Alexander Rado
Encyclopedia
Alexander Radó, born as Sándor Radó and also known as Alexander Radolfi (5 November 1899, Újpest
, near Budapest
– 20 August 1981, Budapest), was a Hungarian
cartographer and a Soviet
military intelligence
agent in World War II
.
, at the time an industrial suburb of Budapest
. His father (Gábor Reich) was first a clerk at a trading firm and later a businessman. In 1917, after graduation from gymnasium (high school)
, Radó was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian
army and was sent to fortress artillery
officer training school. Graduated at the officer candidate school in 1918, he was assigned to an artillery regiment. During this time, he also studied law as a correspondence student of the University of Budapest.
In December 1918, after the fall of Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Radó joined the Hungarian Communist Party
. When the communists came to power in Hungary
in March 1919, he was appointed as cartographer on the staff of a Hungarian Red Army division
. Ferenc Munnich
, the political commissar
of the division, then made him commissar
of the division's artillery. Radó took part in fighting against Czechoslovak forces
and in fighting against anti-communist insurgents in Budapest
.
On 1 September 1919, after the fall of the communist regime in Hungary
, Radó fled to Austria
. He studied geography
and cartography
at Vienna University
and wrote on military matters in a German-language magazine Kommunizmus, published by Hungarian political emigrants in Austria. In July 1920 he established the information agency Rosta-Wien, which he used to spread propaganda received in broadcasts from Soviet Russia
. To receive these, he had bribed the head of a Vienna radio station. Information bulletins from these materials were distributed to left-wing newspapers and organizations in various countries.
In 1922 Radó moved to Germany and returned to his studies, first at Jena and then at Leipzig
. In October, 1923, he took part in the preparation for Сomintern-planned large armed uprising in Germany and was made military chief of the communist forces in Leipzig
. But the badly planned revolution had to be aborted at the last moment. Fearing arrest, Radó left Germany for the Soviet Union
in September, 1924. In Moscow he worked for the All-Union Society for Cultural Contacts with Abroad (VOKS) and then for the World Economy Institute of the Communist Academy
. Radó returned to Germany in 1926 and established the Berlin cartographic agency “Pressgeography”. He gave lectures at the Masch, the Marxist Workers' School, teaching economic geography
, the history of the working class movement (Arbeitergeschichte) and imperialism.
After Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Radó and his wife Lena fled through Austria
to France
. In Paris
, Radó established the “Inpress” (an independent anti-Nazi press agency). In 1935, during a visit to Moscow
, Radó was approached by Artur Artuzov
, deputy chief of Soviet military intelligence and by Semion Uritsky, chief of Soviet military intelligence
. Radó agreed to be their intelligence agent with the main task of obtaining intelligence on Nazi Germany. Radó failed to obtain a residence permit
in Belgium
, but in 1939 was permitted residence in Switzerland
. He moved to Geneva
and founded yet another cartographic agency, Geopress.
In 1937 Radó visited Italy
to collect intelligence about the Italian military support of the Francist
forces in the Spanish civil war
. This intelligence was sent to Moscow through Paris Soviet military intelligence station. In 1938 Radó contacted Swiss journalist ans agent Otto Puenter in Bern, who gave him military intelligence on Italy. On Italy' s military support of Franco's forces he received material from "Gabel", a Yugoslav
serving as Spanish Republican consul in Sushak
, Yugoslavia
and military intelligence on Germany from "Puasson", a German Social Democratic
political emigrant living in Switzerland with sources in Germany.
In 1940 Radó contacted Alexander Foote
, an English Soviet agent in Switzerland who joined Ursula Kuczynski
's network since 1938. Foote became a radio operator for Radó’s intelligence network, and in March 1941 managed to establish radio communication with Moscow Centre from Lausanne
. In his radio communications, Radó used the codename "Dora". In the first half of 1941, "Luiza", a Swiss intelligence officer gave Otto Puetner (and Radó) the important information, that many divisions of the German Wehrmacht
were being concentrated in the East. This warning of an imminent German attack, like that from Richard Sorge
and from other Soviet agents, was dismissed by Stalin.
