“Gorsky’s List” (I)
This is an annotated translation by Svetlana Chervonnaya of Anatoly Gorsky’s 1949 report to his superiors, officially titled “Failures in the USA (1938-1948),” and otherwise known as “Gorsky’s List.”
| Translation of KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, February 1, 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen’s Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim |
Checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya against scanned photocopies of Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 and 305 (received from David Lowenthal, April 4, 2005) and Gorskii 1a, pp. 46-40, Gorskii 1, pp. 46-49, and Gorskii 2, p. 60 (received from David Lowenthal, March 26, 2005).
April 2005; revised October 2005 and March 2009. [Editor’s Note: In the following essay, footnotes (which appear in italics) are interlineated with the text.]
NB: In the scans originally sent to me of Alexander Vassiliev’s notes of the document under discussion – scans designated here as “Gorskii 1a, pp. 46-49” – the first page sent omitted both the title of the document and its first five lines. The second scan received from Dr. David Lowenthal – “Gorskii 1, pp. 46-49” – included the first five lines of the first page but again omitted the title. Only the final scan of the first page – “Jury Bundle, p. 303” – displayed the complete image. Scanned images I was sent of Jury Bundle pp. 304 and 305, on the other hand, omitted several lines, which I was able to transcribe from “Gorskii 2, p. 60.” Otherwise, both texts are identical. This translation follows the pagination found in “Jury Bundle pp. 303-305.”
For the purpose of authenticity, and to bring English-speaking readers closer to the actual Russian words used in Alexander Vassiliev’s notes, I have given all cryptonyms in an English transliteration, adding the English translation in square brackets. For the same reason, I have presented some specific Russian terms in the document in an English transliteration, again adding the English translation in square brackets. I have also tried to make the translation as close as possible to Alexander Vassiliev’s Russian original – supplying any missing words in square brackets for a clearer understanding of the text.
The page numbering on the left seems to be Alexander Vassiliev’s notation of the pagination in the original file he was shown.
A. Gorsky’s[1] report – to Savchenko S.R.[2] 23 December, [19]49
1. Gorsky, Anatoly Veniaminovich, station chief (rezident) of NKGB foreign intelligence in Washington, D.C., September 15, 1944 – December 7, 1945, under the cover of the First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy. Operated in the U.S. under alias of Anatoly Borisovich Gromov.
For his work in the USA, was promoted to Colonel and awarded the Patriotic War Order. From 1946 – 1950, Gorsky was head of the 1st department of MGB Foreign Intelligence Directorate.
2. Savchenko, Sergei Romanovich, head of MGB Foreign Intelligence Directorate, September 19, 1949 – January 5, 1953; Lieutenant-General.
77
p. 46.
“Rezidentura [Field station] did not carry out instructions on acquiring agents and since the middle of 1949 has de facto terminated any efforts to seek out recruiters and new agents.”
[Rezidentura? – illegible] refrained from reestablishing contact with agents who had not failed.
p. 47.
“In its practical operations, the rezidentura has proceeded along the path of least resistance, either involving into our work persons widely known for their contacts with the Communist Party of the USA (“Dzhek,” “Gid,” “Lana,” “Rur,” “Kan” and others) or trying to use as agents employees of [diplomatic] missions of the [countries of] People’s Democracies who are sympathetic to us but do not have access to information we are interested in.”
The responsibility rests with deputy rezident “Fyodor.”[3] Due to his [work] overload at his main job,[4] “Vladimir”[5] cannot go deep into all operational details.
3. At the time of the writing of this report, Washington, D.C. deputy station chief was Sokolov, Georgy [Yury] Alexandrovich.
4. i.e., as Soviet Ambassador to the United States.
5. Panyushkin, Alexander Semenovich, Chief KI [Committee of Information] rezident in the U.S. and Ambassador, October 25, 1947 up till June 1952; Soviet diplomat, NKGB/MGB foreign intelligence operative and Communist Party official; Major-General.
p. 48.
It is essential to staff Washington rezidentura with the best cadres of KI[6] cadre officers [operatives].
6. KI – Committee of Information of the Counsel of Ministers of the USSR, organized following an official decision on May 30, 1947. Temporarily brought MGB and military intelligence services under the same bureaucratic roof. This integration turned short-lived: by February 1949, military intelligence had been completely returned under the roof of the Department of Defense (a process that had begun in the Summer of 1948). In its abridged form KI survived until early 1951.
Failures in the USA (1938-48)
p. 49.
“Karl”‘s Group[7]
1. Karl[8] – Whittaker Chambers,[9] former editor-in-chief[10]of the “Time” magazine. Traitor.
7. Alexander Vassiliev’s selections from his notes on Gorsky’s December 23, 1949 report, and his “Failures in the U.S. (1938-48),” do not offer any indication/explanation of the inclusion of an alleged 1934 – 1937 Razvedupr (Fourth Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army, earlier name of GRU) group into the then MGB’s (previously OGPU – NKVD – NKGB) “Failures List.”
8. “Karl” was the name Chambers said he used as a cover name in his Communist “underground” life – and not an operational code name assigned by Soviet intelligence. It appears Gorsky is using Chambers’ self-assigned name, which he knew from reports on espionage investigations in the USA since August 1948. This is particularly noticeable in comparison with the 10 authentically looking triple-digit names in the same group.
Robert Lamphere, the FBI agent on the Venona project, emphasized a “distinction between code names and cover names,” adding that “while KGB agent Elizabeth Bentley knew her own cover name – ‘Helen’ – which she used on her contacts with other agents, she did not know her code name, which would be used in KGB’s own correspondence with Moscow.” [The FBI-KGB War, by Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, 1986, p. 83.]
9. By the time of Gorsky’s report writing, the MGB Foreign Intelligence Directorate would have already filed lots of information on Whittaker Chambers, received from the reports of their U.S. field stations, from TASS, and from the press.
10. Vassiliev’s notes of “Gorsky’s Report” promote Whittaker Chambers, who was, in fact, an associate editor of Time magazine, that is, a member of Time‘s editorial staff.
2. Dzherom [Jerome] – Barna Bukov (Altman),[11] our former cadre officer [operative]. Now in the USSR.
3. Leonard[12] – Alger Hiss,[13] former official of the State Department.
4. Dzhunior [Junior][14] – Donald Hiss,[15] former official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[16]
11. Bukov (Altman), Boris Yakovlevich, was an officer of Military Intelligence (Regiment Commissar/Colonel), 1920-1941. He was reportedly an “illegal” station chief [rezident] of the Fourth Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army (Military Intelligence) in the United States, from mid-1936 to the summer of 1939. In 1939 – 1941, he was lecturer and senior lecturer, agent-operation cycle of the Higher Special School of the Red Army General Staff; after June 1941, chairman of foreign countries study of a military school of the civilian Second Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (later part of the Military Institute of Foreign Languages of the Red Army). [Lurie, V. M. and Kochick, V. Ya., GRU: Deeds and People, Moscow-Press, 2003, p.356).]
