Oleg Penkovsky(1919-1963)
Oleg Penkovsky was a colonel in the Soviet army, assigned to military
intelligence. A graduate of the Soviet Military Academy, he was a
trusted operative in the Soviet intelligence service, and in 1955 was
posted as the Assistant Military Attache at the Soviet Embassy in
Ankara, Turkey, an extremely important position for an intelligence
officer at the height of the Cold War. In 1961 he contacted the British
intelligence service and offered his services as an agent in exchange
for money. A deal was struck, and Penkovsky used his position to obtain
and pass along valuable Soviet military and political documents and
photographs--approximately 5,000 altogether--using a British
businessman stationed in the Soviet Union as his go-between. He
continued his espionage activities until October of 1962, when Soviet
authorities discovered what he had been doing and arrested him. He was
tried for treason, found guilty and executed on May 16, 1963.