The Atomic Volunteers
In the late 1980's, as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness), the Soviet Government authorized public disclosure of an unknown spy ring that operated in America in the 1940's. The organizing principle behind this network was the Spanish Civil War and the 'prime mover' was Morris Cohen, an American Communist Party operative who went to Spain to fight Franco and fascism. Americans who fought in Spain were known, then and now, as Volunteers. Four months after arriving in Spain, Cohen was seriously wounded in battle at Fuentes de Ebro. During recuperation in Barcelona, he was recruited by the KGB and sent to a spy school where he was assigned the covername LUIS. After returning home, Cohen was activated and given a cover job at AMTORG, the Soviet Purchasing Commission in New York. When Hitler attacked Russia in June 1941 (Barbarossa), American Communists were charged with a new imperative, the survival of the cradle of the Communist Revolution, Mother Russia. After America joined the war, helping ally Russia was the espionage recruiting pitch of choice for the KGB in America, as well as CPUSA operatives such as Cohen, Julius Rosenberg, Steve Nelson, et al. Such was the basis/animus for American Communists to spy for the Soviet Union—it was fully akin to volunteering for the Spanish Civil War. [1]
In Fall 1941 Soviet intelligence obtained a copy of the British Maud Report. This seminal study established the theoretical principles and feasibility of an atomic bomb. Additional reports arrived in Moscow to the effect that not only was Germany engaged in atomic research, but Britain and the United States were exchanging information and coordinating efforts on an atomic project. As a consequence, Moscow Center sent an urgent directive to its American stations to obtain atomic intelligence. To advance and coordinate the new priority, Moscow detailed Vassilli Zarubin, a Deputy Head of Foreign Intelligence (General rank), to the U.S. with portfolio as head of both the Legal (INO) and Illegal residencies. One of Zarubin’s intelligence officers in America was Semyon Semyonov, a degreed engineer perfectly placed and qualified to work the atomic assignment. Semyonov was an asset of the illegal station operating out of AMTORG and served as Morris Cohen's control officer. By mid-1942, under Semyonov’s supervision, Cohen had become the principal recruiter and contact agent in a budding intelligence network. An early decision by Zarubin was to bring Semyonov and the Cohen group under the cognizance of the legal rezidentura at the Soviet Consulate in New York. This action created a new, compartmented intelligence line. In this line, Cohen held the covername VOLUNTEER, and his network followed suit. [2]
KGB Dossier No. 13676
The person chosen to publicize the story of the Volunteer Group was Colonel Vladimir Chikov, an officer in the newly established KGB Press Bureau. He began the assignment in the Fall of 1989, two years prior to the fall of the Soviet Union. Chikov’s source material for the project was “DELO DACHNIKI, Dossier No. 13676” (Case of the Cottagers, File No. 13676). Numbering over 6000 pages in 17 cartons, the file was stored at Yasenevo, the home of the KGB’s First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) outside Moscow. Chikov described the file as “a long-forbidden atomic-bomb file,” classified "Absolutely Secret". In fact, it was the complete case file, begun in 1938, on Morris and Leontina Cohen, also known as Peter and Helen Kroger (“The Cottagers”). The Cohens/Krogers were KGB illegals and were controlled by Directorate S of the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence). In 1991, after almost 3 years of research in the Cohen file, as well as the separate Enormous (Atomic) file, Chikov authored a number of articles appearing in the Russian press. These condensed accounts featured Morris Cohen’s two most important recruits: his wife Lona Petka Cohen and a young American atomic physicist. [3]
Subsequent to these articles the SVR, Russian successor to the USSR KGB, approved a full scope book project on the Cohens. Because publication in the West was envisioned, American Sovietologist Gary Kern was brought to Moscow as consultant and co-author with Chikov. The first manuscript draft was completed in 1992 and held the working title Nelegaly, "The Illegals". By 1994 the manuscript was complete, vetted by the SVR and being submitted to potential western publishers with the more compelling title, Stalin’s Atomic Spies. At an early stage in the story, Morris Cohen’s espionage career was characterized as follows: “LUIS [Cohen] was in need of relief. He was working as a recruiter, a courier, a contact man and even as a group leader — that is as the head of a spy ring called "the Volunteers." The SVR added its own cachet to the book launch, confirming the existence and laurels of the Volunteer Group with this statement: "The Volunteer group were able to guarantee the transmittal to the Center of super secret information concerning the development of the American atomic bomb." [4]
Stalin’s Atomic Spies
According to Stalin’s Atomic Spies, in April or May 1942 Morris Cohen came into contact with a young American physicist who offered to provide Russia with information on America’s nascent atomic bomb program. The physicist was working at the Met Lab in Chicago, but had come to New York to visit family. Cohen reported the contact to his control officer (Semyonov), who in turn reported it to the American Station Chief (Zarubin). A coded telegram reporting the incident was sent to the Center. With little delay, Moscow authorized the recruitment of the physicist by Cohen. The period April-May 1942 agrees with Manhattan Project history. This was when government atomic research at several universities was consolidated at the Met Lab in Chicago and Robert Oppenheimer was selected to head the S-1 Rapid Rupture (bomb) project. Chikov gave the young physicist the literary alias “Arthur Fielding.” Before "Fielding" left New York, Cohen conducted a pro forma recruitment interview of the volunteer spy. Not long after this, in June 1942, a consequential event occurred. Extremely inopportune and problematic for KGB New York (but beneficial for future historians), Morris Cohen was drafted into the U.S. Army. He entered boot camp at Fort Dix, NJ, on 22 July 1942. Approximately six months later, Fielding himself would be drafted—by Robert Oppenheimer: “Early in 1943, Fielding, together with others from the Met Lab, was asked by Robert Oppenheimer to come to Los Alamos …. Once he entered Los Alamos Arthur Fielding became the Soviet Union’s No.1 atomic spy. … Goodbye, Arthur Fielding. Henceforth we shall refer to you by your proper code name, Perseus.” [5]
“Perseus”
The "Fielding" story from Chikov and Kern begins with recruitment in 1942, and ends with a last contact in 1950 at which the spy was offered $5,000. In Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Chikov was candid about the mandate to protect Fielding's true identity. Rather than divulge Fielding's real, contemporaneus codename (after MLAD), he chose the pseudonym “Perseus.” This choice, however, was not completely random or fictitious. As Chikov explained, the Cohens had adopted “Perseus” as a fieldname for Fielding when communicating with their controllers. Noting this in the Cohen file, Chikov appropriated it for his book and public relations enterprise because it was authentic, evocative and consistent with the Greek classical lexicon used by the KGB at the time. In this regard, according to Chikov, the field pseudonym for the atomic bomb per se was "Gorgon." To be clear, the pseudonym PERSEUS was not a Center directed codename, and is not found in Venona, Vassiliev’s Notebooks, The Mitrokhin Archive or any other credible source. It was an apropos literary device used by Chikov. [6]
In 1994 the SVR Perseus project encountered a major problem: Pavel Sudoplatov published Special Tasks. According to Chikov, the book “came as a shock to the SVR.” When Chikov’s articles about the Cohens and Perseus appeared in 1991, they were publicly corroborated by retired KGB officer Anatoli Yatskov, who succeeded Semyonov as the Cohens' controller. These early 'publishing' events had coincided with Sudoplatov's work on his memoir. Sudoplatov was familiar with the Cohens, particularly their connection to Semyonov. He was not, however, familiar with an atomic source called "Perseus." Instead Sudoplatov recounted three moles who worked in Manhattan Project labs but whose names he had forgotten (purportedly). Therefore, in a footnote, he suggested that the moniker "Perseus" was “a creation by Yatskov or his colleagues to cover the real names of these [moles].” In contradistinction to the mole sources, Sudoplatov named four "friendly sources" and their covernames: Klaus Fuchs, Bruno Pontecorvo, Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi, respectively CHARLES, MLAD, STAR and STAR. This assertion handed the SVR an opportunity to discredit Sudoplatov, and the vehicle would be the not yet published Chikov-Kern book. In Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Chikov derided the joint use of STAR for Oppenheimer and Fermi, pointing out that, as documented in Dossier 13676, covernames MLAD (Youngster) and STAR (Oldtimer) belonged to Perseus and his courier, to wit: “YOUNGSTER [MLAD] was, in fact, the Center’s first code name for PERSEUS. For the Center, YOUNGSTER formed a logical pair with his initial courier, OLDTIMER.” [7]
At this juncture, 1995, Stalin’s Atomic Spies was in good shape, albeit still a manuscript in the hands of publishers. However, when the book was published the following year, 1996, it was confronted with a mortal problem: Venona. The Venona Program and its Soviet decrypts were fully declassified in 1996. Several Venona messages established beyond doubt that covernames MLAD and STAR belonged to Ted Hall and Saville Sax, respectively. This amounted to a veritable assassination of the five year SVR public relations project and resultant Chikov-Kern book. Simply stated, Ted Hall had been a sophmore at Harvard in 1942 with no connection to the Manhattan Project when Morris Cohen purportedly recruited physicist "Arthur Fielding". The SVR had not seen Venona coming, and it had little recourse. Risking or sacrificing the identity of Fielding was not an option. Whereas Sudoplatov's book had provoked the SVR to categorically reaffirm the existence of Perseus in Izvesiya, its response to the non-starter Venona decrypts was silence. [8]
In the West, Gary Kern was left on an island to defend the work he co-authored. He pointed out that Chikov had written there were six additional atomic spies in the U.S. of comparable rank to “Arthur Fielding” and Klaus Fuchs. Moreover, his interviews in Russia with other officials had supported Chikov's claim. Kern therefore came to the conclusion that, although “based on real facts,” the Perseus literary entity had been a composite figure incorporating the deeds and attributes of several unidentified atomic spies, at least two of whom were “Arthur Fielding” and Ted Hall. In effect, then, Kern was channeling Sudoplatov's footnote suggestion. Kern further opined that the Perseus construct was a well thought-out disinformation ploy designed to afford more identity protection for Fielding. [9]
The Fielding Legend
Stalin’s Atomic Spies contains a significant number of attributes, associations and events that circumscribe the Soviet agent "Arthur Fielding." Notwithstanding that some may apply in whole or in part to other persons subsumed in the composite “Perseus,” these markers are a starting point for examining whether or not Morris Cohen recruited an atomic spy before joining the Army in July 1942. If he did, that spy is unidentified.
