Why Colonel Oleg Penkovskiy Hated Communism and Gave His Life to Spy for the West
“Our Communism is a fraud… I feel contempt for myself because I am part of this system and I live a lie… I must defeat these men. They are destroying the Russian people.”
An extraordinary but little-known book chronicles the activities of Colonel Oleg Penkovskiy as he carried out his work as a high-level Soviet intelligence officer actively spying for the West.
This book, titled “The Penkovskiy Papers” consists of lengthy notes and journals he kept which were smuggled out of the Soviet Union just before his arrest, together with illuminating commentary by journalist and editor Frank Gibney.
Colonel Penkovskiy’s story is not only a timely account of the sheer horror that is Communism, but also a testimony to the innate desire of humanity for freedom.
Penkovskiy’s ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the security of the West deserves to be remembered by free people, but his words of personal anguish over his role in the Soviet system are also a timeless reminder of the tragic results which inevitably follow from the installation of a Communist government in a nation which fails to remain vigilant in protection of the foundations of the freedom its people enjoy.
What follows is a transcription of a key portion of Colonel Penkovskiy’s personal statement concerning the commitment he made when he decided to become a spy for the West.
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“I began as a good Komsomol (Young Communist League member). From the beginning I had showed promise, or so people said, for becoming a builder for Communist society - as A. Bezymenskiy has written, “a Komsomol to the nth degree”. As a politruk (political officer) I worked as a guide and educator of the soldier masses. I believed in the Soviet system and was ready to fight anyone who even talked against it.
It was first during the struggles of World War II that I became convinced that it was not the Communist Party which moved and inspired us all to walk the fighting road from Stalingrad to Berlin. There was something behind us: Russia.
We believed in the end that we were fighting for the Russia of Suvorov (legendary 18th century Russian general, author of “The Science of Victory” ) and Kutuzov (Field Marshall Kutuzov was “one of the finest military officers and diplomats of Russia under the reign of three Romanov Tsars in the late 18th century – early 19th century”), of Minin (17th century Russian merchant who became a hero for his role in defending Russia against a Polish invasion in 1612) and Pozharskiy (Russian hero who organized volunteer forces to defend against the same Polish invasion), not for Soviet Russia, but for Mother Russia.
(Note: There is a monument to Minin and Pozharskiy in Red Square in Moscow, in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral.)
Even more than by the war itself, my eyes were opened by my work with the higher authorities and general officers of the Soviet Army. I happened to marry a general’s daughter and quickly found myself in a society of the Soviet upper classes. I realized that their praise of the Party and Communism was only in words. In their private lives they lie, deceive, scheme against each other, intrigue, inform, cut each other’s throats. In their pursuit of more money and advancement for themselves they become informants for the KGB on their friends and fellow workers. Their children despise everything Soviet, watch only foreign movie films, and look down on ordinary people.
Our Communism, which we now have been building for almost forty-five years, is a fraud.
I myself am a part of this fraud; after all I have been one of the privileged. Years ago I began to feel disgusted with myself, not to mention with our beloved leaders and guides. I felt before, and I feel now, that I must find some justification for my existence which would give me inner satisfaction. I argued with myself, I swore at myself. Finally I became certain that what we call “our Communist society” was only a façade. One cannot help agreeing with Molotov, who after Stalin’s death stated “by mistake” that we were still far from having built socialism, to say nothing of Communism.
Inwardly I have not grown one bit, and I have the feeling that every day our “Communism” is pulling me back instead of moving me forward. Some disease or infection is eating at our country from within and we must do something to stop it. I do not see any other choice, and this is the main reason why I am joining the ranks of active fighters for my people.
The Communist system is harmful to our people. I cannot serve a harmful system. There are many people who think and feel as I do, but they are afraid to unite for action. So we all work separately. Each man here is alone.
I feel contempt for myself because I am part of this system and I live a lie. The ideals which so many of our fathers and brothers died for have turned out to be nothing more than bluff and a deceit. I know the Army and there are many of us in the officer corps who feel the same way.
I praise our leaders, but inside me I wish them death. I associate with highly placed, important people: ministers and marshals, generals and senior officers, members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. These people have not done me any harm personally; on the contrary, some of them have helped me to obtain my present position. Several still help me today. Nonetheless I can no longer abide this two-faced existence.
Khrushchev’s is a government of adventurers. They are demagogues and liars, covering themselves with the banner of the struggle for peace. Khrushchev has not renounced war. He is quite prepared to begin a war, if circumstances turn favorable to him. This he must not be permitted to do.
In the past, our General Staff and our foreign representatives condemned the concept of surprise attack such as Hitler used. Now they have come around to the viewpoint that there is a great advantage to the side that makes a sudden massive attack first. They prepare themselves to be in a position to do so. Since he cannot muster enough strength to strike at all potential enemy countries simultaneously, Khrushchev singles out the U.S. and Britain as his attack targets. He estimates that the other Western allies would disintegrate due to differences among themselves. They would be happy to be alive.
From what I have learned and what I have heard, I know that the leaders of the Soviet state are the willing provocateurs of an atomic war. At one time or another, they may lose their heads entirely and start an atomic war. See what Khrushchev has done over Berlin.
The Soviet leaders know exactly that the Western world and especially the Americans do not wish an atomic war. This desire of my Western friends for peace is what the Soviet leaders try to use to their own advantage. It is they who wish to provoke a new war. This would open the road to the subjugation of the entire world.
I fear this more every day. And my fears confirm my choice to make this invisible fight.
