Anna Wolkoff

Anna Wolkoff (1902 – 2 August 1973), sometimes known as Anna de Wolkoff, was a Russian fascist who, early in World War II, was an accomplice of Tyler Kent, a cipher clerk at the U.S. Embassy in London, in his espionage activities. She was charged by the British with violating the Official Secrets Act, specifically by aiding Kent in obtaining "documents which might be useful to an enemy" and copying them "with intent to assist an enemy". She was also charged with trying to send a coded letter to William Joyce, also known as "Lord Haw-Haw", who broadcast anti-Allied propaganda for the Nazis from Berlin.

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 Revolution and they became naturalized British subjects on 10 September 1935. Her family operated the Russian Tea Room in South Kensington near the Natural History Museum in London, a rendezvous for White Russians.

Anna and her father held extreme right-wing views and were sympathizers of the Nazi regime in Germany. She visited that country several times in the 1930s, claiming to have met Hans Frank and Rudolf Hess. Her visits caused MI5 to have an interest in her activities and she was placed under surveillance as a possible German spy, beginning in 1935. She was also alleged to be associated with Wallis Simpson, a client of her couture business, who was also under suspicion as a spy for the Germans.

When it was fashionable to have fascist sympathies in Great Britain Wolkoff belonged to the pro-fascist anti-Semitic Right Club, founded by Archibald Maule Ramsay, which included such members as William Joyce, A. K. Chesterton, Francis Yeats-Brown, the best-selling author of Bengal Lancer, and the Duke of Wellington. They often held their meetings in the Russian Tea Room.

When Britain went to war against Germany in September, 1939, the Right Club supposedly disbanded, but it merely went underground and planned ways to aid Germany. Wolkoff, using an intermediary (known as a "cutout" in espionage terms) from the Italian Embassy (later determined to be Col. Francesco Marigliano, the Duke del Monte, who was the assistant military attaché), sent information to Berlin, including suggestions for Joyce's propaganda broadcasts.

However, unknown to Wolkoff, the Right Club was infiltrated early on by MI5, first by Marjorie Mackie and subsequently by young Belgian mystic Helene De Muncke, and 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 in his flat some of the documents 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 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, but showed the letter to Maxwell Knight, the head of the section of MI5 responsible for the infiltration agents into subversive groups within the British Isles.

Anna Wolkoff and Tyler Kent were arrested and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act on 20 May. As she was put in the police car, her arrest was witnessed by an 11-year old boy named Len Deighton, who grew up to become an author of spy novels, and made an impression on him.

She was tried in camera at the Old Bailey, with Sir William Jowitt as prosecutor. On 7 November 1940 Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for attempting to assist the enemy, while Kent, an American citizen, was sentenced to seven 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.

She was released in 1947, and was killed in a road accident in Spain with Enid Riddell (1903–1973), another fascist sympathizer and a member of the Right Club.

See also

• Len Deighton

Further reading

Clough, Bryan. 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 0-586-06867-8

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