Semyon Semyonov - MIT
Semyon Semyonov was an illegal KGB officer in America whose cover was that of an AMTORG engineer. To enhance his intelligence gathering capabilities he was sent to MIT (Feb 1938 - Jun 1940) to develop contacts in America’s scientific community. At the time Morris Cohen recruited Arthur Fielding, Semyonov was Cohen’s control officer. It follows therefore that Semyonov was also Fielding’s first Soviet control officer. [10]
Met Lab, May 1942
In May-June 1942, Fielding was a Physicist working at or under the auspices of the Metallurgical Lab at the University of Chicago. [11]
Prospect of Employment
The nature of Fielding’s employment at the Met Lab in Spring 1942 was prospective, that is, he was not yet an official employee of the Army on the DSM project. This is consistent with history—most of the scientists at the Met Lab at this time were on loan/leave from their universities. [12]
Parents in New York
Fielding was in New York to visit sick parents. This suggests that Fielding was from the New York area. [13]
Los Alamos First Teamer
Fielding was recruited for the Los Alamos lab by Robert Oppenheimer in early 1943, and was in the first group of scientists to arrive at Site Y. Fielding threfore undoubtedly attended the Los Alamos Primer lectures given by Robert Serber in the first week of April 1943. [14]
Mission to New Mexico
In 1943 Lona Cohen was sent on a courier mission to New Mexico to make first contact with Fielding after his move to Los Alamos. On this occasion Fielding was described as young, tall and wearing a straw hat, a white sport shirt and white sandals. [15]
Doppelganger Pair
When Fuchs was transferred to Los Alamos in August 1944 Soviet intelligence achieved a “doppelganger pair” of agents, Fielding and Fuchs. In this regard, Fuchs was given questions to verify material previously received from Fielding. Fuchs was thus considered “back-up” and subordinate to Fielding. Since Fuchs was in the ranking Theoretical Division, it is possible, even probable, that Fielding was also in that Division. [16]
Shelter Island Conference
Lona Cohen had a meeting with Fielding in New York after the war. This contact occurred circa June 1947—roughly the same time as the Shelter Island Physics Conference held at the end of Long Island. The conference was organized by Robert Oppenheimer and attended by 23 leading theoretical physicists. The time correlation between the Cohen-Fielding meeting and the Physics Conference, along with the Oppenheimer-Fielding association, suggest that Fielding attended the Shelter Island Conference. [17]
Progressive Organization
At their June 1947 meeting, Fielding told Cohen that he had joined a peace movement whose goal was to ban the bomb. The first such anti-bomb group was the Association of Los Alamos Scientists, which subsequently merged into the Federation of Atomic Scientists (FAS). Thus, Fielding was almost certainly a member of FAS in 1947. [18]
ANTA and ADEN
At the June 1947 meeting in New York, Fielding proffered the espionage services of two scientists as his replacements. They were a married couple. In a later contact with Morris Cohen, Fielding confirmed their willingness to provide atomic data. Their codenames were ANTA and ADEN, and they became part of the Volunteer Group. [19]
University Assignment
Beginning in 1948, the Cohens’ new Soviet control officer was Rudolf Abel (Mark). Abel instructed Lona Cohen to arrange a contact with Fielding in which he could observe the scientist from a distance. Cohen arranged the meeting by calling Fielding at work with a signal, following which Fielding would appear at the entrance to his University one week later at seven in the evening. Thus, Fielding was employed at a university in 1948-9. [20]
World Renowned
It is reported that Fielding's status as a scientist became such that his obituary would be carried in leading newspapers around the world. (See Witness: Gary Kern, below.)
In addition to these explicit Fielding references in Stalin’s Atomic Spies, other data circumstantially link the Cohens to an unidentified spy who conceivably, if not probably, was Arthur Fielding.
Little Boy
When David Greenglass was home on leave from Los Alamos in January 1945, Julius Rosenberg described to Greenglass, not vice versa, the gun-assembly method of the first atom bomb (dubbed Little Boy). This design was only tested and finalized the previous month, December 1944. Rosenberg had a connection to the Cohens. At this time, Morris Cohen, who had been drafted into the Army, was in Europe. Lona Cohen had taken over as principal courier to the Volunteer Group. It cannot be excluded that the NY Residency in some fashion used Rosenberg in support of the ‘Perseus’ operation, and thus Arthur Fielding was the source of Rosenberg's top secret, real time Los Alamos intelligence. (See essay, Rosenberg Case, Not Closed) [21]
Trauma—Fuchs Exposed
Supervisors in the FBI’s Soviet Message Unit in 1951 reached the conclusion that Soviet intelligence had learned of the U.S. Venona program in early 1949. Consistent with this finding is the fact that in June/July 1949 Fuchs suddenly severed eight years of faithful service to the Soviet Union. A regression analysis at the Centre of the KGB's war time messages would establish a real and present danger to Fielding, if not directly then through the Cohens and possibly others. The arrest of Fuchs on February 3, 1950, would only escalate the issue of Fielding's protection. [22]
California
In their retirement in Moscow, the Cohens were interviewed about their final days in America and their last contact with Rudolf Abel, a meeting that occurred in early 1950. At this meeting they gave Abel the addresses of their contacts, two of which were in California. Lona characterized one of the California contacts as “the main one,” adding, “we were told not to go anywhere near him.” The Cohens' most important agent at this time was ostensibly "Arthur Fielding." It is thus probable that the contact in California was Fielding. [23]
Trauma—Rosenberg Arrest
In New York on Monday, July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested for atomic espionage. It was a front page story across the nation. Rosenberg was an immediate threat to the Cohens, who in turn were an existential threat to Fielding. The Cohens were emergency evacuated to Mexico within days. As Illegal Resident and control officer for the Cohens, Rudolf Abel would be responsible for new procedures and protection for Fielding. [24]
Japan
The literature mentions one or more visits to Japan by Morris and Lona Cohen. These occurred in or around 1955. In view of the fact that Japan hosted a Physics Conference attended by several Manhattan Project physicists, it cannot be excluded that the purpose of the Cohens’ trip was to 'make a meet' with Fielding. [25]
Trauma—Abel Arrest
Rudolf Abel was arrested in New York on June 21, 1957. It would soon be a front page story across the nation. Fielding could not be absolutely certain that Abel at some point would not cooperate with the FBI. [26]
Trauma—Kroger (Cohen) Arrest
Operating under the aliases Peter and Helen Kroger, Morris and Lona Cohen were arrested in Britain in 1961. It was a front page news story in the United States. Fielding could not be absolutely certain that his former courier/contact agents would not confess and expose him.
State of Play
A present accounting of Manhattan Project spies produces two categories: the proven (known), and the putative (unknown). The Proven: Up to 1990 the atomic spies/agents of record were Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Julius Rosenberg, Steve Nelson and Joseph Weinberg. With the publication in 1991 of Vladimir Chikov’s Atomic Spies articles, Morris Cohen and Lona Cohen could be added to the ledger. When Venona was declassified in 1996 Theodore Hall and Saville Sax were exposed. In 2007 Vladimir Putin revealed the espionage of George Koval. Finally, in 2009, Vassiliev’s Notebooks uncovered Russell McNutt and the Russian born physicist Boris Podolsky. Thus, the Proven:
Klaus Fuchs REST/CHARLES
Harry Gold GUS/ARNO
David Greenglass BUMBLEBEE/CALIBER
Julius Rosenberg ANTENNA/LIBERAL
Steve Nelson STARI
Joseph Weinberg METHOD
Merl Weinberg IDEA
Morris Cohen LUIS/VOLUNTEER
Lona Cohen LESLIE
Theodore Hall MLAD
Saville Sax STAR
George Koval DELMAR
Russell McNutt FOGEL/PERS
Boris Podolsky* KVANT (QUANTUM)
[27]
The Putative: When the Chikov-Kern book was published in 1996, a husband and wife atomic source with the covernames ANTA and ADEN was mentioned. Although unidentified, they have been corroborated by other sources. In 1999, The Mitrokhin Archive revealed an early atomic source, MAR, who was a walk-in at the Soviet consulate in New York. Both Stalin’s Atomic Spies (1996) and Vassiliev’s Notebooks (2009) disclosed the covernames METHOD and IDEA, but only the Notebooks identified them as Joseph and Merl Weinberg. The Notebooks also revealed an unidentified atomic source with the covername GODSEND. In his 1999 memoir The Man Behind the Rosenbergs, KGB Officer Alexander Feklisov described an atomic scientist who worked for Kellex and whose information was priceless. He gave this person the fictitious pseudonym “Monti.” Besides corroborating ADEN, The Mitrokhin Archive also added SILVER to the Volunteer Group. Lastly there is “Arthur Fielding,” presently unproven and unidentified. (Left out of this review for reasons of present essay materiality are Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, all of whom were implicated in espionage by Pavel Sudoplatov.) Thus, the unidentified Putative:
This essay concerns American scientists who were sources for Soviet intelligence, not Americans who were couriers or contact agents. In the proven-known category such scientists would include Joseph Weinberg, Theodore Hall and Russell McNutt. With the exception of SILVER, all the pseudonyms in the putative-unknopwn category are represented in the literature as scientist sources. Further, espionage literature contains significant, credible witness for the existence of more American atomic spies than are currently identified as such.
Witness
In the aggregate, the following quotations are strong testimony for the proposition that other American scientists besides Weinberg, Hall and McNutt spied for the Soviet Union.
Vladimir Putin ~ In the Forward to the book Sacred Secrets (2002) by Jerrold and Leona Schecter, Strobe Talbot told the following vignette about a meeting between Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin in June 2000: "President Clinton was just about to get up from the table when Putin said he had a story he wanted to tell. It concerned Joseph Stalin's decision to put his secret police chief, Lavrenti Beria, in charge of ferreting out the secrets of the American crash program to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Putin had words of praise for the American scientists who willingly helped the USSR develop its own A-bomb."
Witness
In the aggregate, the following quotations are strong testimony for the proposition that other American scientists besides Weinberg, Hall and McNutt spied for the Soviet Union.
Vladimir Putin ~ In the Forward to the book Sacred Secrets (2002) by Jerrold and Leona Schecter, Strobe Talbot told the following vignette about a meeting between Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin in June 2000: "President Clinton was just about to get up from the table when Putin said he had a story he wanted to tell. It concerned Joseph Stalin's decision to put his secret police chief, Lavrenti Beria, in charge of ferreting out the secrets of the American crash program to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Putin had words of praise for the American scientists who willingly helped the USSR develop its own A-bomb."
