Nadezhda Ulanovskaya

Nadezhda Ulanovskaya
Born	Esther Markovna Fridgant 1903 Bershad
Died	1986 Tel Aviv
Spouse	Alexander Ulanovsky
Children	Maya Ulanovskaya
Espionage activity
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service branch	GRU
Service years	1923-1948

Nadezhda (Esther) Markovna Ulanovskaya (1903—1986) was a Soviet intelligence GRU officer, translator, English teacher, wife Alexander Ulanovsky, and mother of Maya Ulanovskaya.

Background

Former Moszyński Palace in Bershad, Ulanovskaya's birthplace

Nadezhda Ulanovskaya was born Esther Markovna Fridgant in Bershad in the then Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Her father was a trader; her grandfather Nukhim Fridgant was a rabbi and possibly a descendant of a Hasidic tzaddik Reful (Friedgant) . Ulanovskaya studied in private and village schools. In 1917, after the February Revolution, the family moved to Odessa.

Career

Ulanovskaya supported the October Revolution (here, Saint Petersburg on July 4, 1917 during demonstration on Nevsky Prospekt following machine gunning by troops of Provisional Government)

After the 1917 October Revolution, Ulanovskaya joined the Young Revolutionary International as an anarchist and changed her name from Esther to Nadezhda ("Hope"). During the Russian Civil War, she worked for the pro-Soviet underground in Odessa by distributing leaflets. At this time, she met her future husband, Alexander Ulanovsky. In April 1919, during the flight of White Russians from Odessa, she helped occupy the Odessa police station. In August 1919, ahead of the White Russian re-occupation of Odessa, she evacuated with Ulanovsky to Nikolaev (Mykolaiv in Ukraine) and eventually returned to Odessa. In 1921, she and Ulanovsky visited Germany on behalf of the Cheka. In 1922, they moved to Moscow.

Communism

In 1928, Ulanovskaya was stationed by the GRU with her husband and Richard Sorge (here in 1940)

In 1923, under the name of "Maria Andreyevna Sorokina," Ulanovskaya worked with her husband in Hamburg for the Profintern, after which the Ulanovskys returned to Moscow (still with the Profintern).

In 1928, the Ulanovskys joined the Soviet military intelligence service (or GRU). With Richard Sorge, they were stationed in Shanghai. Her job there was radio operator under the name of a Sudeten German "Kirschner."

In 1930-1931, the Ulanovskys lived in Berlin and Paris. In 1931, they traveled to the United States as Canadians named "Goldman" and then operated in the US under the surname "Zhuratovich."

In 1932, Ulanovskaya returned to Moscow, where, still in Soviet military intelligence, she studied at the Institute of Foreign Languages through 1941. She also worked as an English teacher at the Frunze Military Academy.

During World War II, Ulanovskaya sent her children East with her mother for safety. She worked with foreign correspondents with the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, including work in the Far East. In 1947, she taught English at the Institute of International Relations; in December 1947, she was dismissed due to pending arrest.

GULAG

Dubravlag, where Ulanovskaya served prison time

On February 21, 1948, Ulanovskaya was arrested for treason, specifically the transfer of information about the Great Purge for Australian Godfrey Blunden for the 1947 book A Room on the Route published in the US. She was locked in solitary confinement in the Lefortovo prison. (Her husband was arrested on March 3, 1949.)

In 1951, she received a 15-year sentence in labor camps. She served time in Rechlag (Rechnoy?) and then Dubravlag. (In 1951, her daughter was also arrested and in 1952 sentenced to 25 years.) In May 1956, Soviet authorities reclassified her crime to "disclosure of official secrets," reduced the sentence to the time already served, and released her.

Personal life and death

Ulanovskaya married Alexander Petrovich Ulanovsky, fellow Soviet spy

By 1922, Ulanovskaya had married Alexander Ulanovsky. They had a son and two daughters, of whom one is named Maya Ulanovskaya.

In 1931-1932, while stationed in the US, Ulanovskaya met her uncle, who had immigrated to the US in 1913.

In 1961, her younger daughter died. In 1971, her husband died.

In 1973, Ulanovskaya immigrated to Israel with her daughter Maya, son-in-law, and grandson.

In 1977, mother and daughter visited Godfrey Blunden in Europe.

On January 5, 1983, Nadezhda Ulanovskaya died age in Israel.

Works

Ulanovskaya wrote a memoir with her daughter, Maya Ulanovskaya (here, circa 1955)

In 1982, she published in the US, together with her daughter, a memoir book The Story of One Family.

Regarding the Hiss Case, Ulavoskaya wrote (quoted from the new English edition of their memoir): "My story has many parallels with that of Whittaker Chambers. We met the same people, and I can thus confirm his testimony."

See also

• Alexander Ulanovsky
• Maya Ulanovskaya
• Anatoly Yakobson
• Alexander Yakobson
• List of Gulag camps

External sources

• Улановская Надежда Марковна (1903) (Ulanovskaya, Nadezhda Markovna)
• Улановская Надежда (Эстер) Марковна (1903-1986) (Ulanovskaya Nadezhda (Esther) Markovna)