Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (1919-1963), a
senior officer in Soviet military
intelligence who, in 1963, was convicted of spying for the United
States and the United Kingdom. An
intelligence officer serving primarily in
Moscow, Penkovsky became increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system and in April 1961 offered his
services to the
West. Between April of 1961 and August 1962 he is said to have turned over more than 5,000 photographs of classified political, military and
economic documents to the US and British
Intelligence agencies. However, in 1962 when the Soviets discovered highly classified
information was being leaked to the
West, Penkovsky was
arrested. He was put on trial for
treason the
following year and was found guilty and sentenced to
death and per official Soviet announcement he was executed on May 16th, 1963. In 1965 The Penkovsky Papers, a book based on a
journal of his
life and activities, the official Soviet record of his trial and
press reports and discussions of his arrest and trial, was published in the United
States.