| Former Consulate of Russia in San Francisco | |
|---|---|
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| Location | San Francisco |
| Coordinates | 37°47′42″N122°26′42″W / 37.7951°N 122.4450°W |
The Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco was a diplomatic mission in the 2790 Green Street building in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. It was operated by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [1] The building of the former consulate remains government property of Russia. [2] [3]
The first Russian consul in San Francisco was Peter Kostromitinov. He was an agent of the Russian-American Company and the manager at Fort Ross. He took his post in 1852. The first consulate of the Soviet Union in San Francisco opened in 1933. On the outbreak of war in Europe, the consulate quietly funded isolationist groups committed to keeping America out the war, and attempting to block aid to Britain. These included the American Peace Committee, an activist group organized by the Communist Party, USA(CPUSA). After US entry into World War II U.S.-Soviet Alliance Jacob M. Lomakin was Consul General (1942-1944). He was active in the Lend-Lease program to aid Britain, and at meetings for raising funds to aid the Red Army. [4] These last meetings were funded by a coalition anti-fascist organizations, among them the non-partisan International Committee of the Red Cross, and the CPUSA-led American-Russian Institute and Russian War Relief. Together with a scattering of progressive cultural figures, military, and governmental officials of the United States, Lomakin advocated the opening of the Second Front, to relieve military pressure on the Soviet Union. [5] [6] [7] The building at 2563 Divisadero Street held the consulate until 1948, when with the onset of the Cold War the Government of the USSR closed its consulates in New York and San Francisco, meaning the reciprocal closing of the US consulates in Leningrad and Vladivostok. [8] [9] Consular relations between the USSR and the US were restored only after 24 years in 1972 and the Consulate of the USSR was at 24 California Street and the James Flood Building. On June 23, 1973, it moved into its current location. [10]
In 2011 the consulate bought new headstones, for a total of $20,000, for Russian sailors who died fighting a fire in San Francisco in 1863. The graves were installed on Mare Island in Vallejo, California. The city government protested the plan, saying that it goes against historical preservation. [11]
In December 2016, four Russian diplomats posted to the consulate, including a chef were declared persona non grata due to alleged espionage, in retaliation for Russian interference in the United States presidential election. [12] [13]
On 31 August 2017, the State Department ordered the post closed by September 2, 2017. [14] [15] Before the consulate was closed, smoke was seen billowing out of the building, suggesting sensitive materials were being destroyed. [16] [17] [18]
Members of the United States intelligence community, including Kathleen Puckett, considered the Russian consulate a major hub of Russian espionage operations, tasked with gaining information about developments from Silicon Valley. [18] In 1984, a United States government report indicated that there may have been approximately 50 Soviet spies operating out of the San Francisco Consulate, primarily targeting Silicon Valley. [19]
In 1987, Ivan N. Miroshkin of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported that the consulate had been bugged. [18] [20]
Russian diplomats based out of the consulate were reportedly mapping where underground nodes connected to the national fiber-optic communication network. [18] [21]
A network of antennas and other electronic communication equipment is located on the roof of the consulate building and is allegedly used to transmit information to submarines or trawlers located off the Pacific coast in international waters. [18]
A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which are referred to by this name. The First Red Scare, which occurred immediately after World War I, revolved around a perceived threat from the American labor movement, anarchist revolution, and political radicalism. The Second Red Scare, which occurred immediately after World War II, was preoccupied with the perception that national or foreign communists were infiltrating or subverting American society and the federal government. Following the end of the Cold War, unearthed documents revealed substantial Soviet spy activity in the United States. The name refers to the red flag as a common symbol of communism.
Earl Russell Browder was an American politician, spy for the Soviet Union, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.
Jacob Golos was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary who became an intelligence operative in the United States on behalf of the USSR. A founding member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), circa 1930 Golos became involved in the covert work of Soviet intelligence agencies. He participated in procuring American passports by means of fraudulent documentation, and the recruitment and coordination of activities of a broad network of agents.
As early as the 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its GRU, OGPU, NKVD, and KGB intelligence agencies, used Russian and foreign-born nationals, as well as Communists of American origin, to perform espionage activities in the United States, forming various spy rings. Particularly during the 1940s, some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to Moscow, such as information on the development of the atomic bomb. Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and disinformation operations, known as active measures, and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies.
Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov (1901–1976) was a highly decorated OGPU/NKVD (KGB) Soviet security officer, best known to historians for his role in KGB operations in the United States 1942–1945. His name appears in the Venona decryptions over fifty times, often as signatory, and on his return to the Soviet Union in 1945/46, he rose to deputy chief of the KGB's 'illegal' intelligence section.
