This 87-Year-Old British Woman Worked as a Soviet Spy for 40 Years
Melita Norwood was a KGB spy who leaked Britain's nuclear secrets during the cold war.
When asked to picture a KGB spy who smuggled nuclear secrets during the heights of the cold war, very few would imagine an 87-year-old great-grandmother. Yet this was exactly the case when it came to Melita Norwood, also known by her spy name as Hola. Let’s take a look into the life of Norwood, a woman that was so good at keeping her profession a secret that it literally shocked her own daughter when she found out.
The Makings Of A Spy
Melita Norwood was born to a British mother and a Latvian father. The family had decided to settle down in the South of England. As she grew, Norwood developed strong sympathies for the left. Indeed, this was something that may have been passed onto her by her parents, who were ardent leftists themselves. In fact, Norwood’s father was the founder of a leftist magazine while her mother was a member of a co-operative. However, Norwood would go a step beyond her parents and offer services to the USSR directly.
In the 1930s, during the heights of a depression, Norwood would see for herself poverty and destitution within her community as people struggled to find work with which to feed themselves or pay bills. If anything, this only strengthened her belief in the leftist way of thinking. Moreover, because of the economic conditions of the time, Norwood and her family were forced to move to London to look for work.
Kickstarting Her Spying Career
At this point, Norwood’s political leanings were cemented, and she would join the communist party as a member in 1936. During this time, however, there was another crucial turning point in Norwood’s life. She began work as a secretary at the Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London.
Despite the organization’s dull and bureaucratic name, this was an immensely important agency because it was involved in the British effort to create a nuclear bomb. Moreover, given the close links between the US and the UK, this agency was involved in the ‘Tube Alloy’ project, a joint nuclear effort by both countries. Thus Norwood found herself at the center of one of the most important weapon projects in history.
Over decades of activity during the mid-twentieth century, Norwood would transfer a plethora of nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. Her method of getting important secrets and information was simple. She would simply wait for a moment in which her boss’s office was empty and then go in. Here she would open the vault housing important documentation and take pictures of the contents. Once images of the documents had been captured, Norwood would pass the camera on to a Soviet agent in the UK. To the Soviets, she was simply known as Hola.
Norwood’s exploits would make her an important and valuable asset to the Soviets. In fact, so much so that later released documents revealed a squabble in the Soviet Union between the KGB and Military Intelligence over who would get to handle ‘Hola’.
Later Life
Norwood remained active for a number of decades as a Soviet Spy until finally retiring from her secret occupation in the early 1970s. This retirement, however, was not to be the end of Norwood’s interaction with the Soviet Union.
In 1979, Norwood and her husband would, in fact, travel all the way to Moscow. The purpose of this trip? Norwood had to receive The Order of the Red Banner, a Soviet award given as recognition of excellent service to the leftist cause. Moreover, the Soviets would also award Norwood a substantial financial award; however, she turned this down and only accepted the honorary award.
Norwood successfully hid her former life as a spy for another two decades. In fact, she was so good at keeping this secret that even her own daughter was unaware of the fact that her mother had been a Soviet Spy. The secret, however, did eventually come out after a former Soviet official defected to the West and brought trunks full of internal documents with him.
The Secret Makes Its Way Out
A Cambridge professor, Christopher Andrew, would write a book about the documents, which started a serial released in September 1999. At this point, Norwood understood that her secret would come out; hence she decided to hold a press conference at her home in Bexleyheath, England.
In the briefing, Norwood explained her ideological convictions and how, if put in the same position, she would do the same thing again. She argued that, although not everything the Soviets did was just, the ideological experiment that was communism still provided affordable food, housing, and other services to millions who had not had them previously. Thus she could not stand by and let only the West possess nuclear weapons. To her, it was crucial that the Soviets did too. Lastly, she pointed out how money had never been a motivation for her; instead, she truly believed in her cause.
After the conference, Norwood would continue to live a relatively ordinary life until passing away in 2005. The UK government did not pursue charges against her; in fact, books and films were made on Melita Norwood, forever immortalizing her exploits and convictions as the Red Joan. Despite behavior that would make people think that she was committing treason, many believe that her life is a testament to staying true to what you believe in, even if it means being an old spy lady.
