Anna Wolkoff
Encyclopedia
Anna Nikolayevna Wolkova (1902 – 2 August 1973), sometimes known as Anna de Wolkoff, was a White Russian
emigré and a spy for Nazi Germany
during World War II
.
and they became naturalized British subjects on 10 September 1935. The Wolkoffs operated the Russian Tea Room in South Kensington
near the Natural History Museum
, a rendezvous point for other White Russians
.
Anna and her father held extreme right-wing
views and were sympathizers of the Nazi regime in Germany
. Anna visited that country several times in the 1930s, later claiming to have met Hans Frank
and Rudolf Hess
. Her visits caused MI5
to take an interest in her activities and, beginning in 1935, she was placed under surveillance
as a possible German spy. She was allegedly associated with Wallis Simpson, a client of her couture business, and also under suspicion by British counter-intelligence.
, which included such members as William Joyce
, A. K. Chesterton
, Francis Yeats-Brown
, best-selling author of Bengal Lancer
, and the Duke of Wellington
. The club's members often held their meetings in the Russian Tea Room.
In his autobiography, The Nameless War, Ramsay argued: "The main object of the Right Club was to oppose and expose the activities of Organized Jewry, in the light of the evidence which came into my possession in 1938. Our first objective was to clear the Conservative Party
of Jewish influence, and the character of our membership and meetings were strictly in keeping with this objective."
Embassy (Assistant Military attache Col. Francesco Marigliano, the Duke del Monte), sent information to Berlin, including suggestions for Joyce's propaganda broadcasts.
However, unknown to Wolkoff, the Right Club had been infiltrated early on by MI5
, first by Marjorie Mackie and subsequently by young Belgian mystic Helene De Muncke, and also by Joan Miller, a young, undercover agent who once worked as an office girl for Elizabeth Arden
. It is through these three women, controlled by head of MI5 Section B(5)b Maxwell Knight
, that MI5 was kept fully informed of, and indeed was able to influence, the activities of the group.
In February 1940, Wolkoff met Tyler Kent, a cipher clerk from the U.S. Embassy who held similar views, and he became a regular visitor to the Right Club. Kent later revealed to Wolkoff and Ramsay some of the documents he was holding in his flat that he had stolen from the embassy, most notably sensitive communications between Winston Churchill
and President Franklin Roosevelt
. On 13 April 1940, Wolkoff went to Kent's flat to borrow some of the documents, in order, as it emerged later, to have them photographed. Although it was subsequently alleged that she sent the copies to Berlin through her Italian embassy cutout, this was never proved.
Her espionage work took a turn when she approached Helene De Muncke and asked her if she could pass a coded letter to William Joyce through her Italian embassy contacts. De Muncke agreed and then showed the letter to her controller Maxwell Knight
.
.
She was tried in camera
at the Old Bailey
, with Sir William Jowitt
as prosecutor. On 7 November 1940, Wolkoff was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment
for "attempting to assist the enemy," while Kent, an American citizen, was sentenced to 7 years.
After her conviction, the Certificates of Naturalisation (Revocation) Committee was contacted and reported on 17 August 1943 that she should have her naturalisation revoked.
, in a car driven by Enid Riddell (1903–1980), another former member of the Right Club.
White Russian
White Russian may refer to:* White Russian , an alcoholic beverage* White movement members during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1923* A White émigré from the Russian Civil War...
emigré and a spy for Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Early life
Anna Wolkoff was the eldest child of Admiral Nikolai Wolkoff (1870–1954) who was the last Imperial Russian naval attaché in London. Her family had decided to stay in Britain in the aftermath of the Bolshevik RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and they became naturalized British subjects on 10 September 1935. The Wolkoffs operated the Russian Tea Room in South Kensington
South Kensington
South Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
near the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
, a rendezvous point for other White Russians
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
.
Anna and her father held extreme right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
views and were sympathizers of the Nazi regime in Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Anna visited that country several times in the 1930s, later claiming to have met Hans Frank
Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank was a German lawyer who worked for the Nazi party during the 1920s and 1930s and later became a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany...
and Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
. Her visits caused MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
to take an interest in her activities and, beginning in 1935, she was placed under surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
as a possible German spy. She was allegedly associated with Wallis Simpson, a client of her couture business, and also under suspicion by British counter-intelligence.
The Right Club
Wolkoff belonged to the pro-German Right Club, founded by Archibald Maule RamsayArchibald Maule Ramsay
Captain Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay was a British Army officer who later went into politics as a Scottish Unionist Member of Parliament . From the late 1930s he developed increasingly strident antisemitic views...
, which included such members as William Joyce
William Joyce
William Joyce , nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an Irish-American fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster to the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He was hanged for treason by the British as a result of his wartime activities, even though he had renounced his British nationality...
, A. K. Chesterton
A. K. Chesterton
Arthur Kenneth Chesterton MC was a far right-wing politician and journalist who helped found right-wing organisations in Britain, primarily in opposition to the break-up of the British Empire, and later adopting a broader anti-immigration stance. His cousin, the author G. K...