~ MOSCOW (Reuters, 2/22/2012) "Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era scientists on Thursday for stealing U.S. Nuclear secrets. 'You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them [July 1945-August 1949] we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels. They were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases.'" [29]
Markus Wolf Markus Wolf, Chief of the East German KGB for 34 years, wrote in his 1997 autobiography, "The atomic spies recruited at that time [WWII] were the best, giving the Soviet Union the chance to catch up in the nuclear race, and many have remained undiscovered, even after the McCarthy period and the defection to Canada in 1945 of Igor Gousenko." [30]
Anatoli Yatskov Anatoli Yatskov was the control officer for the Cohens in New York and also Klaus Fuchs. In 1992 he gave an extensive interview to Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs. The Dobbs' story appeared on the Post front page on October 4,1992. It ran with Yatskov's picture captioned, "Soviet Spy Master Anatoly Yatskov said the FBI uncovered 'perhaps less than half' of his network, which penetrated America's secret A-bomb project." Quote #1 from the Dobbs story: "While acknowledging that some of his information came from the British atom spy Klaus Fuchs, Yatskov insists that another scientist inside the experimental nuclear station at Los Alamos NM also was passing secret information to Moscow. Soviet intelligence documents indicate that the secret agent, who Yatskov said is still alive, joined the Manhattan Project in 1942, at least 18 months before Fuchs arrived in the United States. This agent was code-named 'Perseus' or simply 'Mr. X.' Yatskov claims that Cohen was approached in New York by an acquaintance, a physicist, who said he had been invited to take part in top secret work on the building of an atom bomb." Quote #2 from the Dobbs story: "According to Yatskov, Lona Cohen undertook two courier missisons to Albuquerque, NM, to meet [Fielding] on his behalf." American historians credit Cohen with only one trip to New Mexico and that was to rendezvous with Ted Hall. [31]
Sergey Leskov Sergey Leskov, Izvestia correspondent, wrote in the July/August 1994 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "I was also told [by FIS officials] that as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was imprisoned for espionage in Britain for 14 years, and "Perseus," an unidentified agent who has been mentioned frequently in recent years, there were 10 agents of similar caliber working in the West. Six worked in the United States, four in Britain. They were significant figures who remain unknown to the FBI to this day." [32]
Alexander Feklisov In his memoir, The Man Behind the Rosenbergs (p. 64), Alexander Feklisov wrote the following: "I didn't know it at the time but my friend Yatskov and our boss Kvasnikov directed the most imnportant network - actually the only network - dedicated to atomic espionage. It was thanks to Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall, the Cohens, and a few other agents who have not been identified to this day that the USSR was able to create its own atomic bomb." [33]
Igor Prelin In the late 1990's Colonel Igor Prelin, Chikov’s associate in the KGB Press Bureau, was interviewed for the PBS documentary Red Files. In this interview Prelin stated that present day Soviet intelligence officers believe that atomic espionage against the Manhattan Project and Tube Alloys was the greatest achievement of the KGB's Foreign Intelligence Directorate. He also stated that this is not only the opinion of the KGB, but that a former director of the CIA has said: "The atomic espionage and the success of Soviet Intelligence in obtaining the atomic secrets of the United States is the greatest intelligence achivement of any intelligence service of all time." [34]
Gary Kern In his Afterword to Stalin’s Atomic Spies, co-author Gary Kern included a candid, perhaps unguarded, remark from his visit to Moscow: "In 1993 I was told by one source in Moscow that Perseus is a physicist of such significance that ‘when he dies his obituary will appear in all the papers of the world.’" [35]
Vladimir Chikov In the Introduction to his 1996 book, Vladimir Chikov wrote: "Comment Staline a vole la bombe atomique aux Americains has benefitted from the Sudoplatov affair in one important respect: it provoked the SVR statement in Izvestiya confirming the existence of PERSEUS." [36]
Svetlana Chervonnaya In the late 1990's Soviet historian Svetlana Chervonnaya gave an interview for the PBS documentary Red Files: Secret Victories of the KGB. The focus of the interview was her extensive meetings with Morris and Lona Cohen. These occurred in 1992 shortly before Lona's death. One encounter was particularly revealing: "Suddenly Lona said [to Morris], 'don't you remember these two young physicists whom I met?' And that was the first time when I [Chervonnaya] heard about two young physicists, because we heard an official story of just one young physicist. For me it was interesting, because just days before, I was visiting Anatoly Yatskov in another wing of the same hospital, and he told me in, I would say, more or less general detail about his atomic network, which included ten people. And so, he was very precise that he had five sources inside Los Alamos, so we have room for one more physicist there, because now as far as we know, one was Klaus Fuchs, one was Theodore Hall, one was David Greenglass, and I know that one, the last one in line, was a mere technical person. So there is still room for one more whom we don't know. So there is a chance that Lona met with some other physicist whom we don't know.” [37]
David Albright, Marcia Kunstel Albright and Kunstel write in their book Bombshell: “At some stage the Cohen’s status as the hub of their own network was enhanced when their group acquired its own designation. Reflecting the nature of the participants, it assumed one of the code names Morris had used: the Volunteers. … One retired KGB officer who has read the Cohen's dossier said that in addition to Morris and Lona Cohen the Volunteers consisted of MLAD, STAR, ANTA, ADEN and two other American agents who have never been identified even by code name. … Our book, Bombshell, dug out at least one piece of the story: the role of Los Alamos physicist Theodore A. Hall in helping Moscow replicate the Nagasaki bomb. But the focus remains intense on the unknowns that still litter the field of atomic espionage." [38]
Pavel Sudoplatov In Special Tasks, The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, Sudoplatov wrote: “The most vital information for developing the first Soviet atomic bomb came from scientists engaged in the Manhattan Project to build the American atomic bomb – Robert Oppenheimer, Encrico Fermi, and Leo Szilard. Oppenheimer, Fermi, Szilard, and Szilard’s secretary were often quoted in the NKVD files from 1942 to 1945 as sources for information on the development of the first American atomic bomb. It is in the record that on several occasions they agreed to share information on nuclear weapons with Soviet scientists. At first they were motivated by fear of Hitler; they believed that the Germans might produce the first atomic bomb. Then the Danish physicist Niels Bohr helped strengthen their own inclinations to share nuclear secrets with the world academic community. By sharing their knowledge with the Soviet Union, the chance of beating the Germans to the bomb would be increased.” [39]
Sudoplatov’s Moles
Chapter Seven of Special Tasks is titled, "Atomic Spies." At several points in the chapter, Sudoplatov refers to four moles. In the context of espionage, the definition of a mole is, “a spy who becomes part of and works from within the ranks of an enemy organization.” It is clear that this was Sudoplatov’s meaning. Sudoplatov was also specific about the U.S. organizations (laboratories) where the Soviet moles worked: Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Chicago. The most consequential aspect of the Sudoplatov moles was that they were closely associated with Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard, respectively. And, more to the point, these leaders were part of the conspiracy. Another important element of the Sudoplatov account is the division of responsibility between the KGB's Special Tasks directorate (Illegals) and the Foreign Intelligence directorate (INO). Senior scientists such as Oppenheimer and Fermi were the province of Special Tasks which reported directly to Beria; the junior scientist moles were controlled primarily by the INO rezidenturas. As regards the mole connected to Oppenheimer, Sudoplatov designated Anatoli Yatskov as receiving materials from this source that were couriered by Lona Cohen. [40]
At present there are only two candidates for the mole at Los Alamos: Ted Hall and “Arthur Fielding.” Although Hall would be a mole by definition, he was not a spy when he first arrived at Los Alamos in January 1944. He was the most junior of scientists, not even a post-doc physicist. He didn’t become a Soviet agent until October of 1944, when he was a walk-in to the KGB station (legal) in New York. His bona fides were not accepted unti late January 1945, after extensive vetting by Yatskov. Hall's first courier was Saville Sax in April 1945; his second courier was Lona Cohen in August 1945 (after Trinity, July 16, 1945). If the quality/value of Fuchs’s intelligence is rated A (and it was), Hall’s information was a C, at best. According to Sudoplatov, Oppenheimer allowed the mole at Los Alamos access to “vital documents.” Presumably Hall met Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, but he was not an Oppenheimer protégé, nor did he work in proximity to him. Finally, there is nothing in the record indicating that Hall provided vital documents or high-level intelligence to the Soviets. On the contrary, Hall himself said that he never had access to super secret data such as the assembly criteria and design of the bomb. In point of fact, in interview with the Albrights (Bombshell), Hall stated that based on his understanding of the very specific bomb data the Russians had obtained, there probably was another “informant” at Los Alamos. This statement was post-Fuchs. [41]
In Special Tasks, Sudoplatov made a very interesting, albeit throwaway, comment regarding Semyon Semyonov. He referred to him as "a hero of atomic espionage." There is nothing in the current literature on atomic espionage, as surveyed above, that warrants such tribute. However, being the original recruiter and case officer of "Arthur Fielding," a mole close to Oppenheimer, would clearly justify the Sudoplatov accolade. [42]
Arthur Fielding
To the same extent that Hall’s profile is not a match for the Oppenheimer mole at Los Alamos, the legend on Fielding is virtuallly a perfect fit. Candidly borrowing words from Vladimir Chikov, goodbye pseudo Perseus, henceforth your namesake pseudonym, Arthur Fielding, will be the order of the day. [Caveat]
Markus Wolf Markus Wolf, Chief of the East German KGB for 34 years, wrote in his 1997 autobiography, "The atomic spies recruited at that time [WWII] were the best, giving the Soviet Union the chance to catch up in the nuclear race, and many have remained undiscovered, even after the McCarthy period and the defection to Canada in 1945 of Igor Gousenko." [30]
Anatoli Yatskov Anatoli Yatskov was the control officer for the Cohens in New York and also Klaus Fuchs. In 1992 he gave an extensive interview to Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs. The Dobbs' story appeared on the Post front page on October 4,1992. It ran with Yatskov's picture captioned, "Soviet Spy Master Anatoly Yatskov said the FBI uncovered 'perhaps less than half' of his network, which penetrated America's secret A-bomb project." Quote #1 from the Dobbs story: "While acknowledging that some of his information came from the British atom spy Klaus Fuchs, Yatskov insists that another scientist inside the experimental nuclear station at Los Alamos NM also was passing secret information to Moscow. Soviet intelligence documents indicate that the secret agent, who Yatskov said is still alive, joined the Manhattan Project in 1942, at least 18 months before Fuchs arrived in the United States. This agent was code-named 'Perseus' or simply 'Mr. X.' Yatskov claims that Cohen was approached in New York by an acquaintance, a physicist, who said he had been invited to take part in top secret work on the building of an atom bomb." Quote #2 from the Dobbs story: "According to Yatskov, Lona Cohen undertook two courier missisons to Albuquerque, NM, to meet [Fielding] on his behalf." American historians credit Cohen with only one trip to New Mexico and that was to rendezvous with Ted Hall. [31]
Sergey Leskov Sergey Leskov, Izvestia correspondent, wrote in the July/August 1994 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "I was also told [by FIS officials] that as well as Klaus Fuchs, who was imprisoned for espionage in Britain for 14 years, and "Perseus," an unidentified agent who has been mentioned frequently in recent years, there were 10 agents of similar caliber working in the West. Six worked in the United States, four in Britain. They were significant figures who remain unknown to the FBI to this day." [32]
Alexander Feklisov In his memoir, The Man Behind the Rosenbergs (p. 64), Alexander Feklisov wrote the following: "I didn't know it at the time but my friend Yatskov and our boss Kvasnikov directed the most imnportant network - actually the only network - dedicated to atomic espionage. It was thanks to Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall, the Cohens, and a few other agents who have not been identified to this day that the USSR was able to create its own atomic bomb." [33]
