Related Research Articles
Theodore Alvin Hall was an American physicist and an atomic spy for the Soviet Union, who, during his work on United States efforts to develop the first and second atomic bombs during World War II, gave a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, and of several processes for purifying plutonium, to Soviet intelligence. His brother, Edward N. Hall, was a rocket scientist who led the U.S. Air Force's program to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, personally designing the Minuteman missile and convincing the Pentagon and President Eisenhower to adopt it as a key part of the nation's strategic nuclear triad.
The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, until October 1, 1980. It was intended to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union. Initiated when the Soviet Union was an ally of the US, the program continued during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was considered an enemy.
Boris Yakovlevich Podolsky was a Russian-American physicist of Jewish descent, noted for his work with Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen on entangled wave functions and the EPR paradox.
Cedric Henning Belfrage was an English film critic, journalist, writer and political activist. He is best remembered as a co-founder of the radical US weekly National Guardian. Later Belfrage was referenced as a Soviet agent in the US intelligence Venona project, although it appears he had been working for British Security Co-ordination as a double agent.
Harry Dexter White was a senior U.S. Treasury department official. Working closely with the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr., he helped set American financial policy toward the Allies of World War II. He was later accused of espionage by passing information to the Soviet Union.
Judith Coplon Socolov was a spy for the Soviet Union whose trials, convictions, and successful constitutional appeals had a profound influence on espionage prosecutions during the Cold War.
Isaac "Pop" Folkoff also known as "Volkov," "Folconoff," and "Uncle", was a senior founding member of the California Communist Party and West Coast liaison between Soviet intelligence and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
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.
Maurice Hyman Halperin (1906–1995) was an American writer, professor, diplomat, and accused Soviet spy.
Flora Don Wovschin was a suspected Soviet spy who later renounced her American citizenship.
Maria Wicher was married to Professor Enos Wicher and was the mother of Flora Wovschin. The family were all spies for the Soviet Union during the 1940s. Maria had previously been married to Dr. William A. Wovschin, Flora's father. Her code name in Soviet intelligence and in the Venona project is "Dasha".
Marion Davis Berdecio, born Marion Davis, was a recruit of the Soviet intelligence in the United States.
Alfred Epaminondas Sarant, also known as Filipp Georgievich Staros and Philip Georgievich Staros, was an engineer and a member of the Communist party in New York City in 1944. He was part of the Rosenberg spy ring that reported to Soviet intelligence. Sarant worked on secret military radar at the United States Army Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Alexandre Feklisov, one of the KGB case officers who handled the Rosenberg spy apparatus described Sarant and Joel Barr as among the most productive members of the group. Sarant was recruited as a Soviet espionage agent by Barr.
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.
Ruth Beverly Wilson (1906–1996) was an American nurse married to alleged spy Jacob Epstein. Epstein had been wounded in the Spanish Civil War after he volunteered for the International Brigades. Ruth, who was a nurse, met him while he was recuperating from his injuries. They were allegedly Soviet intelligence agents, who were stationed in Mexico City during World War II. They were allegedly involved in the efforts to break Leon Trotsky's killer, Ramón Mercader, out of a Mexican prison. Wilson's code name in Soviet intelligence and deciphered in the Venona transcripts is "Nona".
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.
Sergey Nikolaevich Kurnakov or Sergei N. Kournakoff was a former tsarist cavalry officer who had immigrated to the U.S. and later became an ardent ideological Communist.
John Lowenthal (1925-2003) was a 20th-century American lawyer, civil servant, law professor, and documentary filmmaker, who defended the name and reputation of family friend Alger Hiss almost all his life.
References
- 1 2 Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, p.198
- ↑ "A gathering of fugitives: American political expatriates in Mexico, 1948-1965", by Diana Anhalt, 2001 ISBN 1-931122-03-2
- ↑ "Physics Department History" https://physics.hmc.edu/history/
   | This article about an American physicist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This biographical article related to espionage is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |