Oleg Penkovsky

Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (Russian: Оле́г Влади́мирович Пенько́вский; 23 April 1919 – 16 May 1963), codenamed Hero by the CIA and Yoga by MI6, was a Soviet military intelligence officer and colonel in the GRU who supplied intelligence to the United States and the United Kingdom during the early 1960s. Penkovsky provided extensive information about Soviet military capabilities, including technical information about Soviet ballistic missile systems and evidence that the Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force was less capable than Soviet public claims had suggested. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, United States intelligence assessments combined material supplied by Penkovsky, codenamed IRONBARK, with U-2 reconnaissance photography to identify Soviet missile systems deployed in Cuba and assess their operational readiness. Penkovsky was one of the highest-ranking Soviet officials to provide intelligence to the West up to that time. He was arrested by Soviet authorities in October 1962, tried for treason, and executed in May 1963.

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