Changes

Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>

Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>

On November 27, 1945, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.” She said that [[Charles Kramer]] told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”

On November 27, 1945, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.” She said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref>

Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by an 25 April 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:

Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by an 25 April 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:

{{cquote|Our agent RUBLE, drawn to work for the Soviet Union in May 1937, passed initially through the [[GRU|military "neighbors"]] and then through our station ([[NKVD]]) valuable information on political and economic issues.... To our work RUBLE gives much attention and energy and is devoted and disciplined agent.}}

{{cquote|Our agent RUBLE, drawn to work for the Soviet Union in May 1937, passed initially through the [[GRU|military "neighbors"]] and then through our station ([[NKVD]]) valuable information on political and economic issues.... To our work RUBLE gives much attention and energy and is devoted and disciplined agent.}}

Bentley said she later clipped an article from the New York daily ''PM'' (whose Washington correspondent, [[I.F. Stone]], was a Soviet intelligence source designated in [[Venona project|encrypted Soviet cables]] by the code name "Blin")<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 432-436</ref> “in which Hiss was mentioned.” She said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene [sic] Hiss and that he was an adviser to [[Dean Acheson]] in the State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss. <ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 108 (PDF p. 119)]</ref>

Bentley said after "Jack" (Soviet agent Joseph Katz)<ref>Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, ''The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story'' (Atlanta: Mercer University Press, 1995) ISBN 0865544778, p. 296</ref> asked her who Hiss was, she clipped an article from the New York daily ''PM'' (whose Washington correspondent, [[I.F. Stone]], was a Soviet intelligence source designated in [[Venona project|encrypted Soviet cables]] by the code name "Blin")<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 432-436</ref> “in which Hiss was mentioned.” She said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene [sic] Hiss and that he was an adviser to [[Dean Acheson]] in the State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 108 (PDF p. 119)]</ref>

[[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [[Gorsky memo|memorandum]] three years later, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks, Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes]</ref>

[[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [[Gorsky memo|memorandum]] three years later, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks, Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes]</ref>

==The Volkogonov affair==

==The Volkogonov affair==

After the fall of Soviet Communism in 1991, former President Nixon and the director of his presidential library, John H. Taylor, asked the new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to open the former Soviet archives relating to the Hiss-Chambers case. Meanwhile Hiss and his lawyer<ref> Dmitri Volkogonov, Letter to ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'', November 1992, quoted in John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 167</ref> Faxed similar appeals to retired Soviet Army General Dmitri Volkogonov and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), asking for confirmation that Lowenthal's "client, Alger Hiss," had never been "an agent of the NKVD."<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], H-DIPLO</ref> (This despite the fact that Hiss had never been accused of being an agent of the NKVD, but of the GRU.)

After the fall of Soviet Communism in 1991, former President Nixon and the director of his presidential library, John H. Taylor, asked the new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to open the former Soviet archives relating to the Hiss-Chambers case. Meanwhile Hiss and his lawyer<ref> Dmitri Volkogonov, Letter to ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'', November 1992, quoted in John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 167</ref> Faxed similar appeals to retired Soviet Army General Dmitri Volkogonov and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), asking for confirmation that Lowenthal's "client, Alger Hiss," had never been "an agent of the NKVD."<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], H-DIPLO</ref> (This despite the fact that the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.)<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref><ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258), p. 140</ref>

Volkogonov, as ''apparatchik'' in charge of Soviet military history under the Communists<ref>Amos Perlmutter, "Western journalists slow to report General Dmitri Volkogonov's explanation of his exoneration of convicted spy Alger Hiss," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref> had written with official blessing<ref> David Remnick, "The Stalin Tragedy Comes Home; With Official Blessings, a Soviet Historian Works on a Biography," ''The Washington Post'', June 30, 1988, p. B1</ref> a 1988 biography of Stalin in which he defended Stalin's claim that a majority in the Baltics favored incorporation into the Soviet Union in August 1940, described Stalin's invasion of Poland as "largely justified," blamed the West for the Cold War,<ref>Steven M. Miner, "The Incubus of Despotism," ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 1991</ref> and accepted the claim that Stalin's purges were provoked by Trotskyist and Nazi agents.<ref>Walter Laqueur, ''The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost'' (New York: C. Scribner's, 1989) ISBN 0684190303, p. 68</ref>