No Russian and/or American source has ever mentioned Boris Bukov as “Jerome” – a rather unusual name in the context of the 1930s. Neither has Boris Bukov’s first name ever been spelled as “Barna.” In the List’s phrase, “our former operative” [that is, career officer], “our” probably meant “Soviet.”
12. Unknown pseudonym; probably assigned by MGB in late 1940s for the purpose of operational correspondence.
13. Gorsky was writing his report in the midst of Alger Hiss’s second trial (which opened on November 17, 1949). According to available evidence and oral history interviews, since the summer of 1948, MGB foreign intelligence was closely tracking the investigations of Soviet espionage in the United States, with reports from its US stations, as well as press, TASS, and diplomatic and intelligence reports on the Hiss case all filed and at hand in Moscow.
14. Unknown pseudonym of highly problematic authenticity. In Venona decrypted cable traffic, cryptonyms deriving from nouns or adjectives seem to be entirely of Russian origin: “Ryzhaya” [“Redhead”], “Umnitsa” [“Clever girl”], “Mlad” [“Young” or “Junior” (sic!)], “Star” [“Old” or “Elder”], etc. Hence in this case, “Junior” should be Russian “Mlad” or any of its derivatives.
15. At the time of Gorsky’s writing of this list, Donald Hiss’s name had long been in the public domain in connection with Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
16. According to official records, Donald Hiss’s employment at the Department of Interior (verbatim reverse translation for the “Ministry of Internal Affairs”) was limited to May 1934 – June 1936. In December 1933 – May 1934, he was a lawyer for PWA (Public Works Administration). From June 1936 – June 1938, he was an attorney for Department of Labor. From February 1938 – March 1945, he worked at the Department of State in various capacities. [FBI FOIA Donald Hiss File # 101-4300.]
5. 104th[17] – Henry A. Wadleigh,[18] former official of the State Department.
6. 118th – F. V. Reno, former employee of Aberdeen proving grounds.
7. 105th – Henry Collins,[19] former employee of the Department of Agriculture, presently the director of the American-Russian Institute in New York.
8. 114th – William W. Pigman,[20] former employee of the Bureau of Standards.
9. “Shtorm” [“Storm”][21] – Joseph Peters (aka Isidore Boorstein)[22], former member of the Central Committee of the CPUSA.
17. This name, as well as nine other three-digit numbered cover names, look like authentic cover names used by the Soviet military intelligence in the 1930s. There are indications in the most recent (2009) Russian publications that a few three-digit numbered names may be missing, particularly “100th,” who looks like first person on the group’s list.
18. Wadleigh confessed to being part of Chambers’ group in his December 1948 grand jury testimony, which was repeated at Alger Hiss’s trials (with the second trial opening on November 17, 1949).
19. Henry Collins was named by Whittaker Chambers in August 3, 1948 HUAC hearings as part of an “underground study group” – a group which, in later testimony by Chambers, was transformed into “an espionage operation.” Collins appeared in front of the grand jury that had investigated Hiss on December 6 and 8, 1948.
20. William Ward Pigman was named by Whittaker Chambers as part of “an espionage operation.” However, Pigman denied the charge in his appearance before the same grand jury in December 1948. In the mid-1930s, he worked for the National Bureau of Standards and for the Labor and Public Welfare Committee. In the late 1940s, he was a chemist with the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin.
21. “Shtorm” [“Storm”] – one of the underground names of Joseph Peters (born Alexander Goldberger, also known as Goldfarb, Alexander Stevens, J. Peters, Peters, Peter, Steve). “Shtorm” occurs in Venona cable traffic (Venona, New York to Moscow, No. 687, 13 May 1944) as an unidentified cover name. According to W. Chambers, he had known J. Peters under the name of “Peter.”
According to CP USA and Comintern files at RGASPI, after J. Peters’ return from Moscow in late 1932, the CP USA CC assigned him to “cadre work” (for which he had been trained while in Moscow) that had many aspects, including (but not limited to) so-called “special work.” By other reports, J. Peters’ work “on the special line,” or “special work,” as it was most often termed, may be dated as beginning not earlier than late 1934 – following a direct instruction from Comintern, Moscow.
Anyway, J. Peters’ name does not fit any logical ranking order in-between alleged assets, sources and contacts, since, as a leader of a Communist Party so-called “informational group,” he should have been found ahead of Chambers – the alleged courier.
22. HUAC August 17, 1948 hearings named J. Peters as “also known as Isidor Boorstein”; it also gave his aliases as Alexander Stevens and Peter. Isidore Boorstein was also a name under which J. Peters traveled to the Soviet Union. He testified before the second New York grand jury (on January 27 and February 1, 1949) as Alexander Stevens.
10. “Vig” [“Whig”][23] – Lee Pressman,[24] former legal counsel of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.[25]
11. 116th – Harry Azizov,[26] former employee of a steel-smelting company in Chicago.
12. 101st – Peter MacLean, reporter and photo journalist, his use terminated in ’37.
p. 50
13. 103rd – David Carpenter, newspaper employee.
14. 107th – Felix Inslerman,[27] place of employment unknown.
15. 113th – Harry Rosenthal, employee of an insurance company in Philadelphia.
16. 115th – Lester Huet … [ending illegible; in March 2009 ascertained as Huettig], … former employee of the Frankford Arsenal.
17. “Ernst” [“Earnst”][28] – Noel Field,[29] former employee of the State Department.
23. Unknown pseudonym of unclear origin, however, obviously belonging to the same class as “Ryzhaya,” “Good girl,” “Mlad,” “Metr,” etc., hence, it would be wrong to translate it into English as “Wig” – which implies an improbable, English-originated “subject” name. However, it might derive from the Russian singular, “Vig,” of the historical British political party name, “Whigs” [or in Russian, “Vigi”].
24. Gorsky might have known Pressman personally during his U.S. posting. Pressman was initially named by Chambers to Adolf Berle on September 2, 1939, and then again in his August 3, 1948 HUAC testimony; his HUAC testimony was reported by TASS (secret series). Pressman did not testify before the New York grand jury. He was well known to Soviet authorities through his past association with Ambassador Constantine Oumansky (1939 – 1941), and through his 1945 visit to the Soviet Union with a CIO delegation (Lee Pressman “informational” file at RGASPI, 1935-1950).