Igor Prelin In the late 1990's Colonel Igor Prelin, Chikov’s associate in the KGB Press Bureau, was interviewed for the PBS documentary Red Files. In this interview Prelin stated that present day Soviet intelligence officers believe that atomic espionage against the Manhattan Project and Tube Alloys was the greatest achievement of the KGB's Foreign Intelligence Directorate. He also stated that this is not only the opinion of the KGB, but that a former director of the CIA has said: "The atomic espionage and the success of Soviet Intelligence in obtaining the atomic secrets of the United States is the greatest intelligence achivement of any intelligence service of all time." [34]
Gary Kern In his Afterword to Stalin’s Atomic Spies, co-author Gary Kern included a candid, perhaps unguarded, remark from his visit to Moscow: "In 1993 I was told by one source in Moscow that Perseus is a physicist of such significance that ‘when he dies his obituary will appear in all the papers of the world.’" [35]
Vladimir Chikov In the Introduction to his 1996 book, Vladimir Chikov wrote: "Comment Staline a vole la bombe atomique aux Americains has benefitted from the Sudoplatov affair in one important respect: it provoked the SVR statement in Izvestiya confirming the existence of PERSEUS." [36]
Svetlana Chervonnaya In the late 1990's Soviet historian Svetlana Chervonnaya gave an interview for the PBS documentary Red Files: Secret Victories of the KGB. The focus of the interview was her extensive meetings with Morris and Lona Cohen. These occurred in 1992 shortly before Lona's death. One encounter was particularly revealing: "Suddenly Lona said [to Morris], 'don't you remember these two young physicists whom I met?' And that was the first time when I [Chervonnaya] heard about two young physicists, because we heard an official story of just one young physicist. For me it was interesting, because just days before, I was visiting Anatoly Yatskov in another wing of the same hospital, and he told me in, I would say, more or less general detail about his atomic network, which included ten people. And so, he was very precise that he had five sources inside Los Alamos, so we have room for one more physicist there, because now as far as we know, one was Klaus Fuchs, one was Theodore Hall, one was David Greenglass, and I know that one, the last one in line, was a mere technical person. So there is still room for one more whom we don't know. So there is a chance that Lona met with some other physicist whom we don't know.” [37]
David Albright, Marcia Kunstel Albright and Kunstel write in their book Bombshell: “At some stage the Cohen’s status as the hub of their own network was enhanced when their group acquired its own designation. Reflecting the nature of the participants, it assumed one of the code names Morris had used: the Volunteers. … One retired KGB officer who has read the Cohen's dossier said that in addition to Morris and Lona Cohen the Volunteers consisted of MLAD, STAR, ANTA, ADEN and two other American agents who have never been identified even by code name. … Our book, Bombshell, dug out at least one piece of the story: the role of Los Alamos physicist Theodore A. Hall in helping Moscow replicate the Nagasaki bomb. But the focus remains intense on the unknowns that still litter the field of atomic espionage." [38]
Pavel Sudoplatov In Special Tasks, The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, Sudoplatov wrote: “The most vital information for developing the first Soviet atomic bomb came from scientists engaged in the Manhattan Project to build the American atomic bomb – Robert Oppenheimer, Encrico Fermi, and Leo Szilard. Oppenheimer, Fermi, Szilard, and Szilard’s secretary were often quoted in the NKVD files from 1942 to 1945 as sources for information on the development of the first American atomic bomb. It is in the record that on several occasions they agreed to share information on nuclear weapons with Soviet scientists. At first they were motivated by fear of Hitler; they believed that the Germans might produce the first atomic bomb. Then the Danish physicist Niels Bohr helped strengthen their own inclinations to share nuclear secrets with the world academic community. By sharing their knowledge with the Soviet Union, the chance of beating the Germans to the bomb would be increased.” [39]
Sudoplatov’s Moles
Chapter Seven of Special Tasks is titled, "Atomic Spies." At several points in the chapter, Sudoplatov refers to four moles. In the context of espionage, the definition of a mole is, “a spy who becomes part of and works from within the ranks of an enemy organization.” It is clear that this was Sudoplatov’s meaning. Sudoplatov was also specific about the U.S. organizations (laboratories) where the Soviet moles worked: Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Chicago. The most consequential aspect of the Sudoplatov moles was that they were closely associated with Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard, respectively. And, more to the point, these leaders were part of the conspiracy. Another important element of the Sudoplatov account is the division of responsibility between the KGB's Special Tasks directorate (Illegals) and the Foreign Intelligence directorate (INO). Senior scientists such as Oppenheimer and Fermi were the province of Special Tasks which reported directly to Beria; the junior scientist moles were controlled primarily by the INO rezidenturas. As regards the mole connected to Oppenheimer, Sudoplatov designated Anatoli Yatskov as receiving materials from this source that were couriered by Lona Cohen. [40]
At present there are only two candidates for the mole at Los Alamos: Ted Hall and “Arthur Fielding.” Although Hall would be a mole by definition, he was not a spy when he first arrived at Los Alamos in January 1944. He was the most junior of scientists, not even a post-doc physicist. He didn’t become a Soviet agent until October of 1944, when he was a walk-in to the KGB station (legal) in New York. His bona fides were not accepted unti late January 1945, after extensive vetting by Yatskov. Hall's first courier was Saville Sax in April 1945; his second courier was Lona Cohen in August 1945 (after Trinity, July 16, 1945). If the quality/value of Fuchs’s intelligence is rated A (and it was), Hall’s information was a C, at best. According to Sudoplatov, Oppenheimer allowed the mole at Los Alamos access to “vital documents.” Presumably Hall met Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, but he was not an Oppenheimer protégé, nor did he work in proximity to him. Finally, there is nothing in the record indicating that Hall provided vital documents or high-level intelligence to the Soviets. On the contrary, Hall himself said that he never had access to super secret data such as the assembly criteria and design of the bomb. In point of fact, in interview with the Albrights (Bombshell), Hall stated that based on his understanding of the very specific bomb data the Russians had obtained, there probably was another “informant” at Los Alamos. This statement was post-Fuchs. [41]
In Special Tasks, Sudoplatov made a very interesting, albeit throwaway, comment regarding Semyon Semyonov. He referred to him as "a hero of atomic espionage." There is nothing in the current literature on atomic espionage, as surveyed above, that warrants such tribute. However, being the original recruiter and case officer of "Arthur Fielding," a mole close to Oppenheimer, would clearly justify the Sudoplatov accolade. [42]
Arthur Fielding
To the same extent that Hall’s profile is not a match for the Oppenheimer mole at Los Alamos, the legend on Fielding is virtuallly a perfect fit. Candidly borrowing words from Vladimir Chikov, goodbye pseudo Perseus, henceforth your namesake pseudonym, Arthur Fielding, will be the order of the day. [Caveat]
Notes, Sources, References
1. “In the late 1980's … atomic spy ring that operated in America.”: Novoye Vremya, (New Times), Nos. 16 & 17 (April-May), Vladimir Chikov, 1991.
2. “In Fall 1941 ... British Maud Report ... . was Germany engaged ... >.Britain and the United States were exchanging ... maximum priority intelligence requirement ... Vassilli Zarubin, a Deputy Head of Foreign Intelligence ... Semyonov was an asset ... Cohen held the covername VOLUNTEER, and his atomic network followed suit.”: Ibid.
3. The Chikov-Kerrn manuscript was published in Moscow, France and Germany. It did not find an English language publisher. The Russian title was Nelegaly: dos'e KGB no. 13676, translated, The Illegals: KGB File No. 13676, 1997. The "Illegals", aka the "Cottagers", were Morris and Lona Cohen. The French title was Comment Staline a vole la bombe atomique aux Americains: Dossier KGB No. 13676 (How Stalin Stole the Atomic Bomb from the Americans; KGB Case No. 13676), Vladimir Chikov and Gary Kern, Editions Robert Laffont, 1996.
Note Throughout the body of this essay the Chikov-Kern book will be referred to as Stalin's Atomic Spies. In Notes-Sources-References the book will be cited and abbreviated as Comment Staline, because noted page numbers are specific to the French edition. The Preface of the French book was written by former FBI Special Agent Robert Lamphere, FBI liaison to the ASA's Venona Project and later head of the FBI’s Soviet Message Unit.
“The Volunteer Group were able … concerning the development of the American atomic bomb.": Veterany Vneshnei Razvedki Rossii, T. V. Samolis, Editor, SVR Press, 1995, pages 158-9.
4. “The person chosen to publicize ... Case of the Cottagers, File No. 13676 ... classified Absolutely Secret.”: Comment Staline, Authors Preface, p.7.
"The Cohens/Krogers were . . . the KGB's First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence).": See sections Directorate S and Nelegaly of essay Rosenberg Case: Not Closed.
Comment Staline The French edition of Stalin's Atomic Spies created a major problem for the SVR's enterprise when it substituted (over the objections of the authors) the word MLAD for the word PERSEUS in the manuscript. The Publisher’s rationale for this was the recent declassification of Venona in the U.S. Venona clearly showed that covername MLAD belonged to Theodore Hall. Other problems in Comment Staline: (1) there were changes to the Fielding story in the 1996 book as compared to the 1991 article, and (2) there were some prima facie errors in both. These changes and non-starters will be noted and addressed. In general though, as Gary Kern indicated, these flaws stemmed from the fact that Chikov’s SVR charge “was not to give clear clues to the identification of Soviet agents.” Although principal Arthur Fielding (Perseus) was a single, real person, Chikov obscured his identity by mixing details with at least one other atomic agent (unidentified) from the Department S Dossier No. 13676, as well as at least one from the Enormous File, undoubtedly Ted Hall. Chikov consulted the Enormous File heavily. (See Introduction, Comment Staline, page 19.)
Spain In the 1991 Cohen-Perseus articles Chikov wrote that “Fielding,” a young American physicist, was "a Spanish Civil War acquaintance of Morris Cohen." This was taken by historians to mean that “Fielding” had been a volunteer fighter in Spain. However, since there was no Manhattan Project physicist known to have fought in Spain, the story had another credibility problem. Chikov, perforce, modified this attribute in Stalin's Atomic Spies, to wit, "Cohen knew 'Fielding' through their political involvement in the Spanish Civil War, though he, unlike Cohen did not volunteer for combat." It should nevertheless be noted that the 'Spanish Civil War' is a consistent aspect of the “Fielding” narrative. There are three available sources or agencies for this fact: Steve Nelson, Robert Oppenheimer and Kitty Oppenheimer. Nelson fought in Spain and his closest comrade in the U.S. and then in Spain was Joe Dallet, Morris Cohen's immediate superior. Robert Oppenheimer was born and raised in New York, was consumed by the Spanish Civil War and married to the former Kitty Dallet. (She had been on her way into Spain when Dallet was killed.)
Synopsis: According to Chikov, “Fielding” was one of the original 30+ physicists at Los Alamos in early 1943. No such physicist is known to have served in Spain, i.e. was a Spanish Civil War volunteer. The Spanish Civil War link between Cohen and “Fielding” was a personal and political connection originating in the United States. Morris Cohen was political cadre in the Mac-Pap Battalion and Dallet was the battalion Political Commissar. At this time Dallet, a New Yorker, was married to Katherine Puening, later to become Kitty Oppenheimer. When Kitty returned to the U.S. after Dallet's death, she briefly stayed in the apartment of Steve Nelson and his wife. In 1939, the Party transferred Nelson to the West Coast, initially to Los Angeles. Kitty was reunited with Nelson in California after she married Oppenheimer. Shortly thereafter Nelson moved to Oakland to spy on the Radiation Lab through members of the Communist Party cell at Berkeley. The de facto leader of the Berkeley cell was Robert Oppenheimer. The initial contact and recruitment of “Arthur Fielding” by Cohen occurred in the Spring of 1942. It was during this period that Oppenheimer and several of his associates began working at the Met Lab in Chicago. The Spanish Civil War connection between Morris Cohen and “Arthur Fielding” stems from the Dallet-centric Oppenheimer, Nelson, Cohen cabal. (Ref: Steve Nelson American Radical, p.240, et al.)