After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War on June 22, 1941, Radó's network continued to provide Soviet General Staff
with very valuable intelligence on German forces. Some of it was supplied through Puetner by "Zalter", a press officer of the French embassy in Switzerland and by "Long", a French intelligence officer who fled to Switzerland after the capitulation of France
. Both had sources in Germany, among them Ernst Lemmer ("Agnessa"), editor of a German foreign policy bulletin.
In March, 1942 a most valuable pieces of intelligence was sent to Moscow - summer German offensive aimed at the occupation of Caucasian oilfields
would begin between 31 May and 7 June 1942. Radó's network got this from Georges Blun ("Long"), provided by General Hamann, at the German OKW
. Soviet command did not make proper use of this intelligence.
Through Christian Schneider, a German lawyer who had worked in the International Labour Bureau in Switzerland until 1939, Radó made contact with Rudolf Roessler
, a German political emigrant living in Lucerne
. Roessler, codenamed “Lucy” apparently had extraordinary sources in Germany who provided valuable military intelligence
. Roessler allegedly was the conduit the British used to transmit the results of their codebreaking of German cipher traffic (operation Ultra
) to the Soviets without revealing their ability to read this German code.
At the end of 1942 Abwehr
and Gestapo
caught up with the “Rote Kapelle”, Leopold Trepper's
network. There had been some contacts between both spy rings in 1940, through Anatoly Gurevich (alias "Kent"), a Soviet undercover intelligence officer and so Radó’s network became known to the Germans. They even obtained the radio cipher
used by Radó’s network which enabled them to decrypt some of Radó’s radio communications from Switzerland.
Meanwhile Radó’s network continued to supply Moscow Centre with valuable intelligence. In April, 1943 Stalin received news about the planned German offensive near Kursk
(provided by "Werter", a Roessler source in Germany).
In the second half of 1943, the Germans persuaded Swiss authorities to act against Radó’s network. Using mobile radio direction finders Swiss police tracked down one of Radó's radio transmitters operated by Swiss agents Edmond Hamel and Olga Hamel. They were arrested on October, 14th, 1943. On the same day Margarita Bolli was caught, an Italian emigrant living in Switzerland and a radio operator. Radó went into hiding. On November 20, 1943, they caught Alexander Foote
. Christian Schneider and two more contacts in Switzerland were arrested on 19 April 1944. Rudolf Roessler
on 19 May 1944.
On September 16 of 1944, Radó and his wife Helen, the sister of Hermann Scherchen
, a German conductor
in whose home they had hidden, illegally crossed the Swiss-French border on a French train with the help of the French Maquis
from Upper Savoy
. On the 24th, they reached Paris. Radó contacted a Soviet military intelligence agent and in January, 1945, Radó and Leopold Trepper
were evacuated via plane to the Soviet Union. Due to military operations in Germany, a direct flight to the Soviet Union from Paris was impossible, so the plane flew over Northern Africa. Using a stopover in Cairo
, Radó, who suspected his arrest on arrival in the Soviet Union, escaped and managed to enter the British embassy under an alias. He applied for political asylum, but this was denied and Radó tried to commit suicide, but was only injured and hospitalized. Radó was extradited
by Egypt
to the Soviet Union based on a false accusation, in August 1945 he was brought to Moscow under guard. In December, 1946, he was sentenced by a Special Council
of MGB
without trial to 10 years on espionage charges.
Following the death of Stalin, Radó was released in November, 1954, and allowed to return to Hungary. In 1956 he was officially rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
. In 1955 Radó was appointed chief of the Hungarian cartographic service. In 1958 he was appointed to the chair of cartography in Budapest Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences
. In 1971 he published his memoirs in Hungarian. They were translated into several languages. But a first uncensored edition, based on the original manuscript, was only published in 2006, in Budapest. He died in Budapest
in 1981.
Újpest
Újpest may refer to:*Újpest, a district of Budapest, Hungary.*Újpest FC, a football team based in Újpest....
, near Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
– 20 August 1981, Budapest), was a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
cartographer and a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
military intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
agent in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Life
Radó was born into a Jewish family in ÚjpestÚjpest
Újpest may refer to:*Újpest, a district of Budapest, Hungary.*Újpest FC, a football team based in Újpest....