In Moscow I have lived in a nuclear nightmare. I know the extent of their preparations. I know the poison of the new military doctrine, as outlined in the top-secret “Special Collection” – the plan to strike first, at any costs. I know their new missiles and their warheads. I have described them to my friends. Imagine the horror of a fifty-megaton bomb with an explosive force almost twice what one expects. They congratulated themselves on this.
I must defeat these men. They are destroying the Russian people. I will defeat them with my allies, my new friends.
God will help us in this great and important work.”
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Excerpts from the Foreword by Edward Crankshaw:
“When Oleg Penkovskiy was sentenced to death and shot in Moscow in the spring of 1963, few people inside or outside the Soviet Union realized the scale of his operations as a voluntary agent for the Western intelligence services… In fact he was much more than a routine traitor … he was a key member of the Soviet intelligence service occupying a position of great trust, and enjoying access by virtue of his work and family connections to an extraordinarily wide range of the most confidential information. In working against his own government, he did not regard himself as a traitor… he acted out of the deep conviction that he was serving the cause of human progress...
What I find interesting is that Penkovskiy himself is so shocked by the reality of which he formed a part… (he) was shocked by the size and magnitude and malevolence of the secret service in which he (served). He was also shocked by the behavior of Khrushchev and others…he detested Khrushchev and the Soviet leadership…
For myself, the most fascinating and valuable parts of the book are those which offer an inside view of the ways of life enjoyed by the Soviet elite – men who we think of as Communists, corrupt and living like princes at the expense of the unfortunate masses, to whom Communism is a joke word. Others beside Penkovskiy would like to put a bomb under this world. Perhaps one day they will.”
Excerpts from Commentary by Frank Gibney:
“Colonel Penkovskiy was no mere agent handing over moderately useful military tidbits on Soviet order of battle or economic development. On the contrary, the extent and ingenuity of his work for the West add up to the most extraordinary intelligence feat of this century.
Alone, Oleg Penkovskiy cracked the security system of the world’s most security-conscious government and left it virtually in pieces after his disclosures. The gravity of his work is suggested by its immediate aftermath: one chief marshal of the Soviet Union, and in charge of tactical missile forces at that, was removed from his post and demoted; the Chief of Soviet Military Intelligence, General Ivan Serov (the “Hangman” of Hungary in 1956) transferred, then publicly demoted; some three hundred Soviet intelligence officers almost immediately recalled to Moscow from foreign posts.
From April 1961 to August 1962 Penkovskiy furnished the West with current, high-priority information on the innermost political and military secrets of the Soviet Union. The sixteen months during which he was, so to speak, operational spanned a particularly intense time of crisis between the Khrushchev regime and the new administration of John F. Kennedy. Historians may one day term it the near-freezing point of the Cold War…
It was Penkovskiy’s thesis and his earnest conviction that the State Security forces had to be attacked at their roots before the Russian people, his people, would be capable of leading the peaceful national life he knew they deserved. And that is the thesis of this book.”
Frank Gibney’s concluding comments:
“Oleg Penkovskiy’s initial overtures toward the West were made from disgust at his own Soviet system. His visits there (to London and Paris) turned this into a more positive sentiment. He was almost awe-struck at the experience of the open society. He wanted his own people to have this society at home. He wanted to share in it himself, whether the Russian people could or not.
If he was a flawed hero, he was a hero nonetheless. His struggle was one of heroic proportions, as was his achievement. If he served by this struggle to blunt the forces of aggression and reaction within his own country, he will have served well.
In any case, by any standard, Oleg Penkovskiy was a most uncommon man.“
OLEG PENKOVSKIY - SOVIET DOUBLE AGENT - CIA FILES
Oleg Penkovsky went from a Russian World War II military hero, to becoming America's best human intelligence asset in the Soviet Union. He believed that Nikita Khrushchev's leadership was taking the Soviet Union onto the path of destruction. Penkovskiy was the highest level Soviet officer to ever spy for the United States or British Intelligence.
The Penkovsky case is considered to have been the most successful Cold War espionage operation. Penkovsky was observed by KGB agents after a meeting with a British intelligence contact, which lead to his arrest and execution.
This group of documents highlights the highs and lows of the intelligence business. The recruitment of a well-placed spy, in this case a high-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer, lessened the tensions of the Cold War by providing information on the intentions, strength, and technological advancement of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the enormous risks for the spy himself became evident in the fate of Penkovsky, shot as a traitor by the Soviets in 1963 for spying for the United States and United Kingdom.
These documents provide an over-the-shoulder look from the perspective of the CIA Director as well as from Penkovsky himself in operational meeting reports. This collection offers insights on the spy's motives as well as the fruit of his espionage for the United States. Files included: CIA reports on the top secret Soviet intelligence reports provided by Penkovsky; Penkovskiy’s debriefings to CIA and SIS officials during visits to England and France.
Penkovsky allowed the administrations of President Eisenhower and President Kennedy to bypass the bluster and rhetoric of Nikita Khrushchev, and to know the true facts concerning Soviet military preparedness. The files indicate that Penkovskiy’s acts of espionage were able to define for the United States the limitations of Soviet power. Through Penkovsky, the United States learned of the number of nuclear missiles the Soviets held and the problems with their guidance systems.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Penkovsky was able to provide information on how those missiles operated in the field.
Soviet GRU (military intelligence) documents provided by Penkovsky show the friction between the Soviet high command over whether Soviet military strategy should depend on nuclear weapons, or general purpose forces.
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