“Morris Cohen’s uptake … as the head of a spy ring called "the Volunteers.": Comment Staline, A Night in the Lubyanka, p.134.
5. “According to Stalin’s Atomic Spies … the physicist's recruitment by Cohen ... Cohen conducted a pro forma recruitment interview ... Cohen was drafted into the U.S. Army..”: Comment Staline, The New Source, p.137-8, 141, 144.
“Early in 1943, ... proper code name, Perseus.”: Comment Staline, The Manhattan Project, p.152; Author's Preface, p.23: "The most startling fact I discovered in Case No13676 was the existence of a second Soviet agent operating inside Los Alamos. … Like Fuchs, this second agent was also a nuclear scientist intimately involved in the construction of the atomic bomb. … Fuchs and Perseus were not the only Soviet agents working inside Los Alamos.” [For example, Ted Hall]
6. “The Fielding-Perseus narrative … was offered $5000.”: Comment Staline, p. 137, 220.
"Noting this in the Cohen file ... the classical lexicon used by the KGB at the time.": Ibid., p. 137, 220.
Fieldname vs. Covername A fieldname, sometimes called a workname, is an informal pseudonym adopted/employed between KGB officers, their agents and sources in the field. Thus, Lona Cohen and Harry Gold knew Anatoli Yatskov as "John." Lona Cohen's fieldname was "Helen." Covernames, also known as codenames, are the official pseudonyms of intelligence officers, agents and soucres. Codenames are always assigned or at leaast sanctioned by the Center and are used in official messages and reports.
Classical Lexicon In both the book Comment Staline as well as articles such as "How the Soviet Intelligence Service 'split' the American Atom" in Novoye Vremya (New Times, #17, 1991), Chikov discussed the use of names from Greek classical literature as intelligence pseudonyms. This claim is corroborated by Venona in which, for example, New York and Washington DC were codenamed Tyre and Carthage, respectively.
7. “The SVR-Chikov enterprise encountered … “came as a shock to the SVR.” Comment Staline, p. 25.
“Sudoplatov wrote that he was not familiar … were CHARLES, MLAD, STAR and STAR, respectively.”: Special Tasks, p. 188, fn. 15.
“YOUNGSTER [MLAD] was, in fact, … with his initial courier, OLDTIMER.”: Comment Staline, p.157.
8. “The Venona messages established … were Ted Hall and Saville Sax, respectively.”: Venona, NY to M, No. 94, 23 JAN 45; also, Vassiliev, Yellow Notebook #1, p.16 ("The report – great interest. The measures regarding connection with Hall are appropriate. It is proposed to stop using Beck. Assign contact with Sax to Aleksey: train Sax in the spirit of Konspiratsia; gather detailed information on Hall and Sax, Hall’s role in work on En-s, and the reason he gave the report specifically to Beck. Hall – “Mlad,” Sax – “Star. ")
9. “Chikov had also written there were six … other officials supported this claim.”: The Perseus Disinformation Operation, Gary Kern, Post to History-Net, History of American Communism (HOAC), 17 Feb 2006. (“The aims of the operation were manifold: (1) to demonstrate that the KGB was vital to Soviet (and after 1991--to Russian) state interests, because with its successes in atomic espionage it had safeguarded the nation against nuclear attack; (2) to prove that the KGB was more expert than American and British intelligence agencies, which had never caught its atomic spies; (3) to wrest some of the prestige away from Soviet atomic scientists and win the benefits of prestige for KGB veterans; (4) to make propaganda usage of foreign spies residing in Russia, especially Morris and Leontina Cohen, who were old, malleable and under KGB control; and (5) to make money selling the story.”
10. “Semyon Semyonov was a KGB officer … was Cohen’s control officer.”: Comment Staline, p.123, 137, 144, 157; The Sword and The Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, 1999, p.107. ("Ovakimyan was probably also the first to suggest using an INO officer, undercover as an exchange student, to penetrate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first such 'student,' Semyon Markovich Semyonov (codenamed TVEN), entered MIT in 1938. The scientific contacts which he made over the next two years, before changing his cover in 1940 to that of an Amtorg engineer, helped to lay the basis for the remarkable wartime expansion of S&T collection in the United States.")
“Semyon Semyonov was a KGB officer whose … in America’s scientific community”: Sacred Secrets, Jerrold and Leona Schecter, 2002, p. 57. (“Semyon [Markovich] Semyonov received instructions from Zarubin [U.S. Resident] relaying a message from Moscow Center sent March 27, 1942: he was to enlist agents and friendly sources among the technicians and scientists who would soon work on the research that became known as the Manhattan Project. Semyonov had been sent to study at MIT, where he had developed friendly relationships with budding scientists. Semyonov, Venona code name TWAIN (after Mark Twain), was able to establish close contact with the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago.”)
Comment Semyonov matriculated at MIT as a graduate student beginning February 7, 1938; he earned a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in June 1940. One of the scientists he cultivated at MIT was Karl Compton, brother of Arthur Compton head of the Met Lab at the University of Chicago.
“At the time Morris Cohen recruited … was also Fielding’s first control officer.”: Comment Staline, The New Source, p.137. (“It happened in the New York subway. … One day in the spring of 1942 Cohen ran into an old acquaintance … the two had worked together on the side of the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. … … [Fielding] was working in a scientific laboratory on a top-secret project to produce a fantastic weapon … The news went from Cohen to Semyonov, who passed it on to Zubilin … [who] sent a coded message to Moscow.”) By way of analogy, Semyonov was to Fielding, as Orlov was to Philby.
11. “Fielding was a Physicist … in May 1942.” Comment Staline, The New Source, pps.137, 138. (“In the foregoing … the name of the atomic scientist has been changed. ‘Fielding’ is my substitution for his real name. … However, I am at liberty to state that Fielding at that time was a young nuclear physicist working at the Metallurgical Laboratory of Chicago … Fielding was in New York visiting sick relatives when he ran into Cohen in May … He knew him [Cohen] through their political involvement in the Spanish Civil War.”)
12. “ …Fielding’s employment at … was prospective”: Novoye Vremya, No.16, 1991, Luis Reports. (“Fielding made no secret of the fact that he had very important information to offer them and that the information was connected with the prospect of his employment by the Los Alamos laboratory.”)
Comment With regard to prima facie errors in Chikov’s writings, as caveated in Note 4, the assertion in Novoye Vremya that Fielding’s employment was connected to Los Alamos is perhaps the most glaring Chikov non-starter—Los Alamos, or Site Y, did not exist in 1942. This misstatement can be attributed to either a careless attempt at disinformation, or the common generalization by many that the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos are interchangeable. Chikov corrected this mistake in the 1996 book co-authored with Kern: "LUIS (Cohen) was approached by Arthur Fielding ... [who told LUIS] that he was working in an especially secret laboratory ... we have learned that it is a secret laboratory in Chicago." The best example of a scientist working at the Met Lab at this time but not yet an Army DSM employee is Robert Oppenheimer. His employment there was prospective until early June when the Army finally approved his employment contract.
13. “Fielding was … sick parents.”: Novoye Vremya, No.16, 1991, Luis Reports. (“He has come to New York to look up his sick parents and will stay about a fortnight here.”)
Comment Regarding narrative changes between Chikov's 1991 articles and his 1996 book, "sick parents" was changed to "sick relatives" in Comment Staline. A logical explanation is that parents is true and later judged too threatening to Fielding's identity.
14. “Fielding was recruited … at the Site Y lab.”: Comment Staline, The Manhattan Project, p. 149. (“Early in 1943, Fielding, together with others from the Met Lab, was asked by Robert Oppenheimer to come to Los Alamos.”)
Los Alamos Primer An incomplete list of attendees at the Serber lectures is: Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Condon (note taker and co-author of The Los Alamos Primer), Edward McMillan, Emilio Segre, (University of California); J. H. Williams (U. of Minnesota); J.L. McKibben (U. of Wisconsin); Felix Bloch, H. Staub (Stanford); M.G. Hollowway (Purdue University); Robert Bacher, Hans Bethe (MIT); Edward Teller, Robert Christy, D.K. Froman, A.C. Graves, John Manley (Met Lab, University of Chicago); Robert Wilson, J.E. Mack, Richard Feynman (Princeton University); V. F. Weisskopf (University of Rochester); S. H. Neddermeyer (Bureau of Standards), et al.
15. “In 1943 Lona Cohen … move to Los Alamos.”: Comment Staline, Mission to New Mexico, p. 156-7. (“Semyon Semyonov trained Yatskov (ALEKSEI) as his protégé and eventual replacement. Then he turned over some of his agents to him. These included LUIS and LESLIE—Morris and Leontina Cohen. … Yatskov had only two meetings with LUIS before the latter left for Alaska [January 1943]. Then he concentrated on LESLIE. This happened just at the time that the New York rezidentura was deciding which American agent to send out to New Mexico to make contact with Fielding.”)
Comment Chikov’s time context for Lona’s “mission” to New Mexico was 1943. Lona Cohen’s control officer at this time was Anatoly Yatskov.
“On this occasion … a white sport shirt and white sandals.”: Comment Staline, p.162. (“He wore a straw hat, a whit2 sport shirt and white sandals.”)
16. “Soviet intelligence achieved … previously received from Fielding.”: Comment Staline, The Backup Plan, p.155. (“Thenceforth, at discreet moments, Fuchs was asked question or requested to provide papers that would cover material previously provided by Fielding … Thus it may be said that Soviet intelligence had a pair of Doppelganger at the Los Alamos Site.”)
Def. Doppelganger, also called doubleganger, a noun, a ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.
17. “Lona Cohen had a meeting with Fielding after the war.”: Comment Staline, Dinner in Paris, p.199-200. (“The Cohens were requested to prepare for a summer excursion to Paris. … Before leaving they should find out what America knew about the A-bomb project in the Soviet Union. … Yatskov asked the Cohens if they had found out anything about America’s knowledge of the Soviet [bomb]. LESLIE answered. That same scientist at Los Alamos [Fielding] who caused me to lose my job came recently to see his relatives in New York. He told us that President Truman had asked Oppenheimer when the Russians would be able to make their own atomic bomb. When Oppenheimer said that he didn’t know Truman replied that he himself already knew. Oppenheimer was surprised and asked the President when. ‘Never’ said Truman. … LESLIE had more to report on Fielding, whom she saw shortly before leaving for Paris. He told her he had joined a peace movement and wanted to ban the bomb. He also said that he could propose some other scientists who might be willing to work for the Soviets.”)