25. Anatoly Gorsky lists the job Lee Pressman held from 1938 – January 1948, a fact reported in press and TASS reports on Pressman’s August 1948 questioning before HUAC [for example, TASS/secret report on HUAC August 20, 1948 executive session, 21 August 1948, p. 97-0 of the TASS secret series, also called ‘Zero TASS’] – and not any of the jobs he held during 1933 – 1937, the period of the alleged “‘Karl”s Group” existence: 1933-1935, Assistant General Counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration; from 1935, General Counsel in the Works Progress Administration; General Counsel of the Resettlement Administration, 1935; General Counsel for the Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee; General Counsel for the Textile Workers’ Organizing Committee, March 1937. [All mentioned in Lee Pressman’s Moscow “informational” file, RGASPI, 495-261-20, pp. 16, 19, 25.]
26. Chambers told the FBI in 1942 about a man named “Azimov”; in 1945 he said this information had come to him from J. Peters.
27. At HUAC and grand jury hearings, Chambers described Inslerman as “his photographer;” however, Chambers could not identify Inslerman as the Felix he described. Felix Inslerman cooperated with U.S. authorities. At the 1953 Senate Internal Security hearings, his brother, Hans Inslerman, gave Felix’s occupation as “electrical engineer.”
28. Reported OGPU intelligence code name of Noel Field. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, in “The Mitrokhin Archive,” 1999, p. 138, suggest his code name as ERIK; Russian SVR official historical essays mention an agent called “Erikh” (in German spelling), who in the mid-1930s brought “documents and copies of coded cables from the Department of State” on various aspects of Washington – Soviet relationships, as well as relationships with Germany and Japan (Essays on the History of Russian Foreign Intelligence, Moscow, “International Relations,” 2003, vol. 3, p. 176).
29. Noel Field was first named by Chambers to Adolf Berle [September 2, 1939] as a Communist and “one of Hede Massing’s contacts.” Further at the August 27, 1948 HUAC hearing, Chambers claimed that Hiss tried to “draw Field in” to Hiss’s alleged “Communist espionage cell.” Field was named by Hede Massing in both her December 1948 and February 1949 New York grand jury testimony as her State Department source, “Ernst.” In all of this testimony, Noel Field was never once described as a “military neighbors” asset. Field’s mistaken listing under “Karl”’s group and not under the group of “Ryzhaya” (Hede Massing) adds to the problems of this list.
18. “Rupert”[30] – V. V. Sveshnikov,[31] former employee of the War Department.
19. “Richard”[32] – Harry White,[33] former assistant of Treasury Secretary Morgenthau, died in ’48.
aka “Jurist” [“Lawyer”].
20. “Eleron” [“Aileron”][34] – D. Silverman,[35] former chief of planning and statistics division of the AAF.
30. Unknown pseudonym. A cryptonym more typical of OGPU-NKVD-NKGB operations. “Rupert” was mentioned by Soviet Venona-period NKGB operative Alexander Feklissov as a long-time NKGB agent he re-established contact with in late 1944 or early 1945, as someone who allegedly gave the Soviets their first warning that the Americans were about to break the Soviet code.
31. Vladimir V. Sveshnikov, a ballistics expert for the U.S. government. Chambers named a man he called “de Sveshnikov.” Russian noble names, however, never use the French “de.” By adding “de” to his name, Chambers might have wanted to emphasize his roots in the nobility? Allegedly cooperated with military intelligence from the mid-1920s through the 1930s.
32. NKGB intelligence code name used in operational correspondence after September 2, 1944. Before that date, according to the Venona decryptors, White had briefly been “Jurist” [in English, “Lawyer”] [Venona, New York to Moscow, No. 1251, September 2, 1944]. In the 1930s, White had reportedly been “Kassir” [that is, “Cashier”]. The first two 1940s NKGB code names had been personally known by Anatoly Gorsky during his time as station chief in the United States (September 15, 1944 – December 7, 1945).
33. As recorded in the files in Russian Foreign Ministry’s archive (AVPR), Anatoly Gorsky personally met with Harry Dexter White in his (Gorsky’s) official diplomatic capacity.
34. NKGB intelligence operational code name used by Anatoly Gorsky [“Vadim”] in operational correspondence of 1944 – 1945.
35. Seems identical to Abraham George Silverman [with English “G” being spelled in Russian as “Dzh”]. Was publicly identified by Chambers in 1948 as one of his sources in the 1930s – when he (Silverman) worked at the Railway Retirement Board. Gorsky might have listed Silverman’s occupation as he remembered it during the time of his own 1944 – 1945 operations in the U.S. In fact, from 1942 – 1945, Silverman was chief of planning and statistics division of the AAF [the Army Air Force] – hence, his “aviation” code name, “Eleron” [“Aileron”]. Appeared before the New York grand jury on December 15, 1948. Silverman’s name is also “ticked” (or “checked”) in Alexander Vassiliev’s written notes.
21. “Rubl'” [“Ruble”][36] – Harold Glasser,[37] former chief of the Monetary section of the Treasury Department.
aka “Moris”[38] [preceding two words crossed out].
36. NKGB code name used by Gorsky [“Vadim”] in operational correspondence of 1945. Identified by Venona decryptors as Harold Glasser.
37. Harold Glasser’s work at the Department of Treasury began in November 1936. Prior to that date, he had been at the Department of Agriculture and then headed a research project in Minneapolis. Glasser was forced to resign from the Treasury on the last day of 1947.
38. Anatoly Gorsky first mistakenly identified “Rubl'” as “Moris,” a reported OGPU agent at the Department of Justice since mid-1937 – but then crossed “Moris” out.
“Redhead’s Group”[39]
39. To be historically correct, the so-called Hede Gumpertz/Massing’s group was part of Boris Bazarov – Itshak Akhmerov’s illegal residency, with Hede Massing [“Ryzhaya”/”Redhead”] serving as recruiter and courier. The group’s Soviet controllers included: Boris Bazarov (real name Shpak) [“Nord”], OGPU “illegal” resident in the U.S., 1935 – 1937;
Itskhak Akhmerov [“Jung”], “illegal” operative and later rezident in the U.S., 1934-1939;
Norman Borodin [“Granite”], “illegal” Soviet operative, Bazarov’s assistant;
Helen Lowry [“Ada,” later “Elsa”], Akhmerov’s courier and also Earl Browder’s niece, whom he married.
Subsequently, the number of assets of Bazarov’s and Akhmerov’s rezidentura would reach eight, according to “The Mitrokhin Archive,” and “at least seven” according to KGB Lieutenant-General Vitaly Pavlov. The operatives would be supplemented by Akhmerov’s younger assistant, Samsonov.
1. “Ryzhaya” [“Redhead”] – Hede Gumpertz,[40] Wacek’s wife. In ’38 sent to the U.S. to carry out our assignments.[41] Traitor since ‘48.
