MILITARY PERSONNEL

Rudolf Abel

1903 - 1971

Photo of Rudolf Abel

Icon of person Rudolf Abel

Rudolf Ivanovich Abel (Russian: Рудольф Иванович Абель) was the alias of William August Fisher (11 July 1903 – 15 November 1971), a Soviet intelligence officer, created to alert his Soviet KGB handlers when Fisher was arrested in the USA on charges of espionage by the FBI in 1957. Fisher was born and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England in the United Kingdom to Russian émigré parents. He moved to Russia in the 1920s, and served in the Soviet military before undertaking foreign service as a radio operator in Soviet intelligence in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He later served in an instructional role before taking part in intelligence operations against the Germans during World War II. After the war, he began working for the KGB, which sent him to the United States where he worked as part of a spy ring based in New York City. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Rudolf Abel has received more than 5,021,354 page views. His biography is available in 38 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 37 in 2019). Rudolf Abel is the 348th most popular military personnel (down from 162nd in 2019), the 639th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 331st in 2019) and the 11th most popular British Military Personnel.

Rudolf Abel was a Soviet spy who was arrested in 1957 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Memorability Metrics

  • 5.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 68.26

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 38

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.76

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.49

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among MILITARY PERSONNELS

Among military personnels, Rudolf Abel ranks 348 out of 2,058. Before him are Italo Gariboldi, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Eduard Dietl, Toyotomi Hideyori, Andrei Grechko, and Hans-Valentin Hube. After him are James Paul Moody, Henri Giraud, Hugo Sperrle, Huang Zhong, Francisco de Miranda, and Günther Prien.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1903, Rudolf Abel ranks 47. Before him are Georg Elser, Alec Douglas-Home, Empress Kōjun, Bing Crosby, John Eccles, and Andrei Grechko. After him are Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, Prince Charles, Count of Flanders, John Vincent Atanasoff, Claudio Arrau, Giulio Natta, and The French Angel. Among people deceased in 1971, Rudolf Abel ranks 28. Before him are Gotthard Heinrici, François Duvalier, D. B. Cooper, Igor Tamm, Lothar Rendulic, and Wendell Meredith Stanley. After him are Jacobo Árbenz, Roy O. Disney, Marcel Dupré, Pier Angeli, Violet Jessop, and Max Steiner.

Others Born in 1903

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Others Deceased in 1971

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Rudolf Abel ranks 639 out of 8,785. Before him are Alice Liddell (1852), John Bunyan (1628), Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (1868), Julian Barnes (1946), Kenneth MacAlpin (810), and Henry Bessemer (1813). After him are W. H. Auden (1907), Arthur Cecil Pigou (1877), James Hargreaves (1720), Philippa of England (1394), James Paul Moody (1887), and James Dewar (1842).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among MILITARY PERSONNELS In United Kingdom

Among military personnels born in United Kingdom, Rudolf Abel ranks 11. Before him are Edward Smith (1850), Bernard Montgomery (1887), Alexander Selkirk (1676), John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650), Gertrude Bell (1868), and Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861). After him are James Paul Moody (1887), John Franklin (1786), Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738), Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis (1891), Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861), and John Hawkins (1532).

British born Military Personnels

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