Sir's trap: how a Soviet intelligence officer received an award from Elizabeth II and stole a secret weapon
'16.10.2020'
Source: Lenta.ru
After World War II, Great Britain hosted scientists from Nazi Germany. They helped the British create a bacteriological bomb, a terrible weapon now prohibited by international conventions. The possession of such weapons violated the parity of forces in the post-war world and could put states in a vulnerable position that did not have similar means of attack. The Soviet intelligence officer Konon Trofimovich Molodoy was instructed to discover the secret of the new weapons of mass destruction, says Lenta.ru.
1960, Brussels. An innovative invention is presented at the international exhibition - a car alarm with blocking. As a result of the exhibition, she receives the Great Gold Medal, and the name of Gordon Lonsdale, a talented British businessman of Canadian origin, who "gave safety to cars and peace to their owners", is thundering all over Europe.
For Lonsdale's contribution to the development of technology in the UK and for the fact that he "glorified the country at a major international exhibition", Queen Elizabeth II of England bestowed upon Gordon the title of Sir. It is a pity that no one will know what the expression on Her Majesty's face was when she was informed that the businessman Lonsdale was actually a Soviet intelligence agent, Konon Young, who had worked in England for many years.
Konon Molody was born on January 17, 1922 in a family of Muscovites - scientific workers. When the boy was seven years old, grief came to the family: in October 1929, the head of the family, Trofim Molodiy, died from a second stroke. Konon's mother Evdokia, who was left alone with her children (Konon had an older sister), had a hard time - there was not enough money for food.
Evdokia's sister Anastasia, who emigrated to the United States in 1914, learned about this. Anastasia did not have children, but there were financial opportunities, so she invited her sister to send her son to the States in her care.
There the boy went to a local school. Tutors helped him to perfectly master the English, German and French languages, which Konon had studied back in Moscow. But, despite the quite clear prospects for a successful career, Konon was eager to go home - he really missed his homeland and relatives. Therefore, in 1938, Molodyy returned to the USSR. In Moscow, he continued his studies at school number 36, which he graduated in 1940.
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But dreams of higher education had to be postponed - the war began, and 19-year-old Konon went to the front. He hit the artillery, and soon became the commander of an optical reconnaissance platoon.
The reconnaissance group, which included Konon the Young, operated in the rear of the Germans, they and his comrades took many prisoners, who, during interrogations, betrayed the location of the enemy's firing points. During the war, Konon learned an important rule that came in handy in the future:
“The scout should not fail with patience. Mistakes are not forgiven him. These are all axioms. But to master them, it takes years and, alas, the lessons that life teaches us, ”said Molodiy.
In May 1945, Konon reached Berlin, saw the burning Reichstag and even left an autograph on it. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant in the position of chief of staff of the reconnaissance division of the Belorussian Front, received a medal "For Military Merit", the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War of I and II degrees.
Suitable face
Demobilized, Konon was finally able to continue his studies - he chose jurisprudence, studied at the Academy of Foreign Trade. After graduating with honors in 1951, Molody stayed there to teach Chinese, which he learned perfectly. He planned to enter graduate school and devote his life to science, but fate decreed otherwise.
Once Konon was visited by his comrade Anton. After the war, he continued to work in intelligence and invited Molodoy to join their team under the leadership of the famous Rudolf Abel.
Konon refused at first, but Anton was able to convince him: in the conditions of the Cold War, the USSR urgently needed illegal intelligence officers who would get information in the camp of the alleged enemy - England and the United States. It is worth noting that Molodoy had an ideal appearance for a scout, devoid of national features: depending on the circumstances, he could pass for both a Frenchman and an Englishman.
Having received the pseudonym Ben, Young was to travel to England via Canada under the name of Gordon Lonsdale, a native of the mining village of Cobalt.
The name was not chosen by chance: Gordon Lonsdale did exist, but died in 1943 under mysterious circumstances. The choice in favor of Canada was also made for a reason: the British perceive this country as part of the British Empire and consider its citizens to be something like distant relatives.
Once in Canada, Konon quickly got used to the image of a calculating, emotionally cold person, concerned only with money.
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The young man acquired Canadian documents and was already ready to leave for England, but a justification was required for the trip. And soon he received an offer from the center - to enter the School of African and Oriental Studies at the University of London. Konon entered into correspondence with the university, learned all the details and began to prepare for his departure. Knowing that in England, having a bank account is considered a sign of respectability, Molodoy went to a Canadian bank that had a representative office in London.
The senior clerk, who was also the secretary of the Canadian branch of the Royal Overseas League, invited Konon to join this organization. The league was patronized by Elizabeth II herself, membership in it cost only five dollars, but it gave a lot of advantages: the overseas guest was helped to settle in England, travel around the country was organized, and helpful people were introduced.