Comment 1 In Comment Staline, Chikov wrote that Morris and Lona Cohen were called to Paris for a meeting with their former control officers, Semyonov and Yatskov. Although the exact date is not mentioned, June 1947 is an antecedent reference to the event. The book Bombshell by J. Albright and M. Kunstel places the Cohens in Paris a couple of weeks before Bastille Day, July 14, 1947 (Bombshell, 1999, p.183). According to Chikov, Lona reported to Semyonov and Yatskov that prior to coming to Paris she had had a meeting with Fielding in New York.
Comment 2 It is worth noting that this Truman-Oppenheimer anecdote, ostensibly in the Cohens’ KGB file and read by Chikov in the early 1990’s, would later be included in the Oppenheimer biography American Prometheus by Bird and Sherwin (2005). More interesting is the fact that Bird and Sherwin’s footnote for the anecdote shows puzzlement over exactly when the Truman-Oppenheimer conversation took place. They wrote that Truman's appointment calendar showed only four meetings with Oppenheimer: 10/25/45, 4/29/48, 4/6/49 and 6/27/52. Since Fielding had shared the anecdote with the Cohens prior to their July 1947 trip to Europe, the conversation ostensibly took place at the first Truman-JRO meeting, October 25, 1945.
Shelter Island Conference The Shelter Island Physics Conference was sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences from June 1 to June 3, 1947. Shelter Island is located at the end of Long Island. Virtually all of the conferees assembled in New York City and were bused from there to the Ram's Head Inn on Shelter Island. Twenty-three scientists attended this physics event. The coterie included Hans Bethe, David Bohm, Gregory Breit, Karl Darrow, Herman Feshbach, Richard Feynman, Hendrik Kramers, Willis Lamb, Robert Marshak, John von Neumann, Arnold Nordsieck, Robert Oppenheimer, Abraham Pais, Linus Pauling, I. I. Rabi, Bruno Rossi, Julian Schwinger, Robert Serber, Edward Teller, George Uhlenbeck, John Van Vleck, Victor Weisskopf, and John Wheeler.
18. “At the June 1947 meeting Fielding told Cohen … to ban the bomb.”: Comment Staline, Dinner in Paris, p.199-200.
Comment There is a sequel to the story of Fielding and the “progressive organization.” According to Stalin’s Atomic Spies, in their Paris meetings with Semyonov and Yatskov, the Cohens were told to get Fielding to drop out of the progressive organization for security reasons (“to avoid people who might fall within the FBI’s range”). About a year later Morris Cohen reported that he had successfully persuaded Fielding to do so: "Claude [Yury Sokolov] reported to the Soviet Embassy in Washington which sent out [2 August 1948] the message to Moscow: Luis had a meeting with Fielding. He persuaded him to leave the progressive organization and restrict himself to science." (Comment Staline, pps. 204-5)
FAS The first organization to bear the acronym FAS was the Federation of Atomic Scientists, formed after the war by a merger of individual political scientist groups at the atomic labs, such as Los Alamos (ALAS, Association of Los Alamos Scientists), Oak Ridge, Met Lab, etc. Circa 1947, the original FAS broadened its membership to become the Federation of American Scientists. A past president of FAS, Jeremy Stone, published a book about the organization and his experiences titled, Every Man Should Try, Adventures of a Public Interest Activist (1999). Mr. Stone became interested in the Fielding-Perseus story and said the following about the progressive organization Fielding was alleged to have joined: "Any original atomic scientist who would say that he would 'dedicate my life to averting the danger of a nuclear holocaust' [a statement attributed to Fielding by Chikov] would be among FAS's original members, since FAS was set up by the original atomic scientists to do just that and was, indeed, the first organization created for this purpose." (EMST, p. 326) The definitive history of FAS (1945 - 1947) is a book written by Alice Kimball Smith, A Peril and A Hope. Here are a couple of quotes that fairly represent FAS sentiment of this period: "Science should henceforth be primarily an instrument of peace ... The Cornell executive committee [Association of Scientists of Cornell University, a constituent group of FAS] recommended agreement on the early abolition of atomic weapons from national armaments, halting our own preparations for warfare, making available to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission all necessary basic scientific data, and developing a more consistent foreign policy."
19. “Fielding proffered … as his replacements.”: Comment Staline, Dinner in Paris, pps.199-200, 204-5, 360. (“Fielding also said that he could propose some other scientists who might be willing to work for the Soviets. … They work at Hanford and have already given him materials. … The Center very much wanted to keep Fielding as a source and to have him keep contact with his sources. … Received important information about the two new contacts of Fielding. They expressed willingness to hand over data on ENORMOZ. But with two conditions: their only connection must be with Fielding, and their names should not be known to officers of [the KGB].”)
Afterword In his Afterword, Kern provided the additional information that ANTA and ADEN were a married couple, they indeed were recruited and their contact was Oldtimer (STAR). Independent confirmation of ANTA and ADEN is found in The Mitrokhin Archive, C. Andrew: “The Volunteer network expanded to include, in additon to MLAD, three other agents: ADEN, SERB and SILVER” (The Sword and The Shield, pps. 148, 602). The book Bombshell also corroborated the Anta and Aden account from Chikov-Kern: “Somewhat similar accounts [on ANTA and ADEN] have come from several confidential sources, including a second ex-KGB officer. The ex-KGB source confirmed the Soviet intelligence did obtain important atomic information from a still unidentified American married couple, both of whom were scientists.” (Bombshell, p.347, fn. 1193-4)
20. “Abel instructed Lona … in the evening.”: Comment Staline, The Last Assignment, pps. 213-4. ("… the Center wants [Fielding] to carry out a new assignment. And also as an incentive, $5000. for his earlier performance. … Since I [Abel] am not familiar with him, you alone should meet him. I’ll go along and watch from afar. … We’ve worked out a plan. I have to give him a telephone signal at work, then he will appear at the entrance to the university exactly one week later at seven o’clock in the everning.”)
Comment In this episode, Chikov stated that Fielding was at the University of Chicago—Lona and Abel would get tickets and travel to Chicago for the rendezvous. A number of factors suggest that Chicago is disinformation to protect the identity of Fielding. First, that would mean that Fielding was a physicist who was at the U. of Chicago Met Lab in 1942, went to Los Alamos in 1943 and returned to the University of Chicago after the war—an impermissibly narrow profile of Fielding. Then there is the fact that Ted Hall was at the University of Chicago at this time. This would seem problematic for those who believe that Hall is Fielding (Perseus) and that Cohen never recruited a physicist in the first half of 1942. (See Bombshell, The Perseus Myth). Finally, with regard to the University of Chicago, there was no recognized, defined “university entrance,” gate, etc., in 1947 (or now). By way of comparison, Cornell, 150 miles from New York, does have such a land mark, The Eddy Street Gate, bearing an inscription to founder, Esra Cornell.
21. "When David Greenglass ... of the first atom bomb, Little Boy.": The Brother, page 111; The Rosenberg File, p. 68, 444; ("...‘[Julius] said there was fissionable material at one end of a cube and at the other end of a cube there was a sliding member that was also of fissionable material and when they brought these two together under great pressure, a nuclear reaction would take place. That is the type of bomb that he described.’"); Special Tasks, p.197. ("A description of the design of the first atomic bomb was reported to us in January 1945."); "Rosenberg connected to Cohens": See essay, Rosenberg Case: Not Closed.
22. “In 1951 Supervisors … Venona breakthrough-program in early 1949.”: The FBI-KGB War, Robert Lamphere with Tom Schachtman, 1986, p. 239-244. ~ “In the summer of 1951 … we reached the inevitable conclusion that the Russians had known about our breakthrough on their 1944-45 cables perhaps as early as the spring of 1949.”
“Support, if not hard evidence, … the Soviet Union in June 1949.”: Man Behind the Rosenbergs, Alexander Feklisov, 2001, p.25. (“I had six covert meetins with Klaus Fuchs from September 1947 to April 1949, one every three to four months.”); KGB File 84490 V.3, p.129, A. Vassiliev, Yellow Notebook #1, trans., p.94. (“Meeting with Charles 1 April 1949. Last meeting.”)
"the perfect agent" Alexander Feklisov, a highly experienced and successful agent handler, was Fuchs’s control officer in Britain after the war. The Fuchs failure haunted him to his last days because he had sensed no warning signs about Fuchs’s commitment to the Soviet Union. On the contrary, up to their last meeting, Fuchs remained a dedicated, proactive spy, going beyond what Feklisov requested of him. Indeed Fuchs and Feklisov had a tacit understanding that Fuchs would continue his mission until Russia had the bomb, at which point Fuchs would join his father in East Germany. At their November 1948 contact Fuchs told Feklisov that, based on the technical questions Feklisov was putting to him, the USSR's "baby will be born very soon." Fuchs was extremely accurate—Joe 1 was tested ten months later, September 23, 1949. Feklisov's bewilderment increased after Fuchs's arrest, trial and imprisonment: “Why did Fuchs confess? The question remains unanswered in the greatest spy case.” Bewilderment turned to frustration years later when Fuchs was released from prison (1959) and returned to East Germany. As his last case officer, Feklisov expected and sought to go to Germany to debrief Fuchs. This was denied. Even more inexplicable was that when Fuchs was brought to Moscow, it was Kvasnikov and Yatskov who met with him. Feklisov was deliberately excluded, and he expressed resentment at both the decision and lack of explanation. (What would Feklisov have learned and or deduced if he interviewed Fuchs?) The preponderence of information and evidence suggests that Fuchs did not loose faith in Communism or the USSR. This was not the reason he aborted his scheduled contact with Feklisov on the last Saturday in June 1949, or the back-up, the first Saturday in July. It remains a mystery in the Fuchs case, the second greatest spy case. If and when the truth is revealed, it will be shown to be not coincidental that it was July 1949 when Ernest Van Loon joined Robert Lamphere in Washington to launch the FBI's Soviet Message Unit. The real greatest spy case, "Arthur Fielding", was also impacted by the same circumstances that caused the Fuchs failure. (Feklisov, pps. 219, 223-226, 258-264) See essays FUCASE (Triple Play) and Soviet Message Unit.
23. “In retirement in Moscow …two of which were in California.”: Comment Staline, In Their Own Words, p. 303.
“Lona characterized one … not to go anywhere near him.” Ibid.
24. "Rosenberg was arrested ... immediate threat ... existential threat ... to Mexico within days.": Special Tasks, p. 177, 213; The Sword and The Shield, p.148; Bombshell, p.49, 311; Comment Staline, Escape from the USA, p.215-6. (More at Rosenberg Case: Not Closed)
Rosenberg & Cohens One link/association between Rosenberg and the Cohens is that Semyon Semyonov was the case officer for both. ~ Special Tasks: "Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were recruited by Gaik Ovakimian, our rezident in New York, in 1938." ... "Semyonov was the case officer of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, after Ovakimian recruited them."
~ The Sword and The Shield: "In recognition of the VOLUNTEER group's success, [Rudolf Abel] was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in August 1949. A year later, however, his illegal residency was disrupted by the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, for whom Lona Cohen had acted as courier."
