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Morris Cohen (spy)
Morris Cohen (Russian: Моррис Генрихович Коэн, Morris Genrikhovich Koen; July 2, 1910 – June 23, 1995), also known by his alias Peter Kroger, was an American convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union. His wife Lona was also an agent. They became spies because of their communist beliefs.
Morris Cohen was born in Harlem, New York City, on July 2, 1910, to an Eastern-European Jewish immigrant family. His father had immigrated from an area near Kyiv in present-day Ukraine. His mother was from Vilnius in present-day Lithuania; the couple had met and married in New York. Cohen was a football standout at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. After briefly attending New York University he was awarded an athletic scholarship to Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University). He was injured in a freshman game. No longer able to play football, 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 the University of Illinois. There he was active in agitprop work for the National Student League, a communist organisation. He was declared persona non grata after one semester and returned to the Bronx, where he became a full member and organizer for the Communist Party USA. After World War II, he received a master's degree in education from Columbia University.
In 1937, Cohen joined the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion and fought as a foreign national volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, as did others who were sympathetic to the anti-Franco movement. He met Amadeo 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.
In mid-1942, Cohen was drafted into the U.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 the Soviet Union.
Among other things, the Cohens delivered detailed blueprints on the nuclear bomb to Moscow in 1945.
As Soviet spy networks were compromised in this period, connection with Soviet intelligence was temporarily ended, but resumed in 1948, when the Rezidentura 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.
In 1954, the Cohens moved to 45 Cranley Drive in Ruislip, 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 as antiquarian book dealers under the names of Peter and Helen Kroger working with KGB agent Konon Molody who used the cover name Gordon Lonsdale.
British security officials arrested the Cohens on January 7, 1961, for their part in a Soviet espionage network known as the Portland spy ring that had penetrated the Royal Navy. They were convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Morris and Lona served eight years in prison, because they were subjects of a prisoner exchange.
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Morris Cohen (spy)
Morris Cohen (Russian: Моррис Генрихович Коэн, Morris Genrikhovich Koen; July 2, 1910 – June 23, 1995), also known by his alias Peter Kroger, was an American convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union. His wife Lona was also an agent. They became spies because of their communist beliefs.
Morris Cohen was born in Harlem, New York City, on July 2, 1910, to an Eastern-European Jewish immigrant family. His father had immigrated from an area near Kyiv in present-day Ukraine. His mother was from Vilnius in present-day Lithuania; the couple had met and married in New York. Cohen was a football standout at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. After briefly attending New York University he was awarded an athletic scholarship to Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University). He was injured in a freshman game. No longer able to play football, 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 the University of Illinois. There he was active in agitprop work for the National Student League, a communist organisation. He was declared persona non grata after one semester and returned to the Bronx, where he became a full member and organizer for the Communist Party USA. After World War II, he received a master's degree in education from Columbia University.
In 1937, Cohen joined the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion and fought as a foreign national volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, as did others who were sympathetic to the anti-Franco movement. He met Amadeo 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.
In mid-1942, Cohen was drafted into the U.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 the Soviet Union.
Among other things, the Cohens delivered detailed blueprints on the nuclear bomb to Moscow in 1945.
As Soviet spy networks were compromised in this period, connection with Soviet intelligence was temporarily ended, but resumed in 1948, when the Rezidentura 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.
In 1954, the Cohens moved to 45 Cranley Drive in Ruislip, 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 as antiquarian book dealers under the names of Peter and Helen Kroger working with KGB agent Konon Molody who used the cover name Gordon Lonsdale.
British security officials arrested the Cohens on January 7, 1961, for their part in a Soviet espionage network known as the Portland spy ring that had penetrated the Royal Navy. They were convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Morris and Lona served eight years in prison, because they were subjects of a prisoner exchange.
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