THE SECRETS OF OLEG PENKOVSKY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600270016-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2000
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: October 17, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

TFI N OBSERVER
Approved For Release 2000/08163'''CTA= 75-00149R000600270016-3
j`' ()ctober 1()'))
CPYRGHT
Penkovsky
O1g
The
secrets of
THE OBSERVER has secured
newspaper publication rights
of, one of the most dramatic and
controversial documents about
military intelligence ever to
be made public. It is a collec-
tion of. secret papers written by
Oleg Penkovsky, the Soviet
official sentenced to death after
the Greville Wynne trial.
The papers show that. Penkovsky,
far from being the decadent
playboy.portrayed by the Soviet
prosecutor, was probably The
most highly placed Western
agent ever to fall into the hands
of'the Soviet security service.
Those who knew Penkovsky, in-
cluding Major ? Wynne, who
stood trial with him, are adamant
in their belief that the papers are
authentic, though they have
obviously been heavily cut,
prob by the American
-Central 7nteilipence`"'Agency,
through which they passed
befgi emleing offered, for
publtca-
IA- 1, ttoA.
,Penkovsky wrote in hakte and at
night, foreseeing the possibility
of his arrest, and hid the papers
in a secret place in his Moscow
flat. By day he resumed his job
with the State Committee for the
'i"Co-ordinationof Scientific Re-
" I
Red Army was
hostile to K,,.
ut this was only a cover. His real
post, both before and after
transferring his allegiance to the
West, was that of a senior officer
of the Soviet military intelligence
.organisation, the G.R.U. He
was also a missile expert, mar-
ried to a general's daughter, and
on familiar terms with a vast
number of Soviet General Staff
nflicers anrt narf hnecrc
From his privileged position en-
kovsky provided Western agents
with the deployment pattern of
Soviet missile, skcs, which en-
abled American air reconnais-
sance to spot the setting up of
missiles in Cuba. He also pro-
vided them with vital informa-
tion about Soviet aims and con-
tingency plans during the.Berlin
crisis of 1961.
But his most sensational contribu-
tion to Western intelligence. as
revealed in the papers, was a
series of reports on the state of
Soviet missile technology and
the morale of the Soviet armed
forces.
The papers deal at length with the
' Red Army's mounting hostility
to Mr Khrushchev after cuts in
pay and pensions to provide
funds for a rocket programme.
They describe, for the first time,
the early failures and disasters of
this programme, including the
explosion of a nuclear-powered
missile which killed the chief of
the Soviet missile forces, Marshal
Nedelin, and 300 officers.
Tie OBSERVER will publish a series
of extracts from the Penkovsky
papers shortly.
Approved For Release 2000/08/03 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600270016-3