Kroger, Helen (1913-1992)

US communist sympathizer and Soviet spy. Convicted in the UK of espionage in 1961, with her husband Morris Cohen, she was imprisoned and then released eight years later in a spy-swap deal, allowing her and her husband to settle in Moscow.

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Kroger married Morris Cohen, whom she dominated, and instilled in him her deeply felt belief in the rightness of communism. Together they became active in the Soviet spy network in the USA and were suspected of involvement in the Rosenberg atomic espionage ring. When Julius Rosenberg was arrested in 1950 the Cohens disappeared. They moved to England, via Vienna, having acquired New Zealand passports and the names of Peter and Helen Kroger. From a modest bungalow in Ruislip, Middlesex, where Peter supposedly ran a small antiquarian book business, they operated a sophisticated radio station, passing vital defence information to Moscow. They were arrested, charged with espionage, and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment at the Old Bailey in March 1961. They were released in 1969 in exchange for the British university lecturer Gerald Brooke, who had been imprisoned for spying in Moscow. At the time it was a major cause célèbre and provoked Hugh Whitemore to write the play A Pack of Lies (1983), which enjoyed success in the UK and the USA.