2. “Vatsek” [“Wacek”][42] – Paul Massing,[43] research associate [scholar] at Columbia University’s Institute of Social Research. Traitor.
[end of j.b. p. 303]
[start of j.b. p. 304]
3. “Oscar” – Oscar Bernstein, lawyer, was used for organizing covers for our workers [operatives] in the U.S.
4. “Knyaz'” [Prince”][44] – Laurence Duggan (aka “19th”), former official of the State Department. Suicide.
40. Hedwig Gumperz [original German spelling in Moscow Comintern files] arrived in the U.S. under this name [her first husband was Julian Gumperz; according to Comintern Gerbert Eisler file, Eisler had never married her]; she married Paul Massing in 1936.
41. The 1938 dating of the beginning of Hede Massing’s U.S. mission sounds strange in view of information on her activities in the mid-1930s. According to her own account to the FBI, in 1937 she was approached by Elizaveta Zarubina, with whom she travelled to Moscow in late 1937, where Hede Massing stayed for a few months but somehow “managed to escape.” Hede alleged to the FBI that her cooperation with the Soviet intelligence ceased in 1938. However, it is more likely that she and her husband were allowed to return to the United states in exchange for a promise of some cooperation. Hede Massing cooperated with U.S. authorities beginning in late 1946, testified before two New York grand juries in December 1948 and February 1949, and also testified at Alger Hiss’s second trial with extensive coverage in the U.S. press.
42. A cryptonym that appears neither among decrypted Venona cables, nor in The Haunted Wood.
43. Paul Massing, arrived in the USA in or around 1935. According to Hede Massing’s later account to the FBI, in late 1937 Massing travelled with her to Moscow – and escaped with her to the U.S. in 1938.
44. “Knyaz'” [“Prince”] is identified by Venona decryptors as the code name of Laurence Duggan after September 2, 1944 [Venona, New York to Moscow, No. 1251, September 2, 1944] – making this the code name that was used in Gorsky’s time as Washington, D.C. station chief. Prior to September 2, 1944, Duggan’s code name had briefly been “Shervud” [“Sherwood”] [Venona, Ibidem], with “19th” being his first code name. According to “The Mitrokhin Archive,” after “19th” Laurence Duggan was “Frank.”
5. “Yersh” [“Ruff”] – Franz Neumann,[45] former consultant in the Department of Research and Analysis of the OSS. “Vardo”[46] – E. Yu. Zarubina, our former operative. [Residing] in the USSR.
p. 51.
45. Franz Neumann [1900 – 1954], distinguished member of the Frankfurt School of economists [Frankfurt Institute of Social Research] beginning in 1936. His most significant work, Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism 1933-1944, Oxford University Press, 1942, 1944, remains a classic in the field of critical-theoretical analysis of fascism and German National Socialism. In 1941, William J. Donovan recruited Neumann to work for the U.S. Board of Economic Warfare, and in July 1942, he became the chief economist of the Intelligence Division at the Office of the U.S. Chief of Staff. In 1943, Neumann was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he became deputy chief of the Central European Section [Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, MIT Press, 1994, pp. 300-301]. During this period he wrote his Behemoth. In the summer of 1945, Neumann traveled to Nuremberg, to become the first chief of research of the International War Crimes Tribunal. Gorsky probably lists Neumann’s occupation at the time when he was briefly a source for the Soviet foreign intelligence.
46. “Vardo” – code name of Elisaveta Zarubina (who was known in the United States as Zubilina), who worked for Gorsky’s service for 13 years until being discharged in late 1946. At the time of the “Redhead’s Group” operations, however, she was posted in Germany as part of an “illegal” station, together with her husband, Vassily Zarubin. In 1937, “Vardo” travelled with her husband to the United States to renew their forged U.S. passports and carry out other missions, staying for several months. Among other tasks, “Vardo” allegedly tried to straighten out “Redhead,” who at that time was about to defect – and took “Redhead” with her to Moscow on her way home. For this reason, “Vardo”‘s inclusion in this “Redhead’s Group” listing may relate to a later 1942-through-mid-1944 period, during which “Vardo” reportedly visited Hede Massing on her Pennsylvania farm and probably solicited some measure of cooperation. According to Russian sources, “Vardo” ran a minimum of 20 agents during her U.S. posting.
“Buben’s Group”[47]
1. “Buben” [“Tambourine”] – Louis Budenz, former member of the Central Committee of the CPUSA, former editor of the newspaper Daily Worker,[48] presently a professor at Fordham Catholic University.
47. Based on its composition, this is a late 1930s anti-Trotskyite group that would have been compromised after Budenz’s defection in 1945. The group seems far from complete – with the most conspicuous absence being Mark Zborovsky [“Tulip”].
48. Louis Budenz’s occupation at the time he was reportedly recruited to spy on James Cannon, the U.S. Trotskyist leader, was editor of Labor Age. He later became editor of the Daily Worker, the job he held at the time of his 1945 defection. Gorsky definitely cited the job Budenz held during Gorksy’s own American posting as Washington, D.C. station chief.
2. “Bob” – Robert Menaker[49] travel agent [traveling salesman] of a variety of trade firms.
3. “Liberal” – Frank Palmer.[50] Place of employment unknown. Former member of the CPUSA, broke with the Communist Party in ’37. “Buben” was recruited with his assistance.
4. “Chep”[51] – Franklin Zelman [Zel’man],[52] without specific occupation, husband of “Rita.” Was used as a “svyazist.”[53]
5. “Rita” – (aka “Satyr”). Sylvia Caldwell, technical secretary for a Trotskyite group in New York.
6. “Harry”[54] – Rabinovich,[55] our former operative, [resides] in the USSR.
49. OGPU/NKGB asset involved in anti-Trotsyite work and South American work. According to Venona New York to Moscow No. 776, 25 May 45, he was in personal contact with “Vadim” [Anatoly Gorsky/Gromov]. However, in that cable, Venona decryptors identified him as “Czech” [“ChEKh”]. He is again identified as “Chekh” in Venona New York to Moscow No. 1613, November 18, 1944.
50. Unknown name. Cryptonym “Liberal” used in Venona cable traffic as Julius Rosenberg’s code name after September 2, 1944.
51. Cryptonym “Chap” [identical to Russian spelling “Chep”?] was identified by Venona decryptors as Zalmond Franklin (aka Irving Zalmond Franklin).
52. The Russian spelling is identical to Franklin Zelman [“Chap”], referred to in The Haunted Wood as an “NKVD agent in New York, an American technical specialist” who in 1941 wrote a memo on Martha Dodd [THW, p. 63], in March 1942 had a chance meeting with Clarence Hiskey, who told him he was working on a super-powerful “radio-active bomb” – which resulted in Vassily Zaroubin’s sending a rave report to Moscow [THW, p. 179], and further attempts by Zelman to cultivate Hiskey in 1943.
