It is a 2015 film about insurance lawyer Donovan who negotiated with the East German and Soviet governments at the request of the U.S. government to exchange captured people, based on real events in history.
I wrote "Subway Through the Berlin Wall" before, and I mentioned this movie.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the Rudolf Abel event</h1>
Rudolf Abel, the KGB's most successful spy installed in the United States, participated in and led the radio intelligence warfare against Germany during World War II, playing a decisive role in the encirclement of the German Sixth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad. After World War II, he became an instructor at the Soviet Radio Espionage School and then lurked in the United States.
The real Abel in history
In 1957, the KGB suspected that Abel's assistant might defect, Abel also warned the headquarters many times, his assistant was drunk and often complained, etc., the headquarters had made preparations for Abel's temporary evacuation, but still a step slower, before the new passport and identity were delivered, Abel was arrested. At the time of his arrest, Abel also knew who had betrayed him, because only his assistants knew that he had been promoted by the KGB.
As a spy, Rudolf Abel was averagely successful, but the symbolism was enormous. After being exchanged back to the Soviet Union and passing the examination, he was quickly received by the Supreme Presidium of the Soviet Union, promoted to general of the KGB, and successively received the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union", the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin. In the opening of the Soviet War spy film "Off Season" made in the 60s, Abel himself had appearance shots and lines, and the protagonist of the famous Soviet spy film "Seventeen Springs of Spring" was also based on him. Abel's greatest success was that until he returned to the Soviet Union, the Americans did not know what his real name was.
In the 1970s, Abel retired early to live with his wife and daughter, died of lung cancer on November 5, 1971, and was buried in the Dunskoy Cemetery in Moscow at the age of 68.
Abel's tomb
It is actually inaccurate that Abel was not hugged when the exchange scene was filmed in the film, and in the real exchange scene, he was the first person to be hugged.
Stills of Abel in the film
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="54" > U2 event</h1>
On May 1, 1960, the United States carried out a "Grand Slam" mission for Reconnaissance of the Soviet Union, which was originally scheduled to depart on April 28, but was delayed by three days due to poor weather. Powell's plane was scheduled to depart peshawar, Pakistan, and fly northwest to the Aral Sea, north to Yekaterinburg, northwest to Pleszecq, and finally out of the Soviet Union to land at Bode Airport in Norway. Along the way, photograph intercontinental ballistic missile bases near the two cities, as well as related military installations.
Planned Powell flight path and aircraft wreckage
Unexpectedly, not long after the plane took off, it was targeted by the Soviet Union over Kazakhstan. The Soviets sent an interceptor and fired 14 anti-aircraft missiles, and Powell's U-2 reconnaissance plane was hit near Jegjarsk. He ventured a skydive high in the sky and was successfully rescued on the ground. But because he did not speak Russian, he was immediately arrested by the local army, and Powell did not have time to destroy the sensitive facilities in the cabin in a hurry, and the wreckage of the U-2 reconnaissance plane finally fell to the ground near Yekaterinburg in the Soviet Union, and was subsequently seized by the Soviet military. Therefore, Powell himself and the wreckage of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft became the biggest chip in the Subsequent Negotiations between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Stills from Powell from the movie
Powell returned to the United States after the exchange and was awarded the "Intelligence Star" medal by the CIA in 1965, and published his first memoir about the crash in 1970, which chronicled the aerial reconnaissance and the story of the crash in prison. He died in a flight accident on 1 August 1977 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. One of his sons, in 1996, set up a Cold War history museum on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., exhibiting many historical artifacts related to the Cold War period and many objects related to Powell's crash.
The real Powell
The question of whether Powell was recruited has always been a historical doubt, and Powell in the film claims that he did not say anything, but the Soviet Union's after-the-fact material proves that Powell has no secrets, strictly speaking, the Soviet Union did not take any inhumane measures against Powell, and Powell's own memoirs also said that he was not abused by the Soviet Union.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="61" > exchange</h1>
In fact, the exchange was proposed by the Soviet side, and Khrushchev believed that Abel did not say anything, and Powell had no use value, so he proposed the exchange, and the United States was forced to agree under the pressure of public opinion, which objectively shows that the United States also believes that Abel is far more important than Powell.
Khrushchev and Kennedy
Donovan, the estate lawyer who had previously defended Abel's innocence, was ordered to settle the exchange and finally decided to exchange it on the Grennicke Bridge connecting Berlin with Potsdam, which is also the origin of the name of the film "Bridge of Spies".
The real Donovan and the donovan in the film
Located on the Havre River, named after the Glennicke Palace next to it, the Glennwick Bridge was built in 1907 because it was located on the dividing line between West Berlin and East Germany, and thus became a place for the exchange of personnel between the two camps during the Cold War.
Location of Glinick Bridge
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="69" >Frederick Pullier</h1>
It was the unfortunate economics student in the movie, born on April 23, 1933, who died on September 2, 2019, who was not arrested for crossing the Berlin Wall, and in fact, the Berlin Wall under construction could not be crossed casually, and his arrest was mainly because he was suspected of being a spy with a camera. It is said that when I watched the movie, the most painful thing was that his diplomarbeit (master's thesis) was so thick that the only version was thrown aside by the soldiers.
Stills of Priel from the film
In the real exchange, Powell arrived first, and then waited a little longer, and then he realized that there was another student who was also to be exchanged.
After returning home, Pryor remained at Yale and later became a distinguished professor, writing 13 books on the comparison of economic systems.
Pryor in his later years