Elza Akhmerova, also Elsa Akhmerova was an American citizen, born Helen Lowry. She is a niece of Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). She died of leukemia.
Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was a Russian diplomat. As a child actor, he starred in three films The Blue Notebook, Nol tri, and A Mother's Heart. Churkin served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 until his death in 2017.
Amtorg Trading Corporation, also known as Amtorg, was the first trade representation of the Soviet Union in the United States, established in New York in 1924 by merging Armand Hammer's Allied American Corporation (Alamerico) with Products Exchange Corporation (Prodexco) and Arcos-America Inc..
Czech Republic–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation. Relations have substantially deteriorated in recent years due to events such as the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russian sabotage of Czech ammunition depot in Vrbětice in 2014, poisoning of Sergei Skripal in 2018 and Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Latvia–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between Latvia and Russia. Latvia has an embassy in Moscow. Russia has an embassy in Riga.
The Embassy of the United States of America in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Russian Federation. The current embassy compound is in the Presnensky District of Moscow, across the street from the White House and near the Moscow Zoo.
The Committee for State Security was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 13 March 1954 until 3 December 1991. As a direct successor of preceding agencies such as the Cheka, GPU, OGPU, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, it was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR, where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions.
The Embassy of the United States of America in Tehran was the American diplomatic mission in the Imperial State of Iran. Direct bilateral diplomatic relations between the two governments were severed following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and the subsequent seizure of the embassy in November 1979.
The Consulate-General of Russia in New York City is the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation in New York City. Opened in 1994, the consulate is located at 9 East 91st Street in the former John Henry Hammond House in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A consulate of the former Soviet Union had previously existed on East 61st Street from 1933 until 1948.
The Diplomatic Service of the Republic of Lithuania is the part of the governmental service tasked with enforcing the foreign policy set by the President, the Parliament, and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The head of the service is the Foreign Minister.
The Kasenkina Case (Russian: "Дело Касенкиной") was a 1948 Cold War political scandal associated with the name of Oksana Kasenkina, a teacher of chemistry at the Soviet school in New York. Kasenkina disappeared and was believed by the American public to have been abducted by Soviet officials after wishing to seek asylum in the United States. The events were sensationalized by the media and became part of the Red Scare. In reality, the most likely explanation of events is that Kasenkina suffered from mental instability and expressed a genuine wish to return to the Soviet Union. The full scope of events only became clear 50 years later when the top-secret documents from the State Department and FBI were declassified and released to the public.
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The Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Houston was a diplomatic mission of China, headquartered at 3417 Montrose Boulevard in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas. It served eight states in the Southern United States: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, in addition to Puerto Rico. An earlier diplomatic mission had been established by the Republic of China government and was in existence by 1935.
The State Department didn't immediately identify the diplomats being expelled or say how many were working in San Francisco. All 35, department officials said, "were acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status," which is political-speak for spying.
Petrov confirmed that four of the 35 diplomats asked to leave the country work at the San Francisco consulate. Family members of those employees are also leaving [...] Petrov says the consulate's chef is included in the expulsion.
Acrid, black smoke has been seen pouring from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco a day after the Trump administration ordered its closure on 2-day notice due to espionage and amid escalating tensions between the United States and Russia. The building was seized by the FBI and the consulate closed but residents in the building were allowed to stay until October 1, 2017. The building has a large number of apartments occupied by Russian employees. The Russian flag is still flying on top of the building as of September 24th. 2017.
In recent years there have been frequent reports that 50 or more spies report to the San Francisco consulate general. Experts on electronic warfare say the consulate is the collection base for extensive electronic surveillance gear operated by spies at work in California, especially in the high-technology Silicon Valley south of San Francisco.
Another official, Ivan N. Miroshkin of the Foreign Ministry's Security Service, said some of the bugging devices had been found at the new Soviet compound in Washington in the last few days, and others had been collected earlier at the consulate in San Francisco, in apartments of Soviet employees of the United Nations, in the trade mission in Washington, and in a country house outside Washington. [...] He said security officers had discovered a tunnel with listening devices under the San Francisco consulate.
The diplomats, widely assumed to be intelligence operatives, would eventually turn up in odd places, often in middle-of-nowhere USA. One was found on a beach, nowhere near where he was supposed to be. In one particularly bizarre case, relayed by a U.S. intelligence official, another turned up wandering around in the middle of the desert. Interestingly, both seemed to be lingering where underground fiber-optic cables tend to run.
Embassies as in main entries, while consulate generals as sub-entries. | |
| Africa | |
| Americas | |
| Asia | |
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| Oceania | |
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| Former | |
1 No diplomatic relations with Taiwan, functions as an informal diplomatic mission | |