53. Russian noun “svyazist” is an odd usage: Russian intelligence vocabulary uses the word “svyaznik” to describe any courier, contact, and messenger, and “radist” to describe a radio operator. May be a misspelling by Alexander Vassiliev. Hence, it is inappropriate to translate it as “signaler.”
54. Cover name not identified in Venona cable traffic. In the 1930s, this name was used by Dr. Gregory Rabinowitz, a long-time Soviet “illegal” intelligence operative.
55. “Dr. Gregory Rabinowitz” was Gregory Lvovich Rabinovich (1892 – ?), a Soviet medical doctor and healthcare official who served as a Soviet representative at the Red Cross from September 1934 to December 1939, and used that position as a cover for intelligence activity. Rabinovich arrived in New York in or after September 1934, was recalled to Moscow in 1936 or 1937 – to be sent back to New York in or immediately after November 1937. He was finally recalled to Moscow in December 1939. He did not perish in purges as was believed earlier, but, according to his file in an obscure collection of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee’s records, which was discovered in October 2009, continued his career as a health official.
[Rabinovich, Gregory Lvovich Soviet Communist Party “vetting” file, Fund 17, description 97 (“Section of extraterritorial party organizations, cases on the vetting of Communists who returned from overseas trips from 1936 to 1941”), file 1231, RGASPI.]
“Sound” and “Myrna” Groups[56]
56. The list is far from complete – mostly dealing with Golos’s “political line” assets, most of whom Anatoly Gorsky knew personally during his time as Washington, D.C. station chief. Even in this respect, the list is incomplete, marked, for instance, by the absence of “Dora,” who was identified by Venona decryptors as Helen Silvermaster, the wife of and assistant to Nathan Gregory Silvermaster. Gorsky omitted (or was not personally aware of) several groups on the so-called “X line” [scientific-engineering] that had originated during Jacob Golos’s late 1930s – early 1940s operations, and had been partially compromised by Elizabeth Bentley’s defection. There might have been another report/list similar to Gorsky’s, prepared by some of the former U.S. operatives on the “X line.”
*1.[57] “Zvuk” [“Sound”][58] – Jacob Golos (Raisin), our former illegal operative in the U.S. Died in ’43.
*2. “Mirna” [“Myrna”][59] – Elizabeth Bentley, former vice-president of the company United States Service and Shipping Corporation.[60] Traitor since ’45.
3. “Tan”[61] – Harry Magdoff, former official of the Commerce Department [literal translation “Ministry of Trade”].[62]
4. “Ted” – Edward Fitzgerald[63], former official of the Commerce Department.[64]
57. Hereinafter, asterisks indicate “ticks” (or “check marks”) against names in A. Vassiliev’s hand-written text.
58. Cryptonym identified by Venona decryptors as Jacob Golos. Confirmed by Essays on the History of Russian Foreign Intelligence, vol. 3, pp. 180-190 (the chapter, “Yakov Golos,” by Julius Kobyakov).
59. Cryptonym used in Soviet cable traffic after September 2, 1944; previously “Umnitza” [“Clever girl”]; identified by Venona decryptors as Elizabeth Bentley.
60. Gorsky lists Bentley’s occupation after February 1945, when she had been released from her duties as a group handler, and had begun working for “The United States Service and Shipping Corporation” – a Communist Party front firm that, by agreement with the Soviet “Intourist” Bureau, was forwarding private parcels from the U.S. to the USSR.
61. Cryptonym appearing only once in the decrypted Venona traffic (1945 message); not identified by Venona decryptors; Venona decryptors had previously (in 1944) identified “Kant” [Venona New York to Moscow, No. 687, 13 May 1944] as Henry Samuel Magdoff.
62. Gorsky does not list Harry Magdoff’s occupation during World War II (he was at the War Production Board), giving instead only his later job at the Commerce Department, the job he was holding at the time of the HUAC and grand jury hearings, where he was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a member of the Perlo group.
63. Edward Fitzgerald appears in Venona, No. 588, 29 April 1944 under his own name as a member of “a group of ‘zemlyaki‘” [“compatriots,” e.g., CPA members].
64. Gorsky does not list Edward Fitzgerald’s World War II occupation at the War Production Board, giving instead only his later job at the Commerce Department, the job he was holding at the time of the HUAC and grand jury hearings, where he was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a member of the Perlo group.
p. 52.
*5. “Krot” [“Mole”][65] – Charles Kramer, former adviser to Senator Pepper.[66]
65. Charles Kramer was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a source for the Perlo group. He appears in Venona, No. 588, April 29, 1944 under his own name as a member of “a group of ‘zemlyaki’” [“compatriots,” that is, Communist Party members]. Kramer was tentatively identified by Venona decryptors as “Plumb,” in Venona, No. 687, May 13, 1944. The cryptonym “Krot” [“Mole”] appears in the Venona traffic at a later date than “Plumb,” and was not identified by Venona decryptors.
66. During and immediately after World War II, Charles Kramer worked for several U.S. Senate committees, one of the last of which was chaired by Senator Claude Pepper.
*6. “Izra”[67]– Donald Wheeler, former OSS employee.
7. “Sid” – Allan Rosenberg, former official of the Foreign Economic Administration [Literal translation: “International Economics Administration”].
8. “Dan”[68] – Stanley Graze, Dan’s brother, former Department of Defense employee [PRECEDING SEVEN WORDS CROSSED OUT] State Department intelligence officer.
9. “Arena”[69] – Gerald Graze,[70] Dan’s brother, former Department of Defense official.
10. “Boii” [“Combat”][71] – Charles Flato,[72] former employee of the Foreign Economic Administration.[73]
“Eck” *11. “Raid” [“Raider”][74] – Victor Perlo, former official of the War Production Board.
*12. “Robert”[75] – Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, former official of the financial reconstruction (aka PAL) corporation affiliated with the Department of Commerce.[76]
67. Donald Wheeler was also publicly named by Elizabeth Bentley as a source for the Silvermaster group.
68. “Dan” does not appear in Venona as a cryptonym. Stanley Graze was listed on the so-called “Lee list” of State Department security-risk suspects (1947).
69. Cryptonym not identified in Venona cable traffic. Venona New York to Moscow No. 588, April 29, 1944 discusses “Arena” as someone in whose flat “MER” [code name of the Soviet “illegal” resident Akhmerov prior to September 2, 1944] met Victor Perlo.
70. Gerald Graze was also listed on the so-called “Lee list” of State Department security-risk suspects (1947).
71. Charles Flato’s name appears in clear text in Venona (Venona, No. 588, April 29, 1944) as a member of Victor Perlo’s Communist (“zemlaycheskaya”) group. Flato is mentioned under a pseudonym in Venona.
