35 Facts About Konon Molody

Konon Trofimovich Molody was a Soviet intelligence officer, known in the West as Gordon Arnold Lonsdale.

Konon Molody is believed to have died c 1943 and the Soviets obtained his papers for use by their agents.

Konon Molody was born in Moscow in 1922, the son of a scientist and his wife.

Konon Molody was the paternal grandson of a Ukrainian exiled to Kamchatka and an Even grandmother.

Konon's father, Trofim Kononovich Molody became a renowned physicist in Russia was born on 1889 and who studied in Khabarovsk, St Petersburg and Moscow.

In October 1940, Konon Molody became a Red Army conscript and soldier.

Konon Molody proved adept at mastering foreign languages in a short period of time.

Konon Molody begins to work with a Polish underground resistance group and obtains papers as a Volksdeutscher Lonsdale continues to describe the situation in Warsaw which after September 1939 fell was conquered and divided between the Soviets and Nazi Germany.

Konon Molody was receiving training using passwords, dead drops, safehouses and learned how to escape a surveillance tail from enemy intelligence agents.

Sometime in late 1940 or early 1941, Konon Molody began his work as a Volksdeutscher inside a German company, the Todt Organization.

In late 1939, Konon Molody found himself in a hospital in Moscow where he began a short course in intelligence work.

Konon Molody was given a course in radio communication that is, how to work as a radio operator, coding and decoding radio messages.

In January 1940, Konon Molody was parachuted surreptitiously in Belarus near Minsk.

Konon Molody was interrogated by an Abwehr intelligence officer who turned out to be William Fisher.

Thereafter, Konon Molody served as Fisher's radio operator for Soviet intelligence.

Fisher continued to serve in the Abwehr and through Konon Molody sent information back to the Soviets about the Abwehr's agents behind Soviet lines.

Konon Molody noted that Fisher's coordinates for the Abwehr agents dropped behind Soviet lines were quite precise.

In 1951 Konon Molody was recruited by the MGB First Chief Directorate and trained as a MGB "illegal agent" on foreign soil.

In 1953, Konon Molody travelled to Canada on a Soviet merchant ship, posing as a Canadian national named "Gordon Lonsdale".

Konon Molody first met the American communist couple Morris and Lona Cohen.

In 1954, Konon Molody moved to London, where as a Canadian citizen he enrolled at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies and again studied Chinese.

Konon Molody had numerous female friends in London and Europe.

Konon Molody was led by the KGB to believe Konon was posted in Beijing as a member of the Soviet trade mission.

In 1959, Konon Molody began receiving British military secrets from Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment clerk Harry Houghton.

Konon Molody clandestinely liaised with the Krogers in London as well during his European trips and ran other spies, including Melita Norwood.

Konon Molody came under suspicion from MI5 in 1959 after a meeting with Houghton.

Konon Molody was arrested on the Waterloo Bridge the same moment he had received classified material from Harry Houghton.

On 13 March 1961 at the Old Bailey, Konon Molody was charged with spying, along with associates Harry Houghton, Ethel Gee and Morris and Lona Cohen.

In March 1961, the defendants were found guilty, and Konon Molody received a 25-year sentence.

Konon Molody was to start his sentence at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham.

Konon Molody died from a stroke on a mushroom picking expedition in a suburban forest in October 1970; at the age of 48.

Konon Molody maintained that Konon was healthy upon his return from the UK but began complaining about KGB doctors giving him injections against high blood pressure.

Konon Molody had headaches he never had before but the doctors said he should expect to "feel worse before he felt better".

Konon Molody is buried at the Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow next to Vilyam Genrikovich Fisher.

Konon Molody advised Donatas Banionis who played him, and believed that resemblance between him and the actor was significant.