(1919-1963)
Russian double, for UK
Joined the GRU in 1949. As a colonel, he was send to Ankara in 1955, where the British considered him a potential defector.He became the deputy of The Department for Coronation of Science. The British approached him during his official visit to London 1961. Later ha was able to hand over valuable information about Russian military technology and the position of Russian nuclear rocket sites. The British (and especially the Americans) didn't believe he was a defector, because of the security level of the information he delivered, plus there were no copies only his own interpretations and reports. Penkovskiy was the one who informed Americans about the movement and state of Russian rockets and thus giving J.F.Kennedy good cards for dealing with the Cuban crisis. His evidence led to preventing US "Hawks" to start a preventive first strike against the USSR as they believed the Soviets had gathered more nuclear potential than the US. Penkovskiy proved this to be wrong (the US had three times more nuclear yield as the Soviets by that time). So Kennedy forced his administration to stop the first-strike ideas. His blow up came first in 1963, due to his expensive way of life. He was (officially) executed that year. His contact officer, Greville Wynne, was arrested too, but was later exchanged for G.Londsdale.
The Soviets later tried to proclaim that Penkovskiy was a phony, delivering prepared misinformation and that he's still alive, but that was probably the KGB trying to calm down the affair. His memories are considered to be a "CIA-edition".
He was one of the most valuable sources of the West.
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