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| style="background: #ccf; text-align: center;" | '''This article is part of the'''<br>'''[[Venona project|Venona]]'''<br>'''series.'''
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| style="text-align: center;"|[[CPUSA]]
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| style="text-align: center;"|[[KGB]]
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|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc"|
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| style="text-align: center;"|<small>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Template:Ushistory&action=edit Edit this box]</small>
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'''Isaac Folkoff''' was a senior member of the California [[Communist Party]] and West Coast liaison between Soviet intelligence and the Communist Party of the United States of America ([[CPUSA]]). Folkoff was in charge of West Coast operations. Folkoff worked as a courier passing information to and from Soviet sources, and as a talent spotter and vetter of potential espionage recruits. He also worked as a case officer. His code name in Soviet intelligence and in the [[Venona]] files was "Uncle".
Folkoff collected CPUSA dues from [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] who had been an ardent [[Popular Front]] liberal and ally. Folkoff collected 150 dollars a month from Oppenheimer. <ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2002) FBI document attesting to that in Appendix 1. </ref> As director of the [[Manhattan Project]] Oppenheimer knew all the secrets, and just as soon as new secrets came into being. Up to the time Oppenheimer reported his contact with [[Haakon Chevalier]], he may have overlooked the conduct of others, a passivity motivated by personal and political ties. <ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America,'' Yale University Press, 1999, pp. 327-330.</ref> Another theory states Chevalier's approach To Oppenheimer may not have been an attempt at recruitment, but part of the big shake up after [[Stalin]] publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943, and agents had to be reassigned new case officers. Oppenheimer is mentioned in a KGB communication:
:''In 1942 one of the leaders of scientific work on uranium in the USA, Professor R. Oppenheimer while being an unlisted [nglastny] member of the apparatus of [[Earl Browder|Comrade Browder]] informed us about the beginning of work. On the request of [[Kheifetz]], confirmed by Comrade Browder, he provided cooperation in access to research for several of our tested sources including a relative of Comrade Browder...Due to complications…it is expedient to immediately sever contacts of leaders and activist of the American Communist Party with scientists and specialists engaged in work on uranium.'' <ref>''Sacred Secrets'' p. 50.</ref>
==References==
<references/>
=== Source ===
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folkoff, Isaac}}
[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]
| style="background: #ccf; text-align: center;" | '''This article is part of the'''<br>'''[[Venona project|Venona]]'''<br>'''series.'''
|-
| style="text-align: center;"|[[CPUSA]]
|-
| style="text-align: center;"|[[KGB]]
|-
|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc"|
|-
| style="text-align: center;"|<small>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Template:Ushistory&action=edit Edit this box]</small>
|}
'''Isaac Folkoff''' was a senior member of the California [[Communist Party]] and West Coast liaison between Soviet intelligence and the Communist Party of the United States of America ([[CPUSA]]). Folkoff was in charge of West Coast operations. Folkoff worked as a courier passing information to and from Soviet sources, and as a talent spotter and vetter of potential espionage recruits. He also worked as a case officer. His code name in Soviet intelligence and in the [[Venona]] files was "Uncle".
Folkoff collected CPUSA dues from [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] who had been an ardent [[Popular Front]] liberal and ally. Folkoff collected 150 dollars a month from Oppenheimer. <ref>Jerrold L. Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2002) FBI document attesting to that in Appendix 1. </ref> As director of the [[Manhattan Project]] Oppenheimer knew all the secrets, and just as soon as new secrets came into being. Up to the time Oppenheimer reported his contact with [[Haakon Chevalier]], he may have overlooked the conduct of others, a passivity motivated by personal and political ties. <ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America,'' Yale University Press, 1999, pp. 327-330.</ref> Another theory states Chevalier's approach To Oppenheimer may not have been an attempt at recruitment, but part of the big shake up after [[Stalin]] publicly disbanded the [[Comintern]] in 1943, and agents had to be reassigned new case officers. Oppenheimer is mentioned in a KGB communication:
:''In 1942 one of the leaders of scientific work on uranium in the USA, Professor R. Oppenheimer while being an unlisted [nglastny] member of the apparatus of [[Earl Browder|Comrade Browder]] informed us about the beginning of work. On the request of [[Kheifetz]], confirmed by Comrade Browder, he provided cooperation in access to research for several of our tested sources including a relative of Comrade Browder...Due to complications…it is expedient to immediately sever contacts of leaders and activist of the American Communist Party with scientists and specialists engaged in work on uranium.'' <ref>''Sacred Secrets'' p. 50.</ref>
==References==
<references/>
=== Source ===
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folkoff, Isaac}}
[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]