, at the time an industrial suburb of Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. His father (Gábor Reich) was first a clerk at a trading firm and later a businessman. In 1917, after graduation from gymnasium (high school)
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, Radó was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
army and was sent to fortress artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
officer training school. Graduated at the officer candidate school in 1918, he was assigned to an artillery regiment. During this time, he also studied law as a correspondence student of the University of Budapest.
In December 1918, after the fall of Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Radó joined the Hungarian Communist Party
Hungarian Communist Party
The Communist Party of Hungary , renamed Hungarian Communist Party in 1945, was founded on November 24, 1918, and was in power in Hungary briefly from March to August 1919 under Béla Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The communist government was overthrown by the Romanian Army and driven...
. When the communists came to power in Hungary
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
in March 1919, he was appointed as cartographer on the staff of a Hungarian Red Army division
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
. Ferenc Munnich
Ferenc Münnich
Ferenc Münnich was a Hungarian Communist politician who served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary from 1958 to 1961....
, the political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
of the division, then made him commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
of the division's artillery. Radó took part in fighting against Czechoslovak forces
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
and in fighting against anti-communist insurgents in Budapest
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
.
On 1 September 1919, after the fall of the communist regime in Hungary
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
, Radó fled to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He studied geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and cartography
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
at Vienna University
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
and wrote on military matters in a German-language magazine Kommunizmus, published by Hungarian political emigrants in Austria. In July 1920 he established the information agency Rosta-Wien, which he used to spread propaganda received in broadcasts from Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
. To receive these, he had bribed the head of a Vienna radio station. Information bulletins from these materials were distributed to left-wing newspapers and organizations in various countries.
In 1922 Radó moved to Germany and returned to his studies, first at Jena and then at Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
. In October, 1923, he took part in the preparation for Сomintern-planned large armed uprising in Germany and was made military chief of the communist forces in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. But the badly planned revolution had to be aborted at the last moment. Fearing arrest, Radó left Germany for the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in September, 1924. In Moscow he worked for the All-Union Society for Cultural Contacts with Abroad (VOKS) and then for the World Economy Institute of the Communist Academy
Communist Academy
The Communist Academy was founded in Moscow on June 25, 1918, as the Socialist Academy; it was renamed in 1924...
. Radó returned to Germany in 1926 and established the Berlin cartographic agency “Pressgeography”. He gave lectures at the Masch, the Marxist Workers' School, teaching economic geography
Economic geography
Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world. The subject matter investigated is strongly influenced by the researcher's methodological approach. Neoclassical location theorists, following in the tradition of Alfred...
, the history of the working class movement (Arbeitergeschichte) and imperialism.
After Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Radó and his wife Lena fled through Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Radó established the “Inpress” (an independent anti-Nazi press agency). In 1935, during a visit to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Radó was approached by Artur Artuzov
Artur Artuzov
Artur Khristyanovich Artuzov Артур Христианович Артузов , headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service INO, part of OGPU, later the NKVD, from August 1931 to May 1935...
, deputy chief of Soviet military intelligence and by Semion Uritsky, chief of Soviet military intelligence
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
. Radó agreed to be their intelligence agent with the main task of obtaining intelligence on Nazi Germany. Radó failed to obtain a residence permit
Permanent residency
Permanent residency refers to a person's visa status: the person is allowed to reside indefinitely within a country of which he or she is not a citizen. A person with such status is known as a permanent resident....
in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, but in 1939 was permitted residence in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He moved to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and founded yet another cartographic agency, Geopress.
In 1937 Radó visited Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to collect intelligence about the Italian military support of the Francist
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
forces in the Spanish civil war
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. This intelligence was sent to Moscow through Paris Soviet military intelligence station. In 1938 Radó contacted Swiss journalist ans agent Otto Puenter in Bern, who gave him military intelligence on Italy. On Italy' s military support of Franco's forces he received material from "Gabel", a Yugoslav
Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora...
serving as Spanish Republican consul in Sushak
Trsat
Trsat is part of the city of Rijeka, Croatia. It has a historic castle or fortress in a strategic location and several historic churches. The Croatian noble Prince Vuk Krsto Frankopan is buried in one of the churches. Trsat is a steep hill, 138 m high, rising over the gorge of the Rječina river,...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and military intelligence on Germany from "Puasson", a German Social Democratic
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
political emigrant living in Switzerland with sources in Germany.
