FISHER, WILLIAM GENRYKHOVICH (1903–1971).One of the
most famous Soviet illegals, Fisher was born in England of German
Baltic parents who were clandestine members of the Bolshevik
Party. Following the revolution, the family returned to Soviet Rus-
sia. Fisher joined the Red Army in the 1920s and served in northern
Europe as a GRU illegal for more than 15 years. During the
Yezhovshchina, Fisher was purged from the military but not arrested.
Recalled to the NKVDduring World War II, Fisher served as an
officer training radio operators, and he was involved in radio game
deceptions against the Germans. Following the war, Fisher entered
the United States in early 1949 with a passport of a deceased Amer-
ican citizen of Baltic descent. For the next seven years, Fisher
served effectively as the illegal rezidentunder the alias “Emil Gold-
fus” in New York City. According to a declassified Central Intelli-
gence Agency (CIA) study, “Fisher worked diligently to meet the
agents he was responsible for and apparently worked to develop
some new agents.”
Fisher was a careful and professional operations officer who al-
most certainly would not have been caught had it not been for the
defection of his assistant, Reino Hayhanen, who was an incompe-
tent alcoholic. Fisher was arrested on 20 June 1957, whereupon he
identified himself to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as
Colonel Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, the name of an old friend that
he and the KGBhad agreed he should use for his final cover
should he be arrested. He was subsequently tried under federal es-
pionage statutes and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. While in
prison, he taught French to his cellmate, a Mafia soldier, and
painted landscapes that were prized by prison officials and his
lawyer. Fisher was exchanged for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers
in a spy swapin February 1962.
Fisher returned to a hero’s welcome in Moscow but was never used
operationally after his exchange. He told one of his KGB colleagues
that he was “a museum exhibit.” He was widely admired by both
American counterintelligenceand KGB professionals. He died in
1971 and was identified in an editorial in the Soviet press as “Colonel
Abel.” His widow, enraged that he had not received his just deserts in
death, convinced the KGB to allow a new stone to be placed on his
grave finally identifying him as William Genrykhovich Fisher.86 •FISHER, WILLIAM GENRYKHOVICH (1903–1971)06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 86