~ Bombshell: “The Machine-gun caper was Lona’s first triumph. But the KGB version omitted one key detail, the name of a young American communist who allegedly covered Morris as a backup agent while he was transporting the machine-gun. That backup agent—or so one KGB veteran has claimed—was Julius Rosenberg, a CCNY engineering graduate who supposedly worked in tandem with Morris more than once.”
~ Comment Staline: In addition to the above, the Chikov-Kern book mentions an unidentified Cohen agent with the pseudonym RAY. This agent provided information on radar, and had lost his job and was out of work in 1947. These attributes precisely match Rosenberg's background. Furthermore, Chikov connects the escape of the Cohens to the successive arrests of Fuchs, Gold, Greenglass and Rosenberg—to that chain of events. But cause and effect are clear: It only became an emergency situation when Rosenberg was arrested. Why? Because Julius Rosenberg, at any time he might have chosen to do so, could have quickly led the FBI to Morris and Lona Cohen, the nexus of the atomic Volunteer Group.
25. “The literature mentions one or more … occurred in or around 1955.”: Bombshell, p.244. (“The following year [1955] Moscow Center sent them all the way to Hong Kong and Tokyo for reasons still unknown.”) The footnote for this statement reads: “Trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo: Morris Cohen interview with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) historian, July 15, 1993. Judging from the interview the trip occurred in 1955. Also, see Tietjen (1961)
“In view of the fact that Japan hosted … to have a meeting with Fielding.”:
Comment Safely in Moscow, the Cohens lay fallow for several years until the Center decided to put them in play again as “the Krogers”, cogs-to-be in a spy network in England (Portland Spy Case). Preparation for this operation began in 1953 as described by Morris Cohen in a videotaped interview with a SVR historian (July 1993). Per Cohen: During the summer of 1953, he spent a period of time with his future control officer, Gordon Lonsdale, at a dacha outside Moscow. However, Lona was absent from these meetings with Lonsdale because she had been sent on a “mission.” After a long travel ‘itinerary’ to establish their legend as Helen and Peter Kroger, a married couple from New Zealand, the Cohens arrived in London at the end of 1954. The destination and purpose of Lona’s mission in summer 1953 is not known.
26. "Rudof Abel was arrested... across the nation.": New York Times, Thursday, August 8, 1957. Front page headline, "RUSSIAN COLONEL IS INDICTED HERE AS TOP SPY IN U.S." with accompaning photograph of Abel.
~ Klaus Fuchs REST/CHARLES First case officer (in U.S.), Semyon Semyonov; Second case officer, Anatoli Yatskov. When Fuchs came to U.S. in December 1943 as part of the British Mission his control was changed from the GRU to the NKGB. The policy behind this was Lavrenti Beria's decision to establish a new bureau within his NKVD commissariat, Special Department S, whose charge was to coordinate the atomic intelligence activities of both the GRU and the NKGB (Merkulov). In the case of Fuchs, the KGB residency in the U.S. ostensibly had the superior infrastructure and assets. In early 1944 Semyonov supervised Harry Gold's first meeting with Fuchs in New York city. Subsequent to this, Semyonov was compromised by blanket FBI surveillance and Yatskov took over as control officer for Fuchs and Gold. FBI investigation of Fuchs began in September 1949. (Special Tasks, p.184: Klaus Fuchs, Atomic Spy, R.C. Williams, p.196-8, et. al.) See essay Soviet Message Unit.
~ Harry Gold GUS/ARNO First case officer, Semyon Semyonov; Second case officer, Anatoli Yatskov. The FBI’s investigation of Gold as Fuchs’s American contact/courier began February/March 1950, culminating in his arrest on May 23, 1950, in Philadelphia.
~ Julius Rosenberg ANTENNA/LIBERAL First case officer, Gaik Ovakimian; Second case officer, Jacob Golos; Third case officer, Semyon Semyonov; Fourth case officer, Alexander Feklisov; Fifth case officer, Yury Sokolov.
~ David Greenglass BUMBLEBEE/CALIBER First case officer, Alexander Feklisov. However, when Greenglass was in New York on leave in January 1945, it was Yatskov who interviewed him relative to his work at Los Alamos.
~ Steve Nelson STARI Illegal KGB Officer, immediate superior/s not known. FBI FOIA File-100-16847-505 reflects numerous covernames and aliases. Covername “Stari” a contraction or diminutive of the Russian word “starik” meaning “oldtimer.” Probably picked up in an electronic surveillance; Nelson’s special status indicated by 1943 meeting (recorded by FBI) in Oakland, CA, with U.S. Rezident, Vassili Zarubin.
~ Joseph Weinberg METHOD First case officer, Steve Nelson. Weinberg was a Communist and Oppenheimer protégé at UC Berkeley. Employed at the Radiation Lab, he passed atomic intelligence to Steve Nelson in March 1943 at a meeting in Nelson’s home (recorded by FBI). Until publication of Vassiliev’ Notebooks in 2009 Weinberg’s KGB covername had not been known. However, it was revealed, albeit not associated with him, in 1996 by Vladimir Chikov in Comment Staline: “By the end of the war at least six Soviet agents were working on the Manhattan Project: PERSEUS, CHARLES, CASPAR, METHOD, IDEA and CALIBER. Supporting them were an equal number of contacts or couriers, such as OLDTIMER, RAYMOND and LESLIE. The reader is familiar with three of these figures: PERSEUS, CHARLES, and LESLIE. Of the others, CASPAR was the code name for Bruno Pontecorvo, CALIBER for David Greenglass, RAYMOND for Harry Gold the NKVD contact with Fuchs. The identities of OLDTIMER, METHOD and IDEA cannot be revealed.” (""Method" [Metod], cover name in Vassiliev notebooks: Joseph Weinberg." Spies, Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev, p. 85-86)
~ Merle Weinberg IDEA The fact that Merle Weinberg had a cover name should be an interesting proposition for historians. She is listed in the Proven category because, (1) it is rock solid that her husband was a Soviet source, (2) the Vassiliev Notebooks show that she was assigned the codename “Idea,” denoting clandestine activity, and (3) another authoritative source, Comment Staline, not only corroborated her codename, "Idea,” but included her with her husband as “soviet agents working on the Manhattan Project.” This is known to be true for Joe Weinberg. This writer has not seen it reported that Merle Weinberg had a job on the Manhattan Project and thus could have been a Soviet source in her own right. If she was not a source then, given her codename, she was likely a courier. This could be significant: Why do Joe and Merle Weinberg crop up in a book based on the Illegal directorate file, Dossier No. 13676, which pertains primarily, if not exclusively, to the Morris Cohen atomic espionage ring? This begs the logical further question, did Merle Weinberg courier for someone associated with the Volunteer Group? Related to such a notion is the apparent association between the covernames STAR/STARI, METHOD and IDEA. Such an association would be fully consistent with the known relationship between Steve Nelson (STARI) and Joe Weinberg. Conclusion: Historians should recognize that the agent codenamed STAR, who was the first courier for Arthur Fielding (Comment Staline) can not possibly represent for Saville Sax. (""Idea", covernname in Vassiliev notebooks: Merle Weinberg." Spies, Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev, p. 86)
~ Morris Cohen LUIS/VOLUNTEER Entered US Army July 1942; returned from Europe November 1945. First case officer, Semyon Semyonov; Second case officer, A. Yatskov; Thired case officer, Yury Sokolov; last case officer, the illegal William Fisher, aka Rudolf Abel (MARK).
~ Lona Cohen LESLIE First case officer, Semyon Semyonov; Second case officer, A. Yatskov; Thired case officer, Y. Sokolov; last case officer, the illegal William Fisher, aka Rudolf Abel (MARK). Contact agent for Theodore Hall at Los Alamos and Bruno Pontecorvo in Canada.
~ Theodore Hall MLAD First case officer, Anatoli Yatskov. Hall was not a recruited agent—he was a walk-in volunteer spy to the New Yorrk residency in October 1944 when he was home on furlough from Los Alamos. Lona Cohen was a courier to Hall in New Mexico (Albuquerque) in August 1945.
~ Saville Sax STAR First case officer, Anatoli Yatskov. Sax was a childhood friend of Hall’s from New York. He helped Hall make contact with Soviet intelligence during Hall’s October furlough. After vetting by Yatskov, Sax was used as a courier to Hall in New Mexico (Albuquerque) in April 1945.
~ George Koval DELMAR A GRU asset in the United States. Case officer not identified. Koval was born in 1914 in Sioux City, Iowa, to Russian immigrant parents. Joined the Young Communist League where he was an Activist. He attended the University of Iowa for two and a half years before going back to Russia with his family in 1932. Koval completed his college education at the Mendelev Insttittue of Technology in Moscow. At about this time, he was recruited by the GRU and, in October 1940, sent back to the U.S. as a sleeper penetration agent. His cover became that of an employee with the Raven Electric Company in New York City, a GRU cover/business front. Koval registered for the military draft but sought and received a deferment based on Raven’s defense work. The deferment expired and Koval was inducted into the Army on February 4, 1943. In the Army, Koval qualified for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) which sent him to CCNY to study electrical engineering. The ASTP was shut down and Koval was selected for the Manhattan Project’s Special Engineering Detachment (SED). In mid-1944 Koval was detailed to Oak Ridge where he worked as a health physics officer monitoring radiation levels throughout the uranium processing complex. The position required Koval to hold a Top Secret clearance, but the Army’s background investigation was negligent, maybe non-existent. No BI request was sent to the FBI; no Army CI agent went to Sioux City to verify personal history. (William J. Broad, "A Spy's Path, Iowa to A-Bomb to Kremlin Honor," New York Times, 12 November 2007; Michael Walsh, Iowa-Born - Soviet Trained, Smithsonian, May 2009; FBI FOIA File 65-62911.)
~ Russell McNutt FOGEL/PERS FOGEL/PERS Recruited by Julius Rosenberg; First case officer, Semyon Semyonov; Second case officer, unclear: either Alexander Feklisov or Anatoli Yatskov. (Feklisov: “That ‘complication’ did not apply to Semyonov himself, who experienced active FBI surveillance in the spring of 1944. For that reason, he [Semyonov] transferred both ‘Fogel’ and Julius Rosenberg to the supervision of another Soviet operative, Alexander Feklissov.” The Haunted Wood, p.190-1. ~ Yatskov: “A listing of agents in March 1945, after Rosenberg’s sources had been reassigned in a security move, showed that Anatoly Yatskov had been assigned to supervise ‘Persian’ and held his first meeting wth McNutt on 11 March 1945.” Spies, p.37). McNutt’s covernames appear in several Venona messages. They remained unidentified until Vassiliev’s Notebooks became available. From Spies: “Russell McNutt worked on structural designs for concrete water-cooling flumes and other major facilities of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge. Most of the time, he worked out of the company’s New York office, but he made occasional trips to Tennessee.”
