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Michał Franciszek Goleniewski, also known as 'SNIPER' and 'LAVINIA' (16 August 1922 – 12 July 1993), was a Polish spy and military officer. He was an officer in the
Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
's
Ministry of Public Security Ministry of Public Security can refer to: * Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Brazil) * Ministry of Public Security of Burundi * Ministry of Public Security (Chile) * Ministry of Public Security (China) * Ministry of Public Security of Co ...
, deputy head of military counterintelligence
GZI WP GZI may refer to: * Gazi language * Ghazni Airport, in Afghanistan * Ghjrazai railway station, in Pakistan * Ground Zero Indicator * Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation) ...
, later head of the Polish Intelligence technical and scientific section, and in the 1950s a
spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...
for the
Soviet government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...
. In 1959 he became a "
triple agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...
", giving Polish and Soviet secrets to the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
that directly exposed
George Blake George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a Espionage, spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the Minist ...
and
Harry Houghton Harry Frederick Houghton (7 June 1905 – 23 May 1985) was a British Naval SNCO and a spy for the Polish People's Republic and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He was a member of the Portland spy ring. Early life Houghton was born in ...
. In 1961 Goleniewski defected to the United States. He later made unsubstantiated claims to be
Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia Alexei Nikolaevich (; – 17 July 1918) was the last Russian tsesarevich (heir apparent). He was the youngest child and only son of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treat ...
.


Early life and espionage career

Goleniewski was born in 1922 in
Nieśwież Nyasvizh or Nesvizh is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Nyasvizh District. Nyasvizh is the site of Nesvizh Castle, a World Heritage Site. In 2009, its population was 14,300. As of 2025, it has a populat ...
, then in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, now
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
. He enlisted in the
Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
in 1945 and was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Polish Army in 1955. He studied law at the
University of Poznan A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
and received a master's degree in political science from the
University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...
in 1956. He said he was head of the Technical and Scientific Department of the Polish Secret Service from 1957 to 1960. At the same time, he was spying on Polish intelligence operations for the
Soviet Union 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 ...
. In early 1959, Goleniewski became a triple-agent, anonymously sending Polish and Soviet secrets addressed to the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
(FBI) by letter. He insisted on communicating with the FBI, knowing that all other agencies had been penetrated by Soviet bloc intelligence. His letters were intercepted by the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
(CIA), who did not inform the FBI. According to
Tim Tate Tim Tate (born 1960) is an American artist and the co-founder of the Washington Glass School in the Greater Washington, DC capital area. The school was founded in 2001 and is now the second largest warm glass school in the United States. Tate wa ...
, author of the 2021 book ''
The Spy Who Was Left Out in the Cold ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'', Goleniewski's motive, unlike most defectors who sought a better life outside the Soviet Union, was that he "realised that the communist system was wrong. And that he needed, ... to counter it, and to start working for the west and democracy". The US CIA gave him the code-name 'SNIPER', UK's
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
gave him 'LAVINIA'. In April 1959, the CIA informed MI5 that SNIPER (his real name was still unknown) had said the Polish
Służba Bezpieczeństwa The Security Service (; ), in full Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and commonly known as SB, was a secret police force established in the Polish People's Republic in 1956 as a successor to the Ministry of Public Security (P ...
(SB, Security Service) had a British informant inside the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. This person was later found to be
Harry Houghton Harry Frederick Houghton (7 June 1905 – 23 May 1985) was a British Naval SNCO and a spy for the Polish People's Republic and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He was a member of the Portland spy ring. Early life Houghton was born in ...
. The CIA also told MI5 that Goleniewski had received top secret documents originating from a Soviet mole inside
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
. The mole himself (who later turned out to be
George Blake George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a Espionage, spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the Minist ...
) heard the news that the CIA had a top-level informant in Poland, and sent word back to the
KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
, who passed it to the UB. Goleniewski heard the news from the KGB, and immediately escaped. He also provided information that led to the arrests of American diplomat Irvin C. Scarbeck,
Swedish Air Force The Swedish Air Force ( or just ) is the air force Military branch, branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. History The Swedish Air Force was created on 1 July 1926 when the aircraft units of the Army and Navy were merged. Because of the escalatin ...
officer Stig Wennerström, as well as
Heinz Felfe Heinz Paul Johann Felfe (18 March 1918 – 8 May 2008) was a German spy. At various times he worked for the intelligence services of Nazi Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and West Germany. It is still not clear when he started wo ...
and Hans Clemens, who penetrated the West German BND for the KGB. Goleniewski also claimed that there was a Soviet-controlled organisation of former Nazis—which he nicknamed 'Hacke'—that was active in postwar West Germany. He defected to the United States in January 1961, which led to the imprisonment of Soviet agents in Britain including the
Portland spy ring The Portland spy ring was an spy ring, espionage group active in the UK between 1953 and 1961. It comprised five people who obtained classified research documents from the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment (AUWE) on the Isle of Port ...
and George Blake. Goleniewski went to work for the CIA, and a Polish court sentenced him to death in absentia. A
private bill Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. A private bill is a proposal for a law affecting only a single person, group, or are ...
, H.R. 5507, was introduced in the U.S. Congress in July 1963 to make Goleniewski a US citizen. The legislation was passed by both the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
and the
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
. According to Tate, who used freedom of information requests to obtain CIA files on Goleniewski which had never been made public before, Goleniewski had identified more spies than any other defector or agent. Tate has also written a background article on him However, when
Anatoliy Golitsyn Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn Order of the British Empire, CBE (Russian language, Russian: Анатолий Михайлович Голицын; 25 August 1926 – 29 December 2008) was a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the lon ...
defected to the US, he convinced the CIA's head of counter-intelligence that only he, Golitsyn, was a true defector, all others being bogus. From 1964 the CIA started to renege on its contract with Goleniewski and brief other government departments that he had lost his mind. This caused Goleniewski much financial and emotional distress, and he lost his grip on reality, becoming paranoid, and ultimately completely insane, according to Tate. Although CIA records were obtained, MI5's file on Goleniewski was not released, with MI5 claiming "continuing sensitivity".