In 1940 Radó contacted Alexander Foote
Alexander Foote
In World War II, Allan Alexander Foote was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland. Foote was originally from Yorkshire in England, and had spent some time in Spain working for the Republican side during the Civil War in the '30s...
, an English Soviet agent in Switzerland who joined Ursula Kuczynski
Ursula Kuczynski
Ursula Maria Kuczynski was a German author and spy for the Soviet Union. A daughter of Robert René Kuczynski, she joined the Communist party at an early age...
's network since 1938. Foote became a radio operator for Radó’s intelligence network, and in March 1941 managed to establish radio communication with Moscow Centre from Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
. In his radio communications, Radó used the codename "Dora". In the first half of 1941, "Luiza", a Swiss intelligence officer gave Otto Puetner (and Radó) the important information, that many divisions of the German Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
were being concentrated in the East. This warning of an imminent German attack, like that from Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge was a German communist and spy who worked for the Soviet Union. He has gained great fame among espionage enthusiasts for his intelligence gathering during World War II. He worked as a journalist in both Germany and Japan, where he was imprisoned for spying and eventually hanged....
and from other Soviet agents, was dismissed by Stalin.
After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War on June 22, 1941, Radó's network continued to provide Soviet General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
with very valuable intelligence on German forces. Some of it was supplied through Puetner by "Zalter", a press officer of the French embassy in Switzerland and by "Long", a French intelligence officer who fled to Switzerland after the capitulation of France
Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)
The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 18:50 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, in the department of Oise, between Nazi Germany and France...
. Both had sources in Germany, among them Ernst Lemmer ("Agnessa"), editor of a German foreign policy bulletin.
In March, 1942 a most valuable pieces of intelligence was sent to Moscow - summer German offensive aimed at the occupation of Caucasian oilfields
Operation Blue
Case Blue , later renamed Operation Braunschweig, was the German Armed Forces name for its plan for a 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and November 1942....
would begin between 31 May and 7 June 1942. Radó's network got this from Georges Blun ("Long"), provided by General Hamann, at the German OKW
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was part of the command structure of the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.- Genesis :...
. Soviet command did not make proper use of this intelligence.
Through Christian Schneider, a German lawyer who had worked in the International Labour Bureau in Switzerland until 1939, Radó made contact with Rudolf Roessler
Rudolf Roessler
In World War II espionage, Rudolf Roessler was the central figure in the Lucy spy ring. He was a German refugee who had moved to Switzerland in 1933, and was the proprietor of a small publishing firm in Switzerland, Vita Novi...
, a German political emigrant living in Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
. Roessler, codenamed “Lucy” apparently had extraordinary sources in Germany who provided valuable military intelligence
Lucy spy ring
In World War II espionage, the Lucy spy ring was an anti-German operation that was headquartered in Switzerland. It was run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee and ostensibly the proprietor of a small publishing firm, Vita Nova...
. Roessler allegedly was the conduit the British used to transmit the results of their codebreaking of German cipher traffic (operation Ultra
Ultra
Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
) to the Soviets without revealing their ability to read this German code.
At the end of 1942 Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
and Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
caught up with the “Rote Kapelle”, Leopold Trepper's
Leopold Trepper
Leopold Trepper was an organizer of the Soviet spy ring Rote Kapelle prior to and during World War II....
network. There had been some contacts between both spy rings in 1940, through Anatoly Gurevich (alias "Kent"), a Soviet undercover intelligence officer and so Radó’s network became known to the Germans. They even obtained the radio cipher
Cipher
In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...
used by Radó’s network which enabled them to decrypt some of Radó’s radio communications from Switzerland.
Meanwhile Radó’s network continued to supply Moscow Centre with valuable intelligence. In April, 1943 Stalin received news about the planned German offensive near Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
(provided by "Werter", a Roessler source in Germany).
In the second half of 1943, the Germans persuaded Swiss authorities to act against Radó’s network. Using mobile radio direction finders Swiss police tracked down one of Radó's radio transmitters operated by Swiss agents Edmond Hamel and Olga Hamel. They were arrested on October, 14th, 1943. On the same day Margarita Bolli was caught, an Italian emigrant living in Switzerland and a radio operator. Radó went into hiding. On November 20, 1943, they caught Alexander Foote
Alexander Foote
In World War II, Allan Alexander Foote was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland. Foote was originally from Yorkshire in England, and had spent some time in Spain working for the Republican side during the Civil War in the '30s...
