Michael Goleniewski a.k.a. 'SNIPER', 'LAVINIA', (16 August 1922 - 12 July 1993), was a Polish officer in the People's Republic of Poland's Ministry Of Public Security, the deputy head of military counterintelligence GZI WP, later head of the technical and scientific section of the Polish intelligence, and a spy for the Soviet government during the 1950s. In 1959, he became a triple-agent, giving Polish and Soviet secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency, which directly caused the exposure of George Blake and Harry Houghton. Goleniewski defected to the United States in 1961. He later claimed to be Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia.

Early life and espionage career

Goleniewski was born in 1922 in Nieswiez, then in Poland, now Belarus. He enlisted in the Polish Army in 1945 and was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Polish Army in 1955. He studied law at the University of Poznan and received a master's degree in political science from the University of Warsaw in 1956. He said he was head of the Technical and Scientific Department of the Polish Secret Service from 1957 to 1960. At the same time, he was spying on Polish intelligence operations for the Soviet Union.

In early 1959, Goleniewski became a triple-agent, anonymously providing the Central Intelligence Agency with Polish and Soviet secrets, by letter. The CIA gave him the code-name 'SNIPER', MI5 gave him 'LAVINIA'. In April 1959, the CIA informed MI5 that SNIPER (his real name was still unknown) had said the Służba Bezpieczeństwa had a British informant inside the Royal Navy. This person was later found to be Harry Houghton. The CIA also told MI5 that SNIPER / Goleniewski had received top secret documents originating from a Soviet mole inside MI6. The mole himself (who later turned out to be George Blake) heard the news that the CIA had a top-level informant in Poland, and sent word back to the KGB, who passed it to the UB. Goleniewski heard the news from the KGB, and immediately escaped. He also provided information that led to the arrests of American diplomat Irvin C. Scarbeck,Swedish Air Force officer Stig Wennerström, and KGB penetrations of the BND, Heinz Felfe and Hans Clemens.

He defected to the United States in January 1961, which led to the imprisonment of Soviet agents in Britain including the Portland Spy Ring and George Blake. Goleniewski went to work for the CIA, and a Polish court sentenced him to death in absentia. Aprivate bill, H.R. 5507, was introduced in the U.S. Congress in July 1963 to make Goleniewski a US citizen. The legislation was passed by both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

Claim made that he was Tsarevich Alexei

Goleniewski later made the claim that he was Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, who, by most accounts, was killed with his family byBolsheviks at Ekaterinburg, Russia on 17 July 1918. Goleniewski claimed that Yakov Yurovsky, one of the assassins, saved the family and helped them to escape. The whole family supposedly traveled to Poland via Turkey, Greece, and Austria. According to his story, the family lived in hiding in Poland. As author Guy Richards (one of Goleniewski's supporters) has pointed out, he was not the first Tsarevich Alexei claimant to emerge from Poland; several decades earlier, in 1927, a pretender named Eugene Nicolaievich Ivanoff had appeared from the same part of that country and generated a brief flurry of publicity in Europe and North America.

Tsarevich Alexei, who was born in August 1904, was a haemophiliac. Goleniewski, whose identity card gave his date of birth as 1922, making him eighteen years younger than the Tsarevich, claimed that the haemophilia made him appear younger than he really was and he had been "twice a child." He claimed that his haemophilia had been confirmed by Dr. Alexander S. Wiener, who had co-discovered the Rh factor in human blood. This claim was never confirmed.

He met one of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia claimants, Eugenia Smith, in 1963. The meeting was covered by Life magazine. Goleniewski claimed that Smith was his sister Anastasia. Smith also recognized Goleniewski as her brother Alexei, even though she had claimed in her book that she had been the sole survivor at Ekaterinburg.

Goleniewski's claim was an embarrassment to the CIA. He was put on a pension and his employment with the agency was ended in 1964.

In 1942, Wehrmacht soldiers transiting through Lvov were told that near the town of Radom an old Polish landowner named Goleniewski lived on a large estate guarded by the SS and that he was in fact Tsar Nicholas II.

Claim to the Romanov fortune

Goleniewski had such detailed information about alleged Tsarist money that detailed investigations were done. It is not known how he obtained the information or how much of it is accurate. His claims are detailed in the books "Lost Fortune of the Tsars" by William Clarke, and "Hunt for the Czar" by Guy Richards. Richards writes in a way that seems to advance Goleniewski's claim.

Marriage

Goleniewski married his pregnant girlfriend, Ingrid Kampf, on 30 September 1964, using the name Alexei Romanov. Their daughter Tatiana was born a few hours later. The marriage later broke up.

Later life

Goleniewski lived the remainder of his life in Queens, New York, still claiming that he was Tsarevich Alexei. He leveled accusations against the government and the Russian Orthodox Church for mistreating him. Few believed his claim.