72. According to CP USA files in Moscow, Flato had been a longtime, open Communist Party member: he joined the Party in May 1935, and had the party name C. D. Manchester; he was active in CP USA District One in the news bureau, the revolutionary theatre, and in organizational work on the ERA. Flato was later assigned to the Harvard unit of the CP USA. [RGASPI, 515-1-4003, pp. 31-36.]
73. In World War II, Flato worked for the U.S. Office of Economic Warfare.
74. Cryptonym known to and used by Gorsky during his time as Washington, D.C. station chief. Victor Perlo was publicly named during the course of the 1948 HUAC and grand jury hearings.
75. Cryptonym known to and used by Gorsky during his time as Washington, D.C. station chief. Silvermaster appeared before HUAC in 1948 and testified before the New York grand juries on December 15, 1948.
76. Silvermaster’s place of employment at the time of the 1948 and 1949 HUAC and grand jury hearings. Silvermaster had been a longtime employee of the Department of Agriculture, then joined the Department of Treasury until mid-1942, and after that worked at the Farm Security Administration.
13. “Vim” (aka “Pazh” [“Page”])[77] – Lauchlin Currie, former aide to President Roosevelt.
14. “Pik” [“Pick”] – Frank Coe, former chief of the monetary division of the Treasury Department.[78]
15. “Zholud'” [“Acorn”][79] – Bela Gold, former official of the Commerce Department.[80]
16. “Zhenya”[81] [Russian short of Eugenia] – Sonia Gold, former secretary to the chief of the Monetary Research Administration of the Treasury Department.[82]
17. “Tino”[83] – Irving Kaplan,[84] former employee of the Foreign Economic Administration.
18. “Saks” [“Sax” or “Sachs”][85] – Solomon Adler,[86] former official of the U.S. Treasury Department.
77. “Pazh” [“Page”] used in Venona decrypted cable traffic and identified by Venona decryptors as Lauchlin Currie. “Vim” does not occur in Venona decrypted cable traffic. Currie was publicly named by Bentley as a source for the Silvermaster group during the 1948 HUAC hearings.
78. “Pik” [“Pick”] used in Venona decrypted cable traffic in latter part of 1944 – 1945, and identified by Venona decryptors as “possibly” Coe, Virginius Frank, formerly the director of the Division of Monetary Research in the Department of Treasury; after World War II was an important official of the International Monetary Fund.
79. Code name used by Gorsky during his time as Washington, D.C. rezident; named by Elizabeth Bentley as a source for the Silvermaster group.
80. Bela Gold’s post war employment. Previously he had worked at the Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization and at the Office of Economic Programs in the Foreign Economic Administration.
81. Code name used by Gorsky in his correspondence of 1944 – 1945; identified by Venona decryptors as “possibly” Sonia Steinman Gold.
82. Sonia Gold, née Steinman, employed by the Treasury Department (the Division of Monetary Research), August 24, 1943 to August 21, 1947. Gold, however, worked as an economist, not as a secretary, a rather unusual accomplishment for a woman during that period.
83. Cryptonym not found in any Venona decrypted messages.
84. The name of Irving Kaplan does not occur in Venona decrypted messages. By the time of the compilation of “Gorsky’s Report,” however, he had been publicly identified by Whittaker Chambers as a member of an undercover “Communist Washington apparatus” in the 1930s.
85. Unidentified cryptonym found in Venona decrypted cable traffic.
86. Solomon Adler was publicly named by Elizabeth Bentley as part of Silvermaster’s network; appeared before the New York grand jury on January 20, 1948.
p. 53.
19. “Pilot”[87] – Ludwig Ullmann, former official of the U.S. Department of War.[88]
20. “Bak” [“Buck”)[89] – David Weintraub, former employee of the UNRRA.[90]
87. Cryptonym known to and used by Gorsky during his time as Washington, D.C. station chief; used in Venona decrypted cable traffic after September 2, 1944; had earlier been “Donald.” Identified by Venona decryptors as William Ludwig Ullman. The Haunted Wood (p. 165), on the other hand, lists Ullman’s code name prior to September 2, 1944 as “Polo.”
88. Captain William Ludwig Ullman of the U.S. Army Air Force.
89. “Buk” [“Buck”] does not occur in Venona decrypted cable traffic.
90. The report lists David Weintraub’s employment as of the time he was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a source for the Silvermaster group. Before that, and beginning in 1943, David Weintraub had been deputy director of a division of the new United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration [UNRRA].
21. “Iks” [“X”][91] – Joseph Katz, our old agent/group leader [gruppovik] (aka “Stukach” [“Informer”]) co-owner of a glove factory, a front that we set up.[92] Is currently in Italy, where on our assignment is organizing a firm to serve as a cover [front] for underground messenger communication between Europe and the USA.
91. Cryptonym known to and used by Gorsky during his time as Washington, D.C. station chief; appears in Venona decrypted cable traffic after September 2, 1944; his previous cryptonyms had been “Duglas” [“Douglas”] and “Stukach” [“Informer”]; this latter code name also appears in Venona deciphered cable traffic.
92. Joseph Katz was a long-time Soviet liaison man and later a group leader who operated from the 1930s to the late 1940s. Was named by Elizabeth Bentley.
Venona New York to Moscow, No. 618, May 4, 1944 signed by “Maj” [then New York resident Stepan Apresyan] discusses Joseph Katz’s business dealings in establishing the “TEMPUS Import Company,” a firm formed in New York City in 1944 to import leather goods from South America. From 1939 to 1943/1944, the cover for Katz’s activities was provided by “MERIDEN Dental Laboratories,” a business Katz owned with his “working partner,” Joseph Wolfson. The latter “had very personal relations” with Katz and was supposed to loan him $5,000 for setting up a new business.
[j.b. p. 304 ends here]
[start of j.b. p. 305]
22. “Adam”[93] – Eve Getzov [Hetzov],[94] employee of the “Jewish Welfare Board.”
23. “Zayats” [“Hare”][95] – Maurice Halperin, former official of the Office of Strategic Services [96] (OSS).
*24. “Kokh”[97] – Duncan Lee, former OSS official.[98]
93. Code name occurring in Venona decrypted 1945 cable traffic and not identified by Venona decryptors. Venona Moscow to London, No. 34, September 21, 1945 discusses “Adam” as a possible Soviet male case officer in connection with “Khiks” [“Hicks,” probably Guy Burgess].
94. In 1939 and 1940, Eva Getsov reportedly served as a courier between Jacob Golos and the Soviet New York station chief, Gaik Ovakimyan.