. Christian Schneider and two more contacts in Switzerland were arrested on 19 April 1944. Rudolf Roessler
Rudolf Roessler
In World War II espionage, Rudolf Roessler was the central figure in the Lucy spy ring. He was a German refugee who had moved to Switzerland in 1933, and was the proprietor of a small publishing firm in Switzerland, Vita Novi...
on 19 May 1944.
On September 16 of 1944, Radó and his wife Helen, the sister of Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
, a German conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
in whose home they had hidden, illegally crossed the Swiss-French border on a French train with the help of the French Maquis
Maquis (World War II)
The Maquis were the predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance. Initially they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labour for Germany...
from Upper Savoy
Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It borders both Switzerland and Italy. The capital is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland; to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc and Aravis mountain ranges and the French entrance to the Mont...
. On the 24th, they reached Paris. Radó contacted a Soviet military intelligence agent and in January, 1945, Radó and Leopold Trepper
Leopold Trepper
Leopold Trepper was an organizer of the Soviet spy ring Rote Kapelle prior to and during World War II....
were evacuated via plane to the Soviet Union. Due to military operations in Germany, a direct flight to the Soviet Union from Paris was impossible, so the plane flew over Northern Africa. Using a stopover in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Radó, who suspected his arrest on arrival in the Soviet Union, escaped and managed to enter the British embassy under an alias. He applied for political asylum, but this was denied and Radó tried to commit suicide, but was only injured and hospitalized. Radó was extradited
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
by Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to the Soviet Union based on a false accusation, in August 1945 he was brought to Moscow under guard. In December, 1946, he was sentenced by a Special Council
Special Council of the NKVD
Special Council of the USSR NKVD was created by the same decree of Sovnarkom of July 10, 1934 that introduced the NKVD itself. By the decree, the Special Council was endowed with the rights to apply punishments "by administrative means," i.e., without trial...
of MGB
Ministry for State Security (USSR)
The Ministry of State Security was the name of Soviet secret police from 1946 to 1953.-Origins of the MGB:The MGB was just one of many incarnations of the Soviet State Security apparatus. Since the revolution, the Bolsheviks relied on a strong political police or security force to support and...
without trial to 10 years on espionage charges.
Following the death of Stalin, Radó was released in November, 1954, and allowed to return to Hungary. In 1956 he was officially rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was created in 1924 to the Supreme Court of the USSR as a court for the higher military and political personnel of Red Army and Fleet...
. In 1955 Radó was appointed chief of the Hungarian cartographic service. In 1958 he was appointed to the chair of cartography in Budapest Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences
Corvinus University of Budapest
The Corvinus University of Budapest is one of the most prestigious Hungarian universities located in Budapest, Hungary. The university offers degrees in multiple disciplines, but it is characterised by its programmes in economics and management. -History:...
. In 1971 he published his memoirs in Hungarian. They were translated into several languages. But a first uncensored edition, based on the original manuscript, was only published in 2006, in Budapest. He died in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in 1981.
Sources
- Radó’s memories “Pod Psevdonimom 'Dora'” (in Russian)
- Russian Jewish site
- Russian history site
- Arthur KoestlerArthur KoestlerArthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
In his autobiography The Invisible WritingThe Invisible WritingThe Invisible Writing: The Second Volume Of An Autobiography, 1932-40 is a book by Arthur Koestler.It follows on from Arrow in the Blue, published a mere two years earlier, and which described his life from his birth in 1905, to 1931, and deals with a much shorter period, a mere eight years...
, devotes a chapter to Radó under the heading “Homage to a Spy”. In the mid 1930s Radó and his wife had helped the struggling Koestler and at one stage in 1935-36 Radó had employed Koestler in a mysterious 'news reporting agency' which he was managing at the time. Koestler’s book was first published in 1954. The contents make it clear that at the time of writing Koestler believed that after the war Radó had been liquidated by the Soviets. The 'Danube' edition reprint of the book, published in 1969, carries the original chapter unamended (pages 368–378). ISBN 0-09-098030-1.