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'''Steve Nelson''' was a member of the National Committee of the [[Communist Party USA]] who had ties to [[USSR|Soviet]] intelligence.

'''Steve Nelson''' was a member of the National Committee of the [[Communist Party USA]] (CPUSA) who had ties to [[USSR|Soviet]] intelligence.

Born '''Stjepan Mesaros''' in Čaglić, Croatia in 1903, he entered the [[United States]] on June 12, 1920 under an illegal and fraudulent passport under the false name of Joseph Fleischinger. He joined the [[Communist Party]] in 1925 and was granted United States citizenship in 1928.<ref>Daniel J. Leab, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BoQPe_uOsUgC I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.: The Unhappy Life and Times of Matt Cvetic]'' (State College, Penn: Penn State Press, 2000) ISBN 0271020539, p. 83</ref>

Born '''Stjepan Mesaros''' in Čaglić, Croatia in 1903, the [[Communist Party]] would later falsely claim that he was born in Steelton, Pennsylvania.<ref>Cecil D. Eby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=3RBpAAAAMAAJ Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War]'' (State College, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007) ISBN 0271029102, p. 141</ref>. He entered the [[United States]] on June 12, 1920 under an illegal and fraudulent passport under the false name "Joseph Fleischinger." According to an official organ of the [[CPUSA]], he claimed to have joined the [[Communist Party]] in 1925.<ref>Joseph North, "Steve Nelson an Exemplary Political Commissar in the International Brigade," ''[[The Daily Worker]]'', November 10, 1937. Cf. Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 81st Cong., 1st Sess., [http://ia311305.us.archive.org/1/items/hearingsregarding1949unit/hearingsregarding1949unit_bw.pdf Hearings Regarding Steve Nelson (Including Foreword), June 8, 1949] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1949), p. 137 (PDF p. 23)</ref> He was granted United States citizenship in 1928, his name rendered "Stephen Mesarosh."<ref>Daniel J. Leab, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BoQPe_uOsUgC I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.: The Unhappy Life and Times of Matt Cvetic]'' (State College, Penn: Penn State Press, 2000) ISBN 0271020539, p. 83</ref>

Nelson received special training at 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 1931, the Communist Party sent him to Moscow to attend the [[Lenin School]], where the [[USSR|Soviets]] trained top [[Communist International]] cadres in "military strategy, including civil warfare, sabotage, secret codes, and conspiratorial organization."<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZPZ4slgisQ0C Proposed Antisubversion Legislation] (Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1989), p. 642</ref> In 1933 he served as a [[Comintern]] agent in [[Shanghai]], China. In 1937, he obtained an illegal and fraudulent U.S. passport (again under the false name "Joseph Fleischinger") to travel to [[Spain]], where he served as a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet-dominated [[International Brigades]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]]. There, he befriended Kitty Dallett (widow of Commissar Joe Dallett, killed in Spain), who would in 1940 marry [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]], a physicist at the Berkeley Radiation Lab who would be in charge of the Manhattan Project. That year, the Soviets sent Nelson as Communist Party organizer for the Bay area in California, with an underground assignment to obtain [[atomic]] [[espionage]]. According to an FBI surveillance log:

{{cquote|In December 1942, Julius Robert Oppenheimer was the subject of a discussion between Steven Nelson and Bernadette Doyle, organizational secretary of the Communist Party for Alameda County, California. At this time, Steven Nelson stated that Dr. Hannah Peters<ref>Organizer of the professional section of the Communist Party for Alameda County (Kenneth D. Nichols, [http://www.mphpa.org/classic/JRO/02.htm Indictment of J. Robert Oppenheimer], Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc.)</ref> had been to visit him and she had stated that Dr. Oppenheimer because of his employment in a special project could not be active in the party.... Bernadette Doyle answered Nelson by saying that she believes the matter should be taken up with the State Committee regarding the 'two Oppys' inasmuch as they were regularly registered and everyone knew that they were Communist Party members.<ref>FBI report: FBI file: Oppenheimer, Vol. 1, p. 3, reproduced in M. Stanton Evans, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=vz42rDYmf3wC Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies]'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 317</ref>}}

In April 1943 the [[FBI]] monitored a meeting in Nelson's home.<ref>Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/venona.htm VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957]'' (National Security Agency/Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), Preface</ref>  An FBI report stated,

In April 1943 the [[FBI]] monitored a meeting in Nelson's home.<ref>Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/venona.htm VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957]'' (National Security Agency/Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), Preface</ref>  An FBI report stated:

 

{{cquote|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.<ref>Herbert Romerstein, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-column/a-valuable-new-book-on-the-kgb/ A Valuable New Book on the KGB]," Accuracy in Media, May 13, 2009</ref>}}

:"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."<ref>Herbert Romerstein, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-column/a-valuable-new-book-on-the-kgb/ A Valuable New Book on the KGB]," Accuracy in Media, May 13, 2009</ref>

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,

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,