~ Boris Poldolsky KVANT (QUANTUM) KVANT (QUANTUM) First case officer, probably Vladimir Pravdin. KVANT appears unidentified in 3 Venona messages. Vassiliev’s Notebooks revealed that KVANT was the Russian-born theoretical physicist Boris Podolsky. After receiving a PhD at CALTECH, Podolsky wound up at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton where he became an associate of Albert Einstein. In 1942 Podolsky approached the Soviet Embassy in Washington and offered to work on Uranium research. In June 1943 he returned to the Embassy to meet with Vladimir Pravdin and atomic-savy Semyon Semyonov. At this time Podolsky provided a sample of his work: “complex chemical equations on the gaseous diffusion method for separating bomb-grade U-235 from unwanted [non-fissile] U-238,” and received a payment of $300. It is not clear where or how Podolsky became involved in the subject of uranium enrichment by gaseous diffusion. There is no report of him officially working or consulting on the DSM/Manhattan Project. Thus the label spy may not apply if this was his own, independent work, perhaps based on inappropriate conversations with other scientists. In any case, the matter became moot as Moscow judged his real value to their effort to be insubstantial. For these reasons, although Podolsky is reflected among the proven spies, he could also be viewed as unproven.(Spies, p.73-5.)
28. "The Putative ... “Arthur Fielding,” presently unproven and unidentified.":
~ ANTA and ADEN The main references to Anta and Aden as part of the Volunteer Group: (1) Re SERB, LESLI, MLAD, STAR, see Venona, Index of Covernames (Undated Documents); (2) Re LUIS, LESLI, MLAD, ADEN, SERB, SILVER, see The Sword and the Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, 1999, Pages 147-8; (3) Re KLIBI, LUIS, LESLI, ANTA, ADEN, MLAD, STAR, see Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Vladimir Chikov and Gary Kern, 1996. (4) Yet another, essentially corroborative, reference is found in Bombshell: "One retired KGB officer who has read the Cohen's dossier said that in addition to Morris and Lona Cohen, the Volunteer consisted of Mlad, Star, Anta, Aden, and two other American agents who have never been identified even by code name. One of the Cohens' best sources lived in California, or so Lona was to remember in later years." (B, p.198)
~ MAR The Mitrokhin Archive by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin revealed an unknown Soviet source on the Manhattan Project, codename MAR. Andrew's profile on MAR is predicated, per footnote, on Mitrokhin Archive material. The legend for MAR is as follows: MAR was an Amercian scientist working on plutonium research for Dupont in Newport in 1943; circa 1943, MAR was also matriculating at an educational institution in New York where he was completing a degree course; in April 1943 MAR provided Manhattan Project information in a letter addressed to the Soviets, delivered to the Soviet Consulate in New York by his sister-in-law; in May 1943, MAR sent another letter to the Soviet Consulate through his sister-in-law which contained "details on the plutonium route to the atomic bomb;" MAR's wife's name was Regina (codename MONA) and his sister-in-law was an Italian nurse whose name was Lucia (codename OLIVIA); MAR's father-in-law was an anti-fascist Italian union leader, cover name "D"; in October of 1943 MAR transferred to the Hanford processing site in Washington state. It so happens that a single Venona message (San Francisco to Moscow) contains the covername MAR—No 297, 2 June 1945 (02065). Although this message containing MAR is reflected in the Index of Covernames, the message itself is not available. The Sword and The Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive, p. 117.
~ GODSEND Covername found in Vassiliev’s Notebooks. Evidently worked at Los Alamos during the war, returned to a university (possibly University of Chicago) to complete his education. Handler was covername INTERMEDIARY who worked at Amtorg circa 1947-8. GODSEND was urged to return to Los Alamos. INTERMEDIARY was also contact for RELATIVE and GODFATHER, brothers of GODSEND, and NATA (all unidentified). This group was possibly created in 1945.
~ “Monti” In Man Behind the Rosenbergs, Alexander Feklisov discussed an atomic source whom he referred to as “Monti.” Feklisov was Monti’s case officer, but he never him. He managed Monti through a “cutout” he called “Pyotr Lastochkin” (translated Peter Swallow). Feklisov stated that Monti has never been identified and his covername is not in the Venona messages. Moreover, even if did use Monti’s real codename, “it would be useless to researchers.” Lastochkin was a chemical engineer who worked at Amtorg. He was back in America after having served a stint at Amtorg before the war. Lastochkin was older than Feklisov and had a brother who had been a classmate of Feklisov’s. Lastochkin was enthusiastic about his job and spoke English very well. Much of Lastochkin’s time was spent in libraries reading specialized publications. “He always attended lectures at universities or scientific societies and these greatly widened his impressive circle of contacts among his American counterparts.” Monti had been one such counterpart, someone whom Lastochkin had met during his first tour in America. (More probably than not, Lastochkin was Semyon Semyonov. One of Semyonov’s work names was Peter. Semyonov’s birth surname was Taubman, the root of which, taube, means pigeon or dove in German.) An abstract on Monti is as follows: Monti worked for Kellex, the company building the Oak Ridge plant; Monti was in charge of a team of engineers who were building chemical plants in the U.S. and overseas. Monti lived in a beautiful house in the Manhattan suburbs. Monti was asked by Lastochkin to provide a report on U 235 so that he could forward it to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Monti gave Lastochkin the technical blueprint of the plant at Oak Ridge. Thereafter, Monti was Kvasnikov’s top priority, even the Rosenberg network became secondary. Monti was warmly thanked by the Academy of Sciences and agreed to answer other questions from Soviet scientists. Monti was a rich man. Every piece of information Monti provided was priceless. When Lastochkin returned to Moscow, Monti agreed without reservation to meet with his successor.
~ SILVER Notwithstanding the SVR's declaration regarding the Volunteer Group’s key role in atomic espionage, not every member of the Cohen spy ring was an atomic source or agent, e.g. SERB, Joseph Chmilevski, a junior radio/sonar engineer. This may also apply to SILVER, who nonetheless should remain under consideration as an atomic agent. There are two occurrences of SILVER. The primary one is The Mitrokin Archive, p. 148, footnoted to File Vol. 6, ch.5, part 2. The second occurrence is from an invariably reliable confidential source who in 1998 listed-out the Volunteer Group as follows: SERB, LUIS, LESLI, SILVER, YURBA (a woman), KLIBI, STAR, MLAD, ANTA and ADEN. See essay Zhorzh Abramovich Koval regarding the possibility that SILVER was the American born George Abraham Koval.
29. “Vladimir Putin”: Sacred Secrets, Jerrold and Leona Schecter, 2002, page xix.
30. “Markus Wolf”: Man without a Face, Markus Wolf, 1997, page 227.
31. “Anatoli Yatskov”: The Washington Post, How the Soviets Stole U.S. Atom Secrets, Michael Dobbs, October 4, 1992.
32. “Sergey Leskov”: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August, 1994
33. “Alexander Feklisov”: The Man Behind the Rosenbergs, Alexander Feklisov, 2001, page 64.
34. “Igor Prelin”: RED Files, Secret Victories of the KGB, Igor Prelin Interview.
35. “Gary Kern”: Comment Staline, Afterward, p.363.
Comment Theodore Hall died on November 1, 1999, in England. His death was noted in a few major U.S. newspapers, not because of his scientific accomplishements, but due to his notoriety as a Soviet spy.
36. “Vladimir Chikov”: Comment Staline, page 29.
37. “Svetlana Chervonnaya”: Red Files, Secret Victories of the KGB, S. Chervonnaya Interview
38. “Albright and Kunstel”: Bombshell, page 185; also Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel, NSA Venona Conference, October 1997.
39. “Pavel Sudoplatov”: Special Tasks, Pavel Sudoplatov, 1994, page 188.
40. “Sudoplatov …four moles … Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Chicago … closely associated with Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard … part of the conspiracy … cites Anatoli Yatskov … couriered by Lona Cohen.”: Special Tasks, Ch. Seven, pps. 172-201, 493.
~ “I do not recall that code name [Perseus] or such a source, but I remember a cable form New York reporting the date of the first nuclear blast which referred to information passed by three moles … The three moles whose names I do not remember worked in their laboratories. … It should not be excluded that Perseus is a creation by Yatskov or his colleagues to cover the real names of the sources [moles]”
~ “Although they were unaware of it, Oppebnheimer and Fermi were assigned code names, Star and Editor, as sources of information. Star was used as the code name not only for Oppenheimer, but also for other physicists and scientists in the Manhattan Project with whom we had contact but who were not formally recruited agents. Code names were changed from time to time for security reasons; Oppenheimer and Fermi were also jointly known as Star.”
~ “Oppenheimer, together with Fermi and Szilard, helped us place moles in Tennessee, Los Alamos, and Chicago, as assistants in those three labs. In total there four important sources sources of information who transmitted documents form the labs to the New York and Washington rezidenturas and to our illegal station, which was a drugstore in Santa Fe. The material that reached Anatoli Yatskov, the control officer in New York, came from Fuchs, and one of the Los Alamos moles, and was carried by couriers, one of whom was Lona Cohen.”
~ “Another route was from the mole who worked with Fermi and Pontecorvo. The mole in Tenessee was connected with the illegal station at the Santa Fe drugstore, from which material was sent by courier to Mexico. These unidentified young moles, along with the Alamos mole were junior scientists or administrators who copied vital documents to which they were allowed access by Oppenheimer, Fermis and Szliard, who were knowingly part of the scheme.”
~ “A detailed report from Fuchs (Charles) came from Washington via the diplomatic pouch after he met his courier, Harry Gold, on September 19. I remember that later in September we received a detailed report form Pontecorvo (Mlad), passed on by a mole to Lona Cohen. I do not remember which one was which, but both these reports contained. A thirty-three page design of the bomb. … I remember that a twelve-page summary of the report, with a description of the bomb, compiled by Semyonov and signed by Vasilevsky, was channeled by me to Beria and Stalin.”
~ "We received top-secret information on the atomic bomb from two directions. One line was to indoctrinate scientists to cooperate in open discussions, and the other was to gather top-secret documents and information on the atomic bomb. Elizabeth (Liza) Zarubina and Sam Semyonov were the first to establish friendly contacts with the American scientific community and influence them to cooperate with antifascist scientists."
~ “the tragic events of the period from the 1930’s to 1953 covered in my book Special Tasks, including the beginning of the Cold War and the myth of Klaus Fuchs as the principal figure passing atomic secrets to Soviet intellignence, had already been told and established as the framework accepted by all interested parties. In fact there were many more sources of atomic secrets besides Fuchs.”
41. “Hall would be considered a mole … the extremely detailed data the Russians had received.”: Bombshell, Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel, 1997, p.155, et al.
42. "Sudoplatov made ... a hero of atomic espionage.": Special Tasks, p.381.
Caveat It must be repeated that, while "Arthur Fielding" is a single individual, the full legend in Stalin's Atomic Spies dealing with the figure Perseus is a blended mix, some elements of which belong to a second physicist recruited by Morris Cohen before he went into the Army. For example, "Fielding" had no prior association with Cohen based on the Spanish Civil War. But another scientist incorporated in the composite Perseus legend surely did. Note 4, Spain, refers.
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