Claim that he was Tsarevich Alexei

Goleniewski later made the claim that he was Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, who is now known to have been killed with his family by
Bolsheviks 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, ...
at
Ekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...
, Russia on 17 July 1918. Goleniewski claimed that
Yakov Yurovsky Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky (, ; Unless otherwise noted, all dates used in this article are of the Gregorian Calendar, as opposed to the Julian Calendar which was used in Russia prior to . – 2 August 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revoluti ...
, one of the assassins, saved the family and helped them to escape. The whole family supposedly traveled to Poland via
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
,
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, and
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. According to his story, the family lived in hiding in Poland. As author Guy Richards (one of Goleniewski's supporters) has pointed out, he was not the first Tsarevich Alexei claimant to emerge from Poland; several decades earlier, in 1927, a pretender named Eugene Nicolaievich Ivanoff had appeared from the same part of that country and generated a brief flurry of publicity in Europe and North America. Tsarevich Alexei, who was born in August 1904, was a haemophiliac. Goleniewski, whose identity card gave his date of birth as 1922, making him eighteen years younger than the Tsarevich, claimed that the
haemophilia Haemophilia (British English), or hemophilia (American English) (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a long ...
made him appear younger than he really was and he had been "twice a child." He claimed that his haemophilia had been confirmed by Alexander S. Wiener, who had co-discovered the
Rh factor The Rh blood group system is a human blood group system. It contains proteins on the surface of red blood cells. After the ABO blood group system, it is most likely to be involved in transfusion reactions. The Rh blood group system consisted o ...
in human blood. This claim was never confirmed. He met one of the
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (; – 17 July 1918) was the youngest daughter of Nicholas II of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), Tsarina Alexandr ...
claimants,
Eugenia Smith Eugenia Smith (January 25, 1899 – January 31, 1997), also known as Eugenia Drabek Smetisko, was one of several Romanov impostors who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter ...
, in 1963. The meeting was covered by ''
Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' magazine. Goleniewski claimed that Smith was his sister Anastasia. Smith also recognized Goleniewski as her brother Alexei, even though she had claimed in her book that she had been the sole survivor at Ekaterinburg. Goleniewski's claim was an embarrassment to the CIA. He was put on a pension and his employment with the agency was ended in 1964. Goleniewski also claimed to have detailed information about alleged Tsarist money. His claims are detailed in the books ''Lost Fortune of the Tsars'' by William Clarke, and ''Hunt for the Czar'' by Guy Richards.


Marriage

Goleniewski married his pregnant girlfriend, Ingrid Kampf, on 30 September 1964, using the name Alexei Romanov. The marriage later broke up.


Later life

Goleniewski lived the remainder of his life in
Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, still claiming that he was Tsarevich Alexei. He leveled accusations against the government and the
Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
for mistreating him. Few believed his claim.


Awards and decorations

* Knight's Cross of the
Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...
* Golden Cross of Merit * Silver Cross of Merit * Bronze Cross of Merit *
Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 ( Polish: ''Medal Zwycięstwa i Wolności 1945'') was a Polish military decoration awarded to persons who fought during World War II against Nazi Germany. Overview The medal was introduced by a decree of the Counc ...


See also

*
Ryszard Kukliński Ryszard Jerzy Kukliński (June 13, 1930February 11, 2004) was a Polish Army colonel and Cold War spy for NATO. He was posthumously promoted to brigadier general by Polish President Andrzej Duda. Between 1972 and 1981 Kukliński passed top-secr ...
*
Romuald Spasowski Francis Romuald Spasowski (August 20, 1921 – August 9, 1995), once an ardent Communist and Poland's ambassador to the United States, is best known for having defected at the height of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity crisis in ...
*
Józef Światło Józef Światło, born Izaak Fleischfarb (1 January 1915 – 2 September 1994), was a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Public Security of Poland (UB) who served as deputy director of the 10th Department run by Anatol Fejgin. Known for ...
*
Romanov impostors Members of the ruling Russian imperial family, the House of Romanov, were executed by a firing squad led by Yakov Yurovsky in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918, during both the Russian Civil War and near the end of the First World War. Af ...
*
List of Eastern Bloc defectors Soon after the formation of the Soviet Union, emigration restrictions were put in place to keep citizens from leaving the various republics of the USSR, though some defections still occurred. During and after World War II, similar restrictions we ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goleniewski, Michael 1922 births 1993 deaths People from Nowogródek Voivodeship (1919–1939) People from Nyasvizh People sentenced to death in absentia Polish defectors to the United States Polish intelligence officers (1943–1990) Polish spies for the Soviet Union Romanov impostors Spies for the United States