Famous female spies who influenced the story

When it comes to spies, we most often recall men: Kim Philby, Richard Sorge, Nikolai Kuznetsov. Or the heroes of the cinema Stirlitz and James Bond. Nothing excites us more than a dangerous mission and mystery.

However, among women there are no less secret agents. And not just Mata Hari.

Let's start ...

Isabella Maria Boyd

"Southern Beauty," as she was called, did not consider herself a spy. Nevertheless, it played an exceptional role during the Civil War in the United States. A woman retrieved information about the military strength of the enemy and passed them on to the Confederation.

At the very beginning of the war in 1861, she lived in Martinsburg, when the northerners captured the city. Isabella entered into confidence in the soldiers and the command of the army in order to find out their plans. Then, risking her life, making her way through the enemy’s armed fortifications, she went over to the side of the Confederation and transmitted information to the officers.

However, intelligence is not all that it has become famous for. One day, one of the northerners tried to hoist a flag on the roof of her house. Isabella warned him not to do this. However, the man was persistent and she had to shoot him.

Melita Norwood

In the 1930s, she served as secretary of the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association (BNF), preparing meetings and paperwork. It would seem nothing significant. But the BNF was actually a cover organization for the Tube Alloys project, a British nuclear weapons project.

Melita's commitment to communist ideas led to collaboration with the KGB. Taking advantage of the fact that she closed the premises, the girl took secret folders with her, photographed them and handed them over to representatives of the USSR. Most of the information served to create Soviet nuclear technology.

Her name was revealed in the 1990s. When the FBI asked to name accomplices during interrogation, she refused to do so, citing memory.

Christina Skarbek

The spy and the beauty queen. Before the start of World War II, she was a model. Then she became a secret courier in occupied European countries. Her activity was to deliver messages to members of the anti-Hitler coalition through Poland, without revealing herself.

She carried out several secret missions in Hungary, France, Egypt. She jumped with a parachute, sewed knives into the hem of her skirts, seduced the guards, invented incredible stories to get out of difficult situations. She used her beauty as a weapon in espionage. Inspired by her story, Jan Fleming used her as the prototype of the main female character in Casino Royale.

Unfortunately, in 1952 she was killed by a rejected lover, whom she met on a cruise ship.

Nur Inayat Khan

Indian Princess, British intelligence officer, born in Moscow in 1914. She was not a professional scout. The British special operations department recruited her in 1940. Nur completed a training course for a military radio operator and, with a portable radio station, was landing on the French-occupied territory of France. Many members of the Resistance were arrested, but Khan managed to escape capture for a long time. She often moved and kept in touch with London. Once, one of the French women reported to the Gestapo about her. In 1944, Nur Inayat Khan died in the Dachau concentration camp.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker is most famous as a singer and dancer. She was incredibly popular in the 1920s. The basis of her show was exotic songs, dances, comedy scenes. And on the performer, except for the skirt, as a rule, there was nothing more.

During the war, Josephine was the secret courier of the French Resistance. She conveyed secret messages, transporting them in sheet music, tool cases and underwear. For this work, Josephine Baker was awarded the medals of Resistance, the sign of the Military Cross and in 1961 - the Order of the Legion of Honor.