95. Cryptonym appearing in Venona decrypted 1943 – 1945 cable traffic; identified by Venona decryptors as Maurice Halperin. Halperin was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a source for Jacob Golos since the 1930s.
96. Maurice Halperin became chief of the Latin American Section of the Research and Analysis Branch of the O.S.S. in 1943.
97. Code name appearing in Venona decrypted cable traffic in 1944 – 1945; identified by Venona decryptors as Duncan C. Lee, who was the personal assistant to OSS Director William J. Donovan. Lee appeared before HUAC’s August 1948 hearings.
98. Far Eastern Section of OSS (1943).
25. “Muza” [“Muse”][99] – Helen Tenney, former OSS employee.
26. “Flora” – Ruth Rivkin, former UNRRA employee.[100]
27. “Mon”[101] – Bernard Redmont, former employee of the Rockefeller Committee.[102]
28. “Mirazh” [“Mirage”][103] – Robert Miller, formerly State Department employee.[104]
29. “Dir”[105] – Mary Price,[106] former secretary of American journalist Lippmann.
30. “Gor”[107] – Joseph Gregg,[108] former employee of the Rockefeller Committee.
31. “Fedya” [“Teddy”][109] – William Remington,[110] former employee of the War Production Board.
32. “Ostorozhnyi” [“Cautious”/”Careful”][111] – Julius Joseph, former OSS employee.[112]
33. “Ekho” [“Echo”][113] – S. Schuster, staff member of the Central Committee of the CPUSA.
34. “Irma”[114] – Ray Elson,[115] former vice-president of the “United States Service and Shipping Corporation.”
p. 54.
35. “Grin”[116] – John Spivak, journalist, prior to ’41 [worked on] the Trotskyite [line].[117]
99. Cryptonym occurring in Venona decrypted cable traffic. Named by Elizabeth Bentley in early November 1945.
100. Ruth Rivkin was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a minor source for Golos’s network.
101. Cryptonym occurring in Venona decrypted cable traffic; not identified by Venona decryptors. Elizabeth Bentley named Redmond as a minor source for Golos’s network.
102. Journalist and official at the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, headed by Nelson A. Rockefeller.
103. Cryptonym occurring in Venona decrypted cable traffic; not identified by Venona decryptors.
104. Robert Talbot Miller was named by Elizabeth Bentley as a source at the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, where he worked from September 1941 – June 1944. In Gorsky’s own time as Washington, D.C. rezident, Miller worked at the Department of State (June 1944 – December 1946).
105. Cryptonym used in Soviet 1944 – 1945 cable traffic; identified by Venona decryptors as “possibly” Mary Wolfe Price.
106. Price appeared before the New York grand jury on December 3, 1947.
107. Cryptonym “Gor”/”Hor” occurs in Venona decrypted cable traffic; not identified by Venona decryptors.
108. Elizabeth Bentley named Joseph Gregg as a source at the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.
109. Cryptonym “Phedya” [in English, “Teddy”] does not occur in Venona decrypted cable traffic.
110. William Walter Remington testified at HUAC’s August 1948 hearings; was tried for perjury, convicted, and later murdered in prison.
111. Cryptonym occurring in Venona deciphered cable traffic.
112. Julius J. Joseph appeared before the New York grand jury on November 25, 1947. During World War II, he worked at the Office of Emergency Management (1942) and the Labor War Manpower Commission (1943), and for the Far Eastern section (Japanese intelligence) of the OSS (1943 – 1945).
113. Code name used in Soviet cable traffic in 1944; identified by Venona decryptors as “possibly” Bernard Schuster [who had the Communist Party cover name, “Chester”]. Also appears as “Dik” [“Dick”] in Venona New York to Moscow, No. 1715, 5 December 1944.
114. Cryptonym does not occur in Venona decrypted cable traffic.
115. Elizabeth Bentley named Ray Elson as a longtime courier for Jacob Golos and her replacement at the United States Service and Shipping Corporation.
116. “Grin” sounds like a cryptonym of Russian origin, probably in reference to the popular Russian writer of the 1920s, Alexander Grin. The translation “green” is inappropriate, since Venona cryptonyms of this type are given in their Russian spelling. To be translated as “green,” the Russian original should have been “Zeleonyi,” Russian for “green.” The cryptonym occurs in Venona deciphered cable traffic; not identified by Venona decryptors. Venona New York to Moscow, No. 601 discusses an unidentified “Grin” appealing to “Kallistrat” [Alexander Feklissov] in connection with a request for financial assistance from Joe North, editor of New Masses.
117. That is, anti-Trotskyite.
35.[118] “Vadim” – A. V. Gorsky,[119] former rezident of the MGB[120] USSR in Washington, [resides] in the USSR.
36. “Lucya” [“Lucy”][121] – Pravdina, former AMTORG employee, wife of “Sergei,” the rezident in New York. [Resides] in the USSR.
37. “Sergei” – V. Pravdin,[122] former rezident of the MGB USSR in New York. [Resides] in the USSR.
38. “Shtok”[123] – our cadre officer [operative] M. Shalyapin. [Resides] in the USSR.
39. “Gennadii” [“Gennady”][124] – G. B. Ovakimian, former rezident of the MGB USSR in New York. [Resides] in the USSR.
40. “Al’bert” [“Albert”][125] – A. I. Akhmerov, former illegal rezident of the MGB USSR in New York. [Resides] in the USSR.
118. Repeated number.
119. In 1944 and 1945, the NKGB resident in Washington, D.C,. under the alias of Anatoly Borisovich Gromov; operated under the cover of First Secretary at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. At the time of writing his report, he was head of the 1st department of MGB intelligence of the Committee of Information (KI).
120. Gorsky gives here the name the agency took in 1946. During Gorsky’s time in the United States (and during the postings of the operatives listed below), the agency was the NKGB.
121. Cryptonym occurring in decrypted Venona cable traffic – a short form of the Russian name, Ludmila; Olga Borisovna Pravdina, a former employee of AMTORG Trading Corporation; a contact for Elizabeth Bentley, whom the latter knew as “Margaret.”
122. Vladimir Sergeevich Pravdin, alias of Rollan Abbiate, aka Rossi [Born in St. Petersburg of French descent]; NKGB intelligence operative, deputy rezident and rezident in New York, October 19, 1941 – Autumn 1943, and January 1944 – March 11, 1946, under the cover of TASS bureau chief. Recalled following Bentley’s betrayal, since she knew his wife. Discharged in 1947.
123. Cryptonym appearing in Venona decrypted cable traffic; identified by Venona decryptors as Mikhail A. Shalyapin, NKGB New York station operative. Left the U.S. in May 1945.
