in 1998, Gast now works in a typical Munich engineering office.
Ruth Werner(1907-2000). The German communist Ursula Kuczynski was already actively involved in political activities in her youth. However, having married an architect, she was forced to move to Shanghai in 1930. It was then that she was recruited by the Soviet special services, giving the pseudonym "Sonya".
Ruth collected information for the USSR in China, collaborating with Richard Sorge. The husband did not even suspect what his wife was actually doing. In 1933, a woman took a special course at an intelligence school in Moscow, then returning to China, she continued to collect valuable data.
Then there was Poland, Switzerland, England... Sony's informants even served in the US and European intelligence. So, with its help, invaluable information about the creation of an atomic bomb in the USA was obtained directly from the project engineers!
Since 1950, Werner lived in the GDR, writing several books there, including the autobiographical Sonya Reports. It is curious that twice Ruth went on missions with other scouts, who, only according to impeccable documents, were listed as her husbands. However, over time, they really became such, out of love.
Violetta Jabot(1921-1945). This Frenchwoman was already a widow at the age of 23, she decided to join the ranks of British intelligence. In 1944, a woman was sent to occupied France on a secret mission.
She landed by parachute. At the destination, Violetta not only transmitted to the headquarters data on the number and location of enemy forces, but also carried out a number of sabotage actions. The April part of the tasks was completed, the woman returned to London, where her little daughter was expecting her.
In June, Jabot is back in France, but now the mission ends in failure - her car delays, the cartridges for the shootout run out ... However, the girl was captured and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, which became famous for its brutal torture and medical experiments on prisoners.
After going through a series of tortures, Violetta was executed in February 1945, just a few months before the Victory. As a result, she became only the second woman in history to be posthumously awarded the George Cross (1946). Later, the scout was awarded the "Military Cross" and the medal "For Resistance".
Josephine Baker(1906-1975). The real name of this American was Frieda Josephine McDonald. Her parents were a Jewish musician and a black washerwoman. She herself, because of her origin, suffered a lot - already at the age of 11 she learned what a pogrom in the ghetto is.
In America, Baker was not loved because of the color of her skin, but in Europe fame came to her during the Paris tour of the "Revue Negre" in 1925. An unusual woman walked around Paris with a panther on a leash, she was nicknamed "Black Venus". Josephine married an Italian adventurer, thanks to which she acquired the title of count. However, the place of her activity remained the Moulin Rouge, she also starred in erotic films. As a result, the woman made a great contribution to the development and promotion of all types of Negro culture.
From left to right: Regina Renchon ("Tigee"), wife of Georges Simenon, Simenon himself, Josephine Baker and her first husband, Count Pepito Abbitano. Who is fifth at the table is unknown. And there is, probably, a waiter, always ready to add champagne.
In 1937, Baker easily renounced American citizenship in favor of French, but then the war began. Josephine became actively involved in the action, becoming a spy for the French resistance. She often visited the front and even trained as a pilot, received the rank of lieutenant. She also financially supported the underground. After the end of the war, she continued to dance and sing, acting in television series along the way.
For the last 30 years of her life, Baker devoted herself to raising children whom she adopted in different countries of the world. As a result, a whole rainbow family of 12 kids lived in her French castle - a Japanese, a Finn, a Korean, a Colombian, an Arab, a Venezuelan, a Moroccan, a Canadian and three Frenchmen and a resident of Oceania. It was a kind of protest against the policy of racism in the United States.
For her services to her second homeland, the woman was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor and the Military Cross. At her funeral, on behalf of the country, official military honors were rendered - she was escorted off with 21 rifle volleys. In the history of France, she was the first woman of foreign origin to be commemorated in this way.
Nancy Wake(Grace Augusta Wake) (born 1912). The woman was born in New Zealand, unexpectedly receiving a rich inheritance, she moved first to New York, and then to Europe. In the 1930s she worked as a correspondent in Paris, denouncing the spread of Nazism.
With the invasion of France by the Germans, the girl, along with her husband, joined the ranks of the Resistance, becoming its active member. Nancy had the following nicknames and pseudonyms: "White Mouse", "Witch", "Madame Andre". With her husband, she helped Jewish refugees and Allied soldiers to cross out of the country. Afraid of being caught, Nancy left the country herself, ending up in London in 1943.
There she was trained as a professional intelligence officer and returned to France in April 1944. In the Overan region, the intelligence officer was engaged in organizing the supply of weapons, as well as recruiting new members of the Resistance. Soon, Nancy learned that her husband had been shot by the Nazis, who demanded that he indicate the location of the woman.
The Gestapo promised 5 million francs for her head. As a result, Nancy returns to London. In the post-war period, she was awarded the Order of Australia and the George Medal. Wake published her autobiography White Mouse in 1985.
Christine Keeler(born 1943). The former British model, by the will of fate, turned out to be a "call girl". In the 60s, it was she who provoked a political scandal in England, called the Profumo Case. Christine herself acquired the nickname Mata Hari of the 60s.
Working in a topless cabaret, she simultaneously entered into a relationship with the British Minister of War John Profumo and the USSR Naval Attache Yevgeny Ivanov. However, one of the ardent admirers of the beauty pursued her so persistently that the police became interested in this case, and later the journalists.
It turned out that Kristin fished out secrets from the minister, then selling them to her other lover. In the course of the high-profile scandal that broke out, Profumo himself resigned, soon the prime minister, and then the conservatives lost the election. The minister who was left without work was forced to get a job as a dishwasher, while Christine herself earned even more money for herself - after all, the beautiful spy was so popular with journalists and photographers.
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