| | The year before, at the funeral of Marshal [http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski] in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] [http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt] had given confidential assurance to the [[Polish]] [[government]] that the [[United States]] would stand by [[Poland]] in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But after Bullitt reported back to [[Washington]] that he had done so, someone at the [[State Department]] passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to [[German]] intelligence (with which [[Soviet intelligence]] had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]).<ref>See, for example: Michael Pearson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=7rkeAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power]'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626, particularly the German documents in the Afterward. Cf. [[#refNekrich97|Nekrich 1997]]: eg., 2, 69; [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/intdip/formulti/rapallo_001.htm German-Russian Agreement] (Treaty of Rapallo), April 16, 1922; [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/intdip/formulti/rapallo_002.htm Supplementary Agreement], November 5, 1922; Hans W. Gatzke, "[http://www.jstor.org/pss/1848881 Russo-German Military Collaboration during the Weimar Republic]," ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 63, No. 3 (April 1958), pp. 565-597; Ernst Fraenkel, "[http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5280948 German-Russian Relations Since 1918: From Brest-Litovsk to Moscow]," ''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 2, No. 1 (1940), pp. 34-62. N.B. the coming to power of the Nazis did nothing to interrupt this liaison: "The documents of the German Foreign Ministry, captured by the Allies at the end of World War II and published in London during the 1950's, show that secret negotiations between Stalin's agents and the Hitler Government began as early as 1933." Aleksandr Nekrich and Mikhail Heller, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=G-poAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present]'' (Summit Books, 1986) ISBN 0671462423, p. 310. Nazi-Soviet relations became even closer [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/nazsov.asp in 1939-1941]. The Soviets were still negotiating with the Nazis [[#refBlack06|as late as the Teheran conference]] in December 1943. Robert C. Grogin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qBBcqDludakC Natural Enemies: the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, 1917-1991]'' (Lexington Books, 2001) ISBN 0739101609, p. 38</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to de Toledano, the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 was Alger Hiss]. | | The year before, at the funeral of Marshal [http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski] in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] [http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt] had given confidential assurance to the [[Polish]] [[government]] that the [[United States]] would stand by [[Poland]] in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But after Bullitt reported back to [[Washington]] that he had done so, someone at the [[State Department]] passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to [[German]] intelligence (with which [[Soviet intelligence]] had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]).<ref>See, for example: Michael Pearson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=7rkeAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power]'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626, particularly the German documents in the Afterward. Cf. [[#refNekrich97|Nekrich 1997]]: eg., 2, 69; [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/intdip/formulti/rapallo_001.htm German-Russian Agreement] (Treaty of Rapallo), April 16, 1922; [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/intdip/formulti/rapallo_002.htm Supplementary Agreement], November 5, 1922; Hans W. Gatzke, "[http://www.jstor.org/pss/1848881 Russo-German Military Collaboration during the Weimar Republic]," ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 63, No. 3 (April 1958), pp. 565-597; Ernst Fraenkel, "[http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5280948 German-Russian Relations Since 1918: From Brest-Litovsk to Moscow]," ''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 2, No. 1 (1940), pp. 34-62. N.B. the coming to power of the Nazis did nothing to interrupt this liaison: "The documents of the German Foreign Ministry, captured by the Allies at the end of World War II and published in London during the 1950's, show that secret negotiations between Stalin's agents and the Hitler Government began as early as 1933." Aleksandr Nekrich and Mikhail Heller, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=G-poAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Utopia in Power: The History of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the Present]'' (Summit Books, 1986) ISBN 0671462423, p. 310. Nazi-Soviet relations became even closer [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/nazsov.asp in 1939-1941]. The Soviets were still negotiating with the Nazis [[#refBlack06|as late as the Teheran conference]] in December 1943. Robert C. Grogin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qBBcqDludakC Natural Enemies: the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, 1917-1991]'' (Lexington Books, 2001) ISBN 0739101609, p. 38</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to de Toledano, the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 was Alger Hiss]. |
| − | At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] [[#refHUAC8-17-48|gave Hiss a rug]] from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]]. Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S.,<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 639</ref> had given Chambers $800 to buy four [http://justiceiro.smugmug.com/photos/113296067-M.jpg Bokhara rugs] for Hiss, [[Harry Dexter White]], [[George Silverman]], and [[Julian Wadleigh]], according to Chambers; Hiss would later claim that Chambers had given him his rug in 1935 in partial payment for rent. | + | At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] [[#refHUAC8-17-48|gave Hiss a rug]] from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]]. Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S.,<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 639</ref> had given Chambers $800 (equivalent to approximately [[#refBLS|$13,000 today]]) to buy four [http://justiceiro.smugmug.com/photos/113296067-M.jpg Bokhara rugs] for Hiss, [[Harry Dexter White]], [[George Silverman]], and [[Julian Wadleigh]], according to Chambers; Hiss would later claim that Chambers had given him his rug in 1935 in partial payment for rent. |
| | Chambers' version was corroborated by [[Marxist]]<ref>Alan Wallach, "Marxist Art Historian: Meyer Schapiro, 1904-1996," ''Against the Current'' 62 (May-June 1996), p. 52</ref> [[Columbia University]] [[art]] [[historian]] [http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro], who confirmed that he arranged the purchase (and produced the canceled check dated December 23, 1936); by the [[Massachusetts]] Importing Company of [[Manhattan]], which confirmed selling him the rugs (and produced the [[Bill of Sale]]); by White's widow and Silverman (who confirmed that they had received their rugs sometime between late 1936 and the fall of 1938); and by Wadleigh, [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 who confessed] to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him, