Margarita Konenkova and Sergey left the Soviet Union and traveled to the United States in 1923 to take part in an exposition on Soviet art in New York. The pair made the U.S. their home for the next 22 years while also traveling throughout Europe. Their travels made Margarita into a cultured, well-rounded and intelligent woman with the ability to speak several languages. At times, she stayed behind while her husband traveled or became engrossed in his work, often spending time with the intellectuals at Princeton. She eventually became the companion of many great men.
After spending time with many great scientists, politicians and even getting invited to the White House and entertaining the First Lady, she set her sights on Albert Einstein. She was only 46 and much younger than the 63-year-old Einstein and therefore her invitation to Einstein in 1941 to spend a weekend with her was as surprising to him as his acceptance was to her. From that moment on the pair became very close and remained close up until the end of the war. Einstein became so close with Margarita that the pair even took pictures together and he introduced her as his companion, despite the fact that she remained married to Sergey. But Einstein’s last love held a dark secret that would have devastated the aging scientist.
When the letters surfaced there was an immediate attempt by the people at Sotheby’s Auction House (who were set to auction the letters) to learn more about the woman who had so captured Einstein’s heart. His love for her and his depression over his absence (after she returned to Moscow) can be felt in every word. He writes that everything reminds him of her, that he cannot wash his hair with the same gentle touch that she does or that he cannot even look at the shawl she wore or the dictionaries on his shelf. Needless to say, it was a shock that the man who had engrossed himself in his work to the isolation of his family had fallen madly in love with a woman who was 20 years his junior.
It was on a search for more information that Margarita Konenkova’s name was discovered in a book written in 1995 by Soviet spymaster Pavel Sudoplatov and his son Anatoly. The book, entitled “Special Tasks,”‘ detailed a special task that was given to Margarita Konenkova who operated under the codename “Lukas“. She was supposed to use her position to get close to prominent scientists she met while at Princeton and to pay special attention to scientists who were believed to be involved with the Manhattan Project.
This order would explain her relationship with Robert Oppenheimer who was known to be part of the Manhattan Project. Einstein, though he was well respected and a celebrity at Princeton, was never directly involved with the Manhattan Project. However, it would be remiss to suggest that his work had nothing to do with the advancements that led to the creation of the first atomic bomb. Without his initiative or his breakthrough E=MC2 the atomic bomb might not have been created in time to end World War II.