Young agreed to the offer to become a member of the royal league without hesitation - and he was right. When he arrived in Britain in 1955, representatives of the Overseas League helped him find housing and understand the traditions of English society.
Konon began studying at the University of London, maintaining contact with the leadership through other illegal scouts Maurice and Leontine Coenov (according to legend, they were a family of antiquaries named Kroger).
The young was introduced to the Coens as an illegal scout Arnie and helped equip a radio bunker in their mansion.
On assignment
The first assignment from the center for Young was a trip to Paris to meet with a certain Jean. He was supposed to bring Konon to the most important agent for Soviet intelligence, Wilson. He had access to the development of bacteriological weapons, which were carried out at the Center for the Study of Biological Methods of Warfare, located in Porton, English.
German specialists also worked on a terrible weapon capable of destroying the entire population of countries and continents. The British tracked them down in the last months of the war, and they agreed to move to Britain in order to be exempted from responsibility for inhuman experiments on prisoners. The result of their work was a threat to the whole world - bacteriological weapons.
One such bomb could destroy a population of up to 60 thousand square kilometers.
To meet with Jean the Young came to the Louvre. The agent should have recognized Konon by the bandaged middle finger of his left hand, which he applied to his temple. Having given the signal, Young left the Louvre and walked towards the Champs Elysees; he was soon caught up by a black Mercedes, driven by Jean. After a short conversation, Konon received information about the agents with whom he was to work, and the conditions for meeting with them. Among them was Agent Wilson.
The young man got down to work, along the way making useful contacts. For example, during a short rest, Konon met tourists - Raymond Straw and his wife. Straw turned out to be a major in the US Air Force, served at Lakenheath in England, where the American strategic aviation was based.
Straw developed a liking for Konon and once invited him to visit a base in Suffolk County. During the visit, from a conversation with his alarmed wife, Straw Molodiy learned about the accident of an American plane at the base.
The bomber fell on an underground storage of nuclear charges and caught fire. Konon reported to the center about this emergency, as well as about the secret cache on the territory of the base.
Thanks to the informant Wilson, Molody soon found a thermos with samples of biological weapons in his hands, which he immediately transported to the center. In addition, Wilson gave Konon information about the development of CS gas, which was later used by the Americans in Vietnam, and the dossier of leading Porton employees. Konon, already in Moscow, saw one of them in a documentary about the crimes of the Third Reich:
“… Scary footage flashed on the screen: skeletal people writhe in agony. They study the effect of microorganisms that paralyze the will, inflict hellish pains, cripple the body ... There was also a "researcher" from Porton, whose dossier I kept, "recalled Konon Molodiy.
Business with the KGB
The scout got a family during a vacation in 1955 - once a year he had the opportunity to travel to Moscow: first, with fake documents, he came to one of the socialist countries, and from there to the USSR. He married a teacher who worked in a school for children with disabilities and adopted her child. In 1958, the Molodykh had a son. What Konon was actually doing, his wife did not know - she was sure that he was working in China through the Foreign Trade.
And Molodiy, meanwhile, decided to do business in England - not so much for profit as to justify his continued stay in the country after graduation. Soon he became the owner of several slot machines with musical gramophone records.
At the first stage, the business brought only losses, which were covered by the KGB funds.
But soon Konon took over as one of the directors of the very company where he bought the machines. The scout plunged into the world of commerce, which took a long time, but removed all questions about income and the purpose of his stay in England.
In addition to biological weapons, Young as a scout was interested in the underwater research center of the British Navy. There were designed nuclear submarines, equipment for recognizing "friend or foe", means of detection and protection, as well as, according to Moscow, new types of nuclear weapons.
At the same time, Molodyy received a recommendation from the center to take a closer look at one of the employees of the personnel department in Portland - Harry Houghton, a former senior non-commissioned officer of the Royal Navy.
Houghton had a very interesting biography: in the early 1950s he worked as a cipher under the British naval attaché in Poland and was then successfully recruited by the KGB.
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In his spare time, Houghton was engaged in speculation in scarce foods, cigarettes and antibiotics. He had a penchant for alcohol, which is why he was eventually sent back to England. It was dangerous to contact such a person, but the center decided to take the risk and advised Konon to be as careful as possible.
The young man contacted the retired sailor by phone, posing as the assistant to the American naval attaché in London, Captain Second Rank Alec Johnson. During the meeting, Molodyy complained that England did not fully comply with the agreements with the United States on the exchange of military-technical information. Word for word, and Houghton was the first to offer the "captain" informational support - though not free.
Having presented the future informant with a golden lighter, Konon promised him a generous reward for his assistance.
