Morris Cohen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1910-07-02)July 2, 1910[1] Harlem, New York City, U.S.[1] |
| Died | June 23, 1995(1995-06-23) (aged 84)[1] |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Mississippi State UniversityColumbia University |
| Spouse | Lona Cohen |
| Awards | Order of the Red Banner,Order of Friendship of Nations,Hero of the Russian Federation[1] |
| Espionage activity | |
| Allegiance | USSR |
| Service years | 1939–1961 (arrest) |
| Codename | Peter Kroger (while in the UK) |
Morris Cohen (Russian:Моррис Генрихович Коэн,Morris Genrikhovich Koen; July 2, 1910 – June 23, 1995), also known by his aliasPeter Kroger, was an American convicted ofespionage for theSoviet Union. His wifeLona was also an agent.[2] They became spies because of their communist beliefs.
Morris Cohen was born inHarlem, New York City, on July 2, 1910, to aJewish immigrant family. His father had immigrated from an area nearKyiv in present-dayUkraine. His mother was fromVilnius in present-dayLithuania; the couple had met and married in New York.[1] Cohen was a football standout atJames Monroe High School in the Bronx. After briefly attendingNew York University he was awarded an athletic scholarship to Mississippi A&M College (nowMississippi State University). He was injured in a freshman game. No longer able to playfootball, he was kept on scholarship as athletic manager. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in business, and after a year of graduate work transferred to theUniversity of Illinois. There he was active inagitprop work for theNational Student League, a communist organisation. He was declaredpersona non grata after one semester and returned to the Bronx, where he became a full member and organizer for the American Communist Party. After World War II, he received a master's degree in education fromColumbia University.[3]
In 1937, Cohen joined theMackenzie–Papineau Battalion and fought as a foreign national volunteer in theSpanish Civil War, as did others who were sympathetic to the anti-Franco movement. He metAmadeo Sabatini, a career Soviet spy who recruited him. After being injured, in November 1938 Cohen returned to the United States. He began serving Soviet foreign intelligence.[1]
In mid-1942, Cohen was drafted into theU.S. Army and served in Europe. He was discharged from the Army in November 1945 and returned to the United States where he resumed his espionage work for theSoviet Union.[1]
Among other things, the Cohens delivered detailed blueprints on the nuclear bomb to Moscow in 1945.[2]
As Soviet spy networks were compromised in this period, connection with Soviet intelligence was temporarily ended, but resumed in 1948, when theRezidentura ascertained that Cohen could be approached. Together with Lona Cohen, they ensured the continued secret connection with a number of the most valuable sources of the Rezidentura. They began working with Col.Rudolf Abel up to 1950, when they secretly left the United States and moved to Lublin, Poland. While in Poland, Morris and Lona engaged in numerous foreign missions for the Soviet Union, traveling to Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands.[3]
In 1954, the Cohens moved to 45 Cranley Drive inRuislip,Middlesex where they had numerous pieces of hidden equipment for espionage, and an antenna looping around their attic, used for their transmissions to Moscow. Their cover was asantiquarian book dealers under the names of Peter and Helen Kroger working with KGB agentKonon Molody who used the cover name Gordon Lonsdale.[1]
British security officials arrested the Cohens on January 7, 1961, for their part in a Soviet espionage network known as thePortland spy ring that had penetrated theRoyal Navy. They were convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Morris and Lona served eight years in prison, because they were subjects of a prisoner exchange.[1]
Files released bythe National Archives in September 2019 indicated thatMI5 had found "espionage equipment hidden inside an oversized Ronson cigarette lighter" in a bank safety deposit box according toThe Times; this became the breakthrough required to close down the spy ring.[4]
In 1967, the Soviet Union admitted that the Cohens were spies. In July 1969, Britainexchanged them forGerald Brooke, a British subject held in the Soviet Union,[5] as well as Michael Parsons and Mr. Anthony Lorraine, the British subjects who in 1968 were sentenced by Soviet courts for smuggling drugs into the Soviet Union.[6] Both the United States and the UK had conducted such exchanges before, such as Soviet spyRudolf Abel forU2 pilotGary Powers, and Konon Molody forGreville Wynne in 1964. But In this case, the opposition criticisedHarold Wilson'sLabour Government for agreeing to release dangerous Soviet agents, such as the Krogers (i.e., the Cohens), in exchange for Brooke, described as a propagandist. Opponents claimed that it set a dangerous precedent and was an example of blackmail rather than a fair exchange.[1]
The Cohens lived inMoscow, where Morris trained spies for the Soviets. He and Lona were later given pensions by the KGB, and remained in the city for the remainder of their lives.[1]
In 1941, Cohen marriedLona, a Communist Party activist. She later became a spy and courier forManhattan ProjectphysicistTheodore Hall. They were part of a ring ofatomic spies who were later revealed to have been far more damaging to US interests than theRosenberg ring.[citation needed]
During some period, Cohen was an employee ofAmtorg.[7]
After training Soviet agents in Moscow for decades, Cohen retired on a pension, as did his wife. He died in Moscow on June 23, 1995. Lona had died in 1992.[2]
The Cohens were awarded theOrder of the Red Banner and theOrder of Friendship of Nations by the Soviet Union for their espionage work. After thedissolution of the Soviet Union, they also were given the title ofHero of the Russian Federation by theYeltsin government.
The Cohens are referenced inVenona decrypts 1239 KGB New York to Moscow, August 30, 1944; 50 KGB New York to Moscow, January 11, 1945, regarding an erroneous report that Morris Cohen had been killed in Europe. The Cohens helped passManhattan Project secrets to the Soviet Union. His code name in Soviet intelligence and the Venona files is "Volunteer".
British playwrightHugh Whitemore dramatized the case asPack of Lies, which was performed in London'sWest End, starringJudi Dench andMichael Williams. The play was produced onBroadway for 3½ months in 1985, withRosemary Harris starring; she won the best actressTony Award for her portrayal of a British neighbor of the Cohens/Krogers.
The play was adapted as a TV movie starringEllen Burstyn,Alan Bates,Teri Garr andDaniel Benzali (as "Peter Schaefer," i.e., "Peter Kroger"/ Morris Cohen) which aired in the U.S. onCBS in 1987. The plot centered on the neighbors (and seeming friends), whose house was used as a base from which the British security services could spy on the Cohens. It explored the way thatparanoia, suspicion and betrayal gradually destroyed their lives during that time.
Helene Hanff in her book,The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (1973), refers to the Cohens’ cover as antiquarian book dealers Peter and Helen Kroger. Under those identities, they were friends of London book dealerFrank Doel. Based on her long-term friendship with Doel, mostly via letters, she had earlier written and published84 Charing Cross Road (1970), which was a bestseller.O. F. (Oswald Frederick) Snelling, who worked as a auctioneer clerk at Hodgson's in 1949, later Sotheby's Rare Book Department, writes extensively about his friendship with Peter and Helen Kroger in his bookRare Books and Rarer People. After the arrest of Peter and Helen Kroger, Snelling volunteered to wind up Peter Kroger’s business, auctioning the remaining books. Snelling also tells about his contacts with KGB agentKonon Molody who used the cover name Gordon Lonsdale.
Between 1956 and 1961 secrets extracted from the Portland Underwater Detection Establishment enabled the Soviet Union to construct a quieter submarine class.
