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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.
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American NKVD spymaster, who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles within both the United States Federal Government and the Office of Strategic Services from 1938 to 1945. After being rendered bereft by the 1943 death of her lover, NKVD New York City station chief Jacob Golos, a heartbroken Bentley defected by contacting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and debriefing about her own espionage activities.
Edward Joseph Fitzgerald was an American who worked for the War Production Board during World War II and was an adviser to Senator Claude Pepper. He was alleged to have been a member of the Perlo group of Soviet spies. Fitzgerald's name in Venona project decrypt 588 New York to Moscow, 29 April 1944, was sent in the clear to Moscow by Soviet Case Officer Iskhak Akhmerov reporting on Elizabeth Bentley's meeting with Perlo group.
Lt. Col. Duncan Chaplin Lee (1913–1988) was a confidential senior assistant to Maj. Gen. William Donovan, founder and director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), World War II-era predecessor of the CIA, between 1942 and 1946. Lee has posthumously been identified by the Venona project as the NKVD mole inside the OSS with the code name "Koch," making Lee the most senior alleged spy the Soviet Union ever recruited inside the U.S. intelligence community.
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.
Mary Wolfe Price (1909–1980) was an American who was accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union.
Headed by Victor Perlo, the Perlo group is the name given to a group of Americans who provided information which was given to Soviet intelligence agencies; it was active during the World War II period, until the entire group was exposed to the FBI by the defection of Elizabeth Bentley.
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.
Harry Magdoff was accused by a number of authors as having been complicit in Soviet espionage activity during his time in US government. He was accused of passing information to Soviet intelligence networks in the United States, primarily through what the FBI called the "Perlo Group." Magdoff was never indicted, but after the end of the Cold War, a number of scholars have inspected declassified documents from U.S. and Soviet archives. They cite these documents to support the claim that Magdoff was involved in espionage. Other authors have taken issue with some of the broader interpretations of such materials which implicate many Americans in espionage for the Soviet Union, and the allegation that Harry Magdoff was an information source for the Soviets is disputed by several academics and historians asserting that Magdoff probably had no malicious intentions and committed no crimes.
Gertrude Kahn, also known as Mrs. Ray Kahn, was an American who allegedly had a covert relationship with Soviet intelligence during World War II. In a Venona transcript from Moscow, the Moscow Center suggested that Mrs. Kahn had been used for foreign intelligence work. The New York Rezidentura responded that it may not be wise, and that she was best suited for a "passive" role. Kahn's code name in Soviet intelligence and in the Venona decrypts is "Dinah."
Helen Koral was the wife of Alexander Koral. Both were Americans who, allegedly, worked for Soviet intelligence during World War II. The Koral's headed the "Art" or "Berg" group of Soviet spies. The Berg group acted as couriers for various Soviet contacts, including the Silvermaster ring. Helen Koral received a regular stipend of $100 per month from the KGB and work closely with Helen Lowry, the wife of Iskhak Akhmerov, the KGB Illegal Rezident during World War II. Her code name in the Soviet intelligence according to materials from the Venona project was "Miranda", and later changed to "Art".
Alexander Koral was an American member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) who headed a network of spies for Soviet intelligence during World War II called the "Art" or "Berg" group. Koral's wife, Helen Koral, also was involved with the group.
Anatoly Veniaminovich Gorsky, was a Soviet spy who, under cover as First Secretary "Anatoly Borisovich Gromov" of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, was secretly rezident in the United States at the end of World War II.
Robert Owen Menaker was an American exporter who allegedly worked for Soviet intelligence during World War II.
Sylvia Callen Franklin, also known as Sylvia Lorraine Callen, and Sylvia Caldwell, was a young Chicago communist, recruited by Louis Budenz into the Communist Party USA's secret apparatus c. 1937.
Nicholas W. Orloff (1890s-1961) was a Russian immigrant to the United States and an agent of the New York KGB during World War II. According to historian John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr's analysis of the Venona Cables, Orloff received a regular stipend from the KGB for his services, reporting information on immigrant groups to Soviet intelligence and acting as a talent-spotter for new sources. He also appeared on the August 17, 1958 episode of What's My Line?, where he is credited as a "United Nations Interpreter."
Michael S. Leshing was an American citizen and the Superintendent of Twentieth Century Fox film laboratories in the 1940s. He was awarded an Oscar in 1945 for Technical Achievement for his work in color film processing.
References
- ↑ Essays on the History of Russian Foreign Intelligence, vol. 3.
- ↑ Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 99 (Bentley), 99–100 (Price), 118 (Perlo, Bentley, Golos), 121 (Perlo, Bentley), 122 (Silvermaster), 130 (wife, Silvermaster), 134–135 (Silvermaster), 146 (Silvermaster), 153–156 (Straight), 154–155 (bio), 155 (wife as partner), 203 (Duggan), 221 (Zubilin), 226 (Silvermaster), 391 (major Soviet source). ISBN 0300077718 . Retrieved 23 January 2017.
