Steve Nelson (spy)

From Conservapedia

Steve Nelson was a National Committeeman of the Communist Party USA.

A native of Yugoslavia, Steve Nelson entered the United States on June 12, 1920 under a false name. He joined the Communist Party in the early 1920's and in 1928 was granted United States citizenship.

Nelson received special training in the Lenin School in Moscow in 1931, and in 1933 acted as an operative for the Communist International in Shanghai, China. In 1936 and 1937, he served as a lieutenant colonel in the Communist-recruited International Brigades in Spain. Although active as a Communist Party organizer in California and Pennsylvania and as a member of the Communist Party National Committee, his most important assignment was atomic espionage.

In April 1943 the FBI monitored a meeting in Nelson's home.^[1] An FBI report stated,

"Through a highly confidential and reliable source it has been determined that on April 10, 1943, a Russian who is an agent of the Communist International paid a sum of money to Steve Nelson, National Committeeman of the Communist Party USA, at the latter's home in Oakland, California. The money was reportedly paid to Nelson for the purpose of placing Communist Party members and Comintern agents in industries engaged in secret war production for the United States Government so that information could be obtained for transmittal to the Soviet Union."

The FBI later identified the Russian as Vasili Zarubin, KGB North American Rezident. FBI Director Hoover alerted President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisor Harry Hopkins of the information,

"Because of the relationship demonstrated in this investigation between the Communist Party, USA, the Communist International and the Soviet Government, I thought the President and you would be interested in these data. These matters are being brought to your attention at this time for your confidential information inasmuch as the investigation is continuing."

The information was sensitive because it revealed that the FBI had a microphone in Communist leader Steve Nelson's home and could record all of his conversations.

Nelson had at times been in contact with Rudy Baker who in the early 1940's was a high official in the Communist International apparatus operating in the United States.

See also

• J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Giovanni Lomanitz
• Perseus (spy)

References