And Houghton, acting under the pseudonym Shah, soon introduced Konon to his fiancée, Ethel Gee, a clerk who copied and had access to secret documents relating to the Royal Navy. Houghton's beloved, who received the pseudonym Asya, immediately agreed to get military secrets for Alec Johnson.
17 thousand sheets of classified documents were transferred to the center during the cooperation with Houghton and G. Among them were data on anti-submarine protection, cryptography, acoustic systems, port defense, technical condition of the British fleet and naval maneuvers of NATO countries.
These documents were very useful to Soviet scientists and designers: for example, a series of sonars - devices for studying the bottom relief - was created on the basis of British developments.
Sir's trap
In 1959, one of the company's employees asked Molodoy to evaluate his father's invention - a car alarm with blocking, which the developer himself called a "car guard". Konon liked the idea, he found investors and started the production of alarm systems. In March 1960, at an international exhibition in Brussels, the invention received the Great Gold Medal.
After that, the business for the production and sale of alarm systems went uphill. The young man became a real millionaire - he bought a luxury villa and replenished his car fleet with luxury cars. In the wake of success, Konon and his partners even considered selling the company for a lump sum.
Queen Elizabeth II was so impressed by the success of the Canadian businessman that she granted him the title of sir. Officially - in gratitude for the fact that Lonsdale "glorified Great Britain at a prestigious international exhibition."
At the same time, Konon did not forget about the main goal - he sent to the center data on metalworking technologies and the creation of high-strength alloys, which he managed to obtain thanks to his enterprise.
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But the success did not last long: at the end of 1960, Konon was in the field of view of the British counterintelligence. The young man realized this when, after a two-month absence in England, he took documents from the bank vault: the trap he set showed that his papers were rummaged. On the way home, Konon found an outdoor car driving his car. Soon a secret search was carried out at his house, which the British special services disguised as a burglary.
Konon withdrew from intelligence, but continued to conduct the business of the company, trying not to show anyone his excitement. Young was preparing for the final meeting with Houghton, which was scheduled for January 7, 1961.
He did not know that his informant had already fallen on the hook of British intelligence and turned in Konon-Alec in exchange for a promise to cut off the term to himself and his fiancee.
Conon and Houghton's last meeting took place on Waterloo Road. The informant arrived with the bride, which surprised the scout - he did not expect Ethel. As soon as Molody took the bag with papers from the girl, the British detained all three. Several hours later, the Coen couple were arrested, in whose mansion they found photographic equipment, forged documents, hiding places and a radio station.
"The scout must remain a scout"
Konon refused to testify at Scotland Yard. He understood that he had little chance of avoiding jail, and was preparing for 14 years in prison - the maximum sentence on charges of collusion.
Therefore, Molodyi considered his main goal to be one thing: to find out as much as possible about the kitchen of British intelligence, which, one way or another, had to be revealed at court hearings.
“I thought and still believe: a scout should remain a scout even in the dock. And in the courtroom he continues to work ... I had to create situations in which the British counterintelligence would show that it really knows and what does not know at all about us. It was largely successful, ”recalled Konon Molodiy.
Only after Molodoy's arrest did his wife find out who her husband really was: KGB officers told her about Konon's arrest, who presented her with a gold ring with aquamarine during the visit.
The scout's trial began in March 1961 at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court and was named The Queen v. Gordon Lonsdale. The fate of the Young was to be decided by the Chief Justice of England, Lord Parker. Counterintelligence failed to find Konon's connections with Soviet intelligence, but this did not in any way affect the severity of the sentence. He received 25 years in prison.
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The scout met the verdict with a smile. Houghton and his fiancée were also unlucky: the intelligence agencies did not fulfill their promises to mitigate punishment, and both received 15 years in prison. The Coens were sentenced to 20 years.
However, out of the set 25 years in a British prison, Molody spent only three: in April 1964, he was exchanged for an English spy, Greville Wynn. The exchange took place in a neutral zone near a border checkpoint in West Germany. Konon from excitement did not even remember at what moment he ended up in the car of the Soviet special services.
“Then there was the city where I was born and grew up. My home, where they waited so patiently and hard for me. Surprised cry of children: "Dad!" Happy and anxious eyes of a person who is very dear to me ”, - said Konon Molodiy.
Soon he was awarded the rank of colonel and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The Molodykh family settled in an apartment allocated to him on the Frunzenskaya embankment, Konon continued to work in intelligence, switching from operational activities to teaching. He wrote a memoir that was later published in the West.
The young man dreamed of returning to illegal work again and for the sake of this he even agreed to plastic surgery.
But he didn't have time. In October 1970, a 48-year-old scout died of a massive heart attack. Buried Konon Molody at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow.