, Francis Yeats-Brown
Francis Yeats-Brown
Major Francis Charles Claypon Yeats-Brown, DFC was an officer in the British Indian army and the author of the celebrated memoir The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, for which he was awarded the 1930 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.-Life and career:Yeats-Brown was born in Genoa, the son of a British...
, best-selling author of Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 American adventure film loosely adapted from the 1930 book of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown. The plot of the movie, which bears little resemblance to Yeats-Brown's memoir, concerns British soldiers defending the borders of India against rebellious...
, and the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 5th Duke of Wellington
Arthur Charles Wellesley, 5th Duke of Wellington was the son of Arthur Charles Wellesley, 4th Duke of Wellington, and Kathleen Bulkeley Williams....
. The club's members often held their meetings in the Russian Tea Room.
In his autobiography, The Nameless War, Ramsay argued: "The main object of the Right Club was to oppose and expose the activities of Organized Jewry, in the light of the evidence which came into my possession in 1938. Our first objective was to clear the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
of Jewish influence, and the character of our membership and meetings were strictly in keeping with this objective."
World War II
When Britain went to war against Germany in September, 1939, the Right Club officially disbanded. However, many members went underground and planned ways to aid Germany. Wolkoff, using an intermediary from the ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
Embassy (Assistant Military attache Col. Francesco Marigliano, the Duke del Monte), sent information to Berlin, including suggestions for Joyce's propaganda broadcasts.
However, unknown to Wolkoff, the Right Club had been infiltrated early on by MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, first by Marjorie Mackie and subsequently by young Belgian mystic Helene De Muncke, and also by Joan Miller, a young, undercover agent who once worked as an office girl for Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden
Florence Nightingale Graham , who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who built a cosmetics empire in the United States. At the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.-Biography:Arden was born in 1884 at Woodbridge, Ontario,...
. It is through these three women, controlled by head of MI5 Section B(5)b Maxwell Knight
Maxwell Knight
Charles Henry Maxwell Knight OBE, known as Maxwell Knight, was an English spymaster, naturalist and broadcaster, whilst reputedly being a model for the James Bond character M.-Spymaster:...
, that MI5 was kept fully informed of, and indeed was able to influence, the activities of the group.
In February 1940, Wolkoff met Tyler Kent, a cipher clerk from the U.S. Embassy who held similar views, and he became a regular visitor to the Right Club. Kent later revealed to Wolkoff and Ramsay some of the documents he was holding in his flat that he had stolen from the embassy, most notably sensitive communications between Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and President Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. On 13 April 1940, Wolkoff went to Kent's flat to borrow some of the documents, in order, as it emerged later, to have them photographed. Although it was subsequently alleged that she sent the copies to Berlin through her Italian embassy cutout, this was never proved.
Her espionage work took a turn when she approached Helene De Muncke and asked her if she could pass a coded letter to William Joyce through her Italian embassy contacts. De Muncke agreed and then showed the letter to her controller Maxwell Knight
Maxwell Knight
Charles Henry Maxwell Knight OBE, known as Maxwell Knight, was an English spymaster, naturalist and broadcaster, whilst reputedly being a model for the James Bond character M.-Spymaster:...
.
Arrest and trial
Anna Wolkoff and Tyler Kent were arrested on 20 May 1940 and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act. As she was put in the police car, her arrest was witnessed by 11-year old Len DeightonLen Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
.
She was tried in camera
In camera
In camera is a legal term meaning "in private". It is also sometimes termed in chambers or in curia.In camera describes court cases that the public and press are not admitted to...
at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
, with Sir William Jowitt
William Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt
William Allen Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt PC, KC , was a British Labour politician and lawyer, who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain under Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951.-Background and education:...
as prosecutor. On 7 November 1940, Wolkoff was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment
Imprisonment
Imprisonment is a legal term.The book Termes de la Ley contains the following definition:This passage was approved by Atkin and Duke LJJ in Meering v Grahame White Aviation Co....
for "attempting to assist the enemy," while Kent, an American citizen, was sentenced to 7 years.
After her conviction, the Certificates of Naturalisation (Revocation) Committee was contacted and reported on 17 August 1943 that she should have her naturalisation revoked.
Release and Death
She was released from prison in 1947. She was killed in a road accident in SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, in a car driven by Enid Riddell (1903–1980), another former member of the Right Club.
Further reading
- Clough, BryanBryan CloughBryan Clough is an English writer.Clough has written several books and articles dealing with phreakers, hackers and computer virus writers; credit card fraud; banking; and the activities of MI5 during World War II, specifically the Tyler Kent - Anna Wolkoff Affair .- Works :In 1990, Clough and...
. State Secrets: The Kent-Wolkoff Affair. East Sussex: Hideaway Publications Ltd., 2005. ISBN 0-9525477-3-2 - Masters, Anthony. The Man Who Was M - The life of Maxwell Knight, Grafton Books, 1986, ISBN 0586068678