Francia Yakovlevna Mitinen, originally Frances Metianen,Michael Connor, "The Spy from Parramatta High", ''Quadrant'' (magazine), 2017
(January 14) Access: February 24, 2020. and also known, erroneously, as "Francia Yakilnilna Mitynen" (born 31 January 1914, date of death unknown) was an Australian-born

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

"illegal" spy for Soviet

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...

(GRU) in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

during the 1940s and 1950s. The main alias used by Mitinen in the US was Edna Margaret Patterson. Her codenames, in Soviet intelligence circles included "Салли" "Sally", and "Австралийка" "''Avstraliyka''", which (literally translated) is the feminine form of "(The) Australian". US counterintelligence services, however, usually translated the latter name as "The Australian Woman". Mitinen was born at 85½ Morehead Street, Redfern, an inner suburb of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, on 31 January 1914, according to a 2017 article by Australian historian and journalist Michael Connor. Her full name when her birth was registered was Frances Metianen, and her émigré

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

parents' names also appear in Australian records in the anglicised forms of James and Julie Metianen. Their older children, both of whom had been born before or shortly after the family arrived in Sydney, were known in Australia as Victor and Leonore (or Lena). James Metianen reportedly worked as a fitter at the

Eveleigh Railway Workshops The Eveleigh Railway Workshops (also known as is a heritage-listed former railway workshop and yard for the New South Wales Government Railways, located in Redfern in Sydney's Inner West. It was designed by George Cowdery and built from 18 ...

. In 1919, he was convicted of "selling a newspaper without a government licence" and fined

A£ The pound (Currency symbol, sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. Like other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 Shilling (Australian ...

5 – the publication concerned was reportedly sold to raise funds for a "

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

" organisation based in Brisbane. During the 1920s, the family apparently lived in the

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

area, where Frances attended

Parramatta High School Parramatta High School (abbreviated as PHS and colloquially known as Parra High) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex education, co-educational dual modality partially Selective school (New South Wales), ac ...

and the Metianen children took part in local sports teams, including Frances' brother Victor, who was frequently mentioned in newspaper reports regarding amateur

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

matches. Victor Metianen and his English-born wife Coral (née Sutcliffe) were also involved in communist and/or pro-Soviet political activities. The entire Mitinen (Metianen) family, including Francia (Frances), Victor and Coral, apparently moved to the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Some members of the family were imprisoned on political grounds and, according to Connor, Victor Mitinen died in a

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

during the early 1940s; his widow, Coral, was later allowed to visit relatives in England and died at

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

(1966). Before or during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Francia Mitinen was recruited by the naval branch of the GRU. She entered the United States at

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in August 1943,Robert Louis Benson, NSA Historical Monograph
(1996) under the name of Edna Margaret Patterson (and a cover story that included growing up in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

). US counterintelligence services, as a result of the

Venona The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...

signals interception and decryption project, became aware of some of the activities of "Sally" or the "Australian Woman", if not her cover name and whereabouts. Mitinen was apparently last mentioned in Venona intercepts during 1956. It is generally believed that she left the US (or disappeared) at around that time. Nothing is known of her subsequent life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitinen, Francia Yakovlevna 1914 births Year of death missing Soviet spies against the United States Venona project GRU officers Australian emigrants Immigrants to the Soviet Union Soviet people of Oceanian descent People educated at Parramatta High School