124. Cryptonym appearing in Venona decrypted cable traffic; identified by Venona decryptors as Lieutenant General Ovakimyan; formerly operative and New York rezident in the United States (1933 – early 1941, until his arrest on May 5, 1941).
125. “Mer” [“Mayor”] prior to September 2, 1944; both code names identified by Venona decryptors as Itskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov, who operated in the United States on two missions, 1933 – 1939 [with the code name “Jung”] and 1942 – 45 [with the code names “Mer”/”Mayor” and “Albert”], serving as an “illegal” operative (1933 – 1937) and an “illegal” station chief (in 1938-39 and again from 1942 – 1945).
41. “El’za” [“Elsa”] – Akhmerova, Albert’s wife, American, Soviet citizen.[126] [Resides] in the USSR.
42. “Gruzd'” [“Milk mushroom”][127] – Willard Parp, former employee of the Rockefeller Commission.
43. “Charlie”[128] – Cedric Belfrage,[129] former officer of the English intelligence rezidentura in New York. Presently a journalist.
126. Helen Lowry, Earl Browder’s niece, whom Akhmerov married in 1939. From 1936 – 1939, she worked with Akhmerov under the code name “Ada” [Essays on the History of Russian Foreign Intelligence, vol. 3.] Was named by Elizabeth Bentley as one of her contacts.
127. According to John Earl Haynes’ most detailed Venona index, the cryptonym “Mushroom” does not occur in Venona traffic; I cannot be as sure, however, for Russian “Gruzd'” of “Gorsky’s Report.”
128. Unidentified cryptonym that appeared in Venona deciphered cable traffic.
129. Belfrage was named by Elizabeth Bentley as Jacob Golos’s source at the wartime British Security Coordination Office in Washington, D.C.
The “Berg” – “Art” Group
1. “Berg”[130] – Alexander Koral, former engineer of the municipality of New York.
2. “Art”[131] – Helen Koral, Berg’s wife, housewife.
3. “Syn” [“Son”][132] – Richard Koral, son, student.
4. “Dlinnyi” [“Long”] – Norman Hight [Haite?],[133] engineer for the firm “Sperry Gyroscope Company,” in New Jersey.
130. Cryptonym appearing in 1944 – 1945 decrypted Venona cable traffic; identified by Venona decryptors as Alexander Koral, a Communist Party USA activist. Previously “Don” [most probably, from the Spanish “Sen’or”], Alexander Koral used to be a longtime agent of the Soviet “illegal,” Itskhak Akhmerov. Alexander and Helen Koral were mostly used as liaison agents from, 1933 or 1934 to 1939, and again in 1942-1945. The Korals cooperated with the FBI beginning in 1948.
131. Cryptonym used in Venona deciphered cable traffic in 1945; identified by Venona decryptors as Helen Koral. Previously “Carmen.”
132. Cryptonym occuring in Venona deciphered cable traffic in 1944 (Venona, No. 1043, July 25, 1944), in connection with receipt of letter no. 4; not identified by Venona translators. According to available information, Richard Koral had not been an agent of the Soviet intelligence, since his cultivation had taken place immediately prior to Elizabeth Bentley’s defection on November 8, 1945; hence, his recruitment was not completed and there was no further contact with him. At the time of his cultivation, he was assigned a code name “Ptenets” [“Nestler” or “Nestling”]. The name on Gorsky’s List appears to be garbled.
133. Cryptonym not occurring in Venona decrypted cable traffic; unknown name.
p. 55.
5. “Smart”[134] – Elliot Goldberg, engineer for an oil-equipment company in New York.
6. “Guron” [“Huron”][135] – Byron T. Darling, engineer for the Rubber Company.[136]
7. “Uchitel’nitsa” [“Teacher”, female][137] – Melamed, teacher in a music school in New York.
8. “Kora” [“Cora”][138] – Emma Phillips, housewife.
134. Unidentified code name occurring in Venona decrypted cable traffic.
135. Unidentified scientific source in decrypted Venona cable traffic.
136. Gorsky lists Darling’s occupation at the time of his (that is, Gorsky’s) operations in the United States, as station chief in Washington, D.C. According to data compiled by John Earl Haynes, Darling was a research physicist at the U.S. Rubber Corporation, in Detroit, from 1941- 1946.
137. According to John Earl Haynes, an unknown code name and name.
138. Cryptonym occurring in decrypted Venona cable traffic; identified by Venona decryptors but, according to John Earl Haynes, redacted at the time of release.
9. “Lock” – Sylvia Koral,[139] former secretary of the secret-code division, Office of War Information.
10. “Chizh” [“Siskin”] – Eduardo Pekino, businessman in Caracas, Venezuela.
11. “Gonetz” [“Herald” or “Messenger”] – Richard Setaro, journalist/writer, former employee of the “Columbia Broadcasting Systems,” presently in Buenos Aires.
12. “Artem” – A. Slavyakin, our cadre officer [operative]. [Resides] in the USSR.
13. “Tven” [“Twain”] – S. M. Semenov [Semyonov][140], rezident, technical intelligence for the KI in Paris, presently on leave in Moscow.
14. “Aleksey” – A. A. Yatskov,[141] our cadre officer [operative]. [resides] in the USSR.
15. “Juliya” [“Julia”][142] – O. V. Shimmel,[143] our cadre officer [operative]. [resides] in the USSR.
16. “Shah” – K. A. Chugunov, our cadre officer [operative], [resides] in the USSR.
A. Gorsky (Dec. 48)[144]
[end of j.b. p. 305]
139. Unknown code name and name.
140. Semen Markovich Semenov, Soviet longtime operative in the United States (1938 – 1944), on the scientific and industrial line. Operated under the cover of an AMTORG engineer. Ran quite a number of agents who had been recruited or talent-spotted by Jacob Golos, including Julius Rosenberg, in an electrical and radio engineering network (early 1942 – mid-1944).
141. Anatoly Antonovich Yatskov, Soviet operative in the United States on scientific, industrial and atomic lines (1941 – 1946). Operated under the name of Yakovlev and under the diplomatic cover of the Soviet New York Consulate General.
142. Cryptonym used in decrypted Venona cable traffic in 1943 – 1945; identified by Venona decryptors as Olga Valentinovna Khlopkova.
143. Most probably the real name of Olga Khlopkova.
144. An probable mistake in the dating [read: 1949], either Alexander Vassiliev’s or Gorsky’s. The portions of File 43173, Vol. 1 that I managed to reconstruct with The Haunted Wood quotes and Alexander Vassiliev’s now-available notes of some portions of this file, clearly show the strictly ascending chronological order of the documents on file. Hence, Gorsky’s December 23, 1949 covering report to Gen. Savchenko would have had no chance whatsoever of being filed ahead of his “Failures in the USA (1938-48)” list, had that list in fact been written in 1948.