POLITICIAN

Oleg Penkovsky

1919 - 1963

Photo of Oleg Penkovsky

Icon of person Oleg Penkovsky

Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky (Russian: Оле́г Влади́мирович Пенько́вский; 23 April 1919 – 16 May 1963), codenamed Hero (by the CIA) and Yoga (by MI6) was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) colonel during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Penkovsky informed the United States and the United Kingdom about Soviet military secrets, including the appearance and footprint of Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missile installations and the weakness of the Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. This information was decisive in allowing the US to recognize that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba before most of them were operational. It also gave US President John F. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Oleg Penkovsky has received more than 2,315,355 page views. His biography is available in 28 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 26 in 2019). Oleg Penkovsky is the 2,992nd most popular politician (up from 3,646th in 2019), the 282nd most popular biography from Russia (up from 371st in 2019) and the 85th most popular Russian Politician.

Oleg Penkovsky was a Soviet military intelligence officer who spied for the United States and Britain. He passed information to the CIA and MI6 from 1961 to 1963. His information helped the West understand Soviet military capabilities.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.3M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 63.04

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 28

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.25

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.65

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among POLITICIANS

Among politicians, Oleg Penkovsky ranks 2,992 out of 19,576. Before him are Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Latife Uşşaki, Prince George of Greece and Denmark, Vratislaus II of Bohemia, Sargon I, and Kaykhusraw I. After him are Ahhotep I, Emperor Go-Yōzei, Merenre Nemtyemsaf II, Wittiza, Konrad Henlein, and Cardinal de Rohan.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1919, Oleg Penkovsky ranks 27. Before him are Hans-Joachim Marseille, Pierre Trudeau, Gerhard Barkhorn, Donald Pleasence, Dino De Laurentiis, and Lex Barker. After him are Boris Shcherbina, Iris Murdoch, Andreas Papandreou, Moïse Tshombe, Leon Festinger, and Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado. Among people deceased in 1963, Oleg Penkovsky ranks 28. Before him are Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Thích Quảng Đức, Abd al-Karim Qasim, Carmen Amaya, Rajendra Prasad, and Theodore von Kármán. After him are Jacques Hadamard, Richard Baer, Kurt Zeitzler, Józef Gosławski, Richard Barthelmess, and Karl Bühler.

Others Born in 1919

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Others Deceased in 1963

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Oleg Penkovsky ranks 282 out of 3,761. Before him are Ramzan Kadyrov (1976), Vasily Vereshchagin (1842), Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (1843), Andrei Grechko (1903), Aleksandr Dugin (1962), and Varlam Shalamov (1907). After him are Eugen Sandow (1867), Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia (1843), Eduard Limonov (1943), Viktor Vasnetsov (1848), Vladimir K. Zworykin (1888), and Alexey Ekimov (1945).

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Among POLITICIANS In Russia

Among politicians born in Russia, Oleg Penkovsky ranks 85. Before him are Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia (1891), Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia (1553), Mykola Azarov (1947), Lyudmila Putina (1958), Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia (1895), and Ramzan Kadyrov (1976). After him are Eduard Limonov (1943), Aleksey Kuropatkin (1848), Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1786), Ivan II of Moscow (1326), Anastasia Romanovna (1530), and Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia (1871).

Russian born Politicians

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