British Spy Helped Speed Up USSR’s Atomic Bomb Program
September 3rd, 2008Via: Telegraph:
Norwood, a committed Communist who began spying for Moscow in the 1930s, handed over technical information which provided Russian scientists with a crucial breakthrough.
Her contribution allowed them to overcome problems, which blocked the development of their nuclear reactors and led directly to the USSR exploding its bomb in 1949 – years earlier than would otherwise have been the case.
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The revelations will prove highly embarrassing for the Government, which sought to play down Norwood’s role in press briefings after she was unmasked as a spy in 1999. The briefings were used to justify the Government’s refusal to prosecute her.
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The security services were suspicious of Melita’s Communist sympathies and seemed to have opened a file on her in the 1930s. However, officials failed to take any further action, even when her name was linked to the creation of a spy network at Woolwich Arsenal in 1938.
Contrary to official claims that Norwood was effectively rendered inoperable by the British security services in the early 1950s, when details of her work was uncovered, Mr Burke maintains that she carried on working successful for Moscow until her retirement in the early 1970s.
