Melita Norwood (1912-2005) was a little old lady who hid her career as a prolific Soviet spy behind the sculpted shrubs and perfectly mowed lawns of the suburbs; famous among government officials for her intelligence smuggling escapades, and among neighbors for her homemade chutney.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today, we’re talking about a little old lady who hid her career as a prolific Soviet spy behind the sculpted shrubs and perfectly mowed lawns of the suburbs. She was famous among government officials for her intelligence smuggling escapades, and among neighbors for her homemade chutney. Today, we’re talking about Melita Norwood.
Melita was born Melita Sirnis in Southampton, England on March 25th, 1912. Her parents, Peter and Gertrude, were both active members of Leftist groups. After Peter fled Tsarist Russia, he joined a radical community founded by followers of Leo Tolstoy. There, he met Gertrude, and the two married.
Growing up, Melita, or “Lettie,” was surrounded by political activism and was quickly inducted into a network of Russian and German exiles. Peter died when Lettie was only six years old, but Gertrude continued her activity in Leftist politics. According to some sources, the Sirnis family was well-connected in the world of Soviet espionage: when in need of a place to station spies-in-training, the Sirnis home served as headquarters.
In 1932, Lettie herself became a secret member of Britain’s Communist Party. Though we’re not quite sure how she got involved in espionage, Lettie was working for the KGB within five years. She also got a job working as a secretary for the Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London.
Though the name might not ring any alarms, the association was actually part of a secret nuclear weapons research project with the U.S. It went by the code name “Tube Alloys.” Lettie would sneak into her boss’ office, crack into the safe, and take photos of important documents. She’d then pass off the camera hosting those photos to KGB associates.
At the time, Lettie was living in a quiet suburb in southeast London. She’d married a man named Hilary and become Mrs. Norwood. Though Hilary was a fellow communist, he didn’t approve of Lettie’s spying. Still, he never intervened when she came home late due to what she said were “traffic jams,” a common excuse. Even Lettie didn’t see her spying as her main role in life: as she’d later say, “picking up the kid, getting the home-help and getting the shopping done occupied much more of my time than spying.”
Lettie, also known by her KGB code name “Hola,” was actually suspected as a spy in the early days of her career. She was reported for espionage by one of the first female agents in MI5, but both the agent and Lettie were seen as non-threatening by male superiors.
Throughout her career as a spy, Lettie refused monetary compensation-- she saw her work as helping balance the political powers of the post-war world. By providing information on nuclear advancements from the US and Britain, Lettie said she hoped to stop Western powers from gaining unchallenged nuclear arms.
Lettie retired from spying in the early 1970s. She embarked on one last trip to Moscow to receive the esteemed Order of the Red Banner from the Soviet Union. Afterward, she led a mostly quiet life in her home.
In the 90s, however, news of Soviet spies broke across Britain. In 1996, British authorities released a trove of classified information on ex-KGB agents. The information was turned over to a Cambridge historian to write a book on the subject. Soon enough, Lettie’s name surfaced as one of the key players.
When the book was published, Lettie’s name became synonymous with Soviet espionage. Her daughter, who was 56 at the time, found out about her mother’s past through the newspaper. Then an 84-year old great-grandmother, Lettie held a press conference on her lawn where she admitted to her espionage. Despite her open confession, she was never officially prosecuted by the British government.
Lettie died on June 2nd, 2005, at 93 years old.
All of April, we’re talking about spies.
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