Volkogonov, as ''apparatchik'' in charge of Soviet military history under the Communists<ref>Amos Perlmutter, "Western journalists slow to report General Dmitri Volkogonov's explanation of his exoneration of convicted spy Alger Hiss," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref> had written with official blessing<ref> David Remnick, "The Stalin Tragedy Comes Home; With Official Blessings, a Soviet Historian Works on a Biography," ''The Washington Post'', June 30, 1988, p. B1</ref> a 1988 biography of Stalin in which he defended Stalin's claim that a majority in the Baltics favored incorporation into the Soviet Union in August 1940, described Stalin's invasion of Poland as "largely justified," blamed the West for the Cold War,<ref>Steven M. Miner, "The Incubus of Despotism," ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 1991</ref> and accepted the claim that Stalin's purges were provoked by Trotskyist and Nazi agents.<ref>Walter Laqueur, ''The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost'' (New York: C. Scribner's, 1989) ISBN 0684190303, p. 68</ref>

“The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different,” admitted Volkogonov.<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992]</ref> He admitted that he had "not seen anything from the GRU archive" and that without going through the files there, there was "no basis for saying anything that would shed greater light on the question of Hiss.”<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky/date Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article,” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', May 17, 2007]</ref> “I looked only through what the KGB had,” said Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee…that it was not in other channels….”<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992]</ref>

“The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different,” admitted Volkogonov.<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992]</ref> He admitted that he had "not seen anything from the GRU archive" and that without going through the files there, there was "no basis for saying anything that would shed greater light on the question of Hiss.”<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky/date Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article,” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', May 17, 2007]</ref> “I looked only through what the KGB had,” said Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee…that it was not in other channels….”<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992]</ref>

Asked if he had examined the files of the Comintern, Volkogonov admitted, “I have not seen these documents…. I have not had the opportunity to see these documents ... only foreign intelligence archives in Russian which contained information on agents.”<ref>Reed Irvine, Ed., “[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1992/11b.html Media Bites on Hiss Hoax],” ''AIM Report'', November B 1992</ref>

Asked if he had examined the files of the Comintern, Volkogonov admitted, “I have not had the opportunity to see these documents.”<ref>Reed Irvine, Ed., “[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1992/11b.html Media Bites on Hiss Hoax],” ''AIM Report'', November B 1992</ref> In addition, even in the KGB archive, “many documents have been destroyed,” admitted Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee that [Hiss’ file] was not destroyed.”<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” The New York Times, December 17, 1992]</ref>

In addition, even in the KGB archive, “many documents have been destroyed,” admitted Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee that [Hiss’ file] was not destroyed.”<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” The New York Times, December 17, 1992]</ref>

“What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification,” concluded Volkogonov. “[Hiss’] attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced,”<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” The New York Times, December 17, 1992]</ref> he said. Volkogonov added that he felt he had been ‘deceived’ by Lowenthal.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky/date Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article,” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', May 17, 2007]</ref>

“What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification,” said Volkogonov. “[Hiss’] attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced,”<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Serge Schmemann, “Russian General Retreats on Hiss,” The New York Times, December 17, 1992]</ref> he said. Volkogonov added that he felt he had been ‘deceived’ by Lowenthal.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky/date Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article,” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', May 17, 2007]</ref>

Three years later, both Alger Hiss and Volkogonov died, the Russians shut down research access to Soviet-era files, and the U.S. government released the [[Venona project]] files. Meanwhile, retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the files.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw=], H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 10, 2003</ref>

Meanwhile, retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov, whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR,"<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> claimed that it was not Volkogonov (who died in 1995), but he who actually searched the files.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= ], H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 10, 2003</ref>

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say (although he did mention that he "strongly disapprove[d]" of allowing Weinstein and Vassiliev access to the archives, saying, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Services Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>  

Kobyakov also claimed that former KGB General-Lieutenant [[Vitaly Pavlov]], who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Services Net, October 16, 2003</ref> That is hardly surprising, say critics, since the evidence implicated Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref><ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258), p. 140</ref>

 

Kobyakov also claimed that former KGB General-Lieutenant Vitaly Pavlov, who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Services Net, October 16, 2003</ref> That is hardly surprising, say historians, since Hiss is accused of working for the GRU, not NKVD.

After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials  stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref>

After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials  stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref>

==Legacy==

==Legacy==