I wonder how many spies die in their beds, old and contented, surrounded by their children and grandchildren? We will never know because we only hear about the spies who were caught.
I’d like to shine a light on two lesser known spies, both British. Greville Wynne was a businessman of relatively humble origin selling industrial equipment. In 1955 he started selling his wares behind the Iron Curtain. Meanwhile in 1960 Oleg Penkovsky, a colonel in the KGB, wanted to give the CIA secret documents about Russia’s nuclear capability and the deployment of nuclear missiles to Cuba. Penkovsky was an idealist prepared to betray his country to avert nuclear warfare. It seems he was not motivated by money. The CIA were uncooperative because if they were found out by the Russians it might provoke the nuclear war they hoped to avert. In 1960 the CIA were unaware of the penetration of British Intelligence by the Cambridge spies and turned Penkovsky over to MI6 to handle.
As MI6 operatives in Moscow were closely watched somebody had the bright idea of recruiting Greville Wynne as the contact with Penkovsky. Wynne was already a frequent visitor to Moscow and had no links with the British security service. He passed secret documents back to London (they helped America assess Russia’s capability in Cuba) until he and Penkovsky were caught by the KGB in 1962. Penkovsky was executed and Wynne sentenced to eight years in the Lubyanka which seems rather a modest punishment by Soviet standards.
Greville had always been a heavy drinker and his health deteriorated in prison. I imagine MI6 felt a bit guilty that he had been landed in it and in 1964 agreed a spy swap. Wynne was released in exchange for Konon Molody who had headed up the Portland spy ring and called himself Gordon Lonsdale while he was living in England. Greville was motivated by patriotism and perhaps was paid too. If you have heard about him recently it may be because he was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2021 film The Courier available on BBC iPlayer, only for nineteen days, and YouTube.
Wynne did not die happily, an old man in his own bed surrounded by his loving family. His wife left him and he became estranged from his only child. Wikipedia summarises: “Wynne struggled with depression and alcoholism in the aftermath of imprisonment. He died of throat cancer at the Cromwell Hospital in London on 28 February 1990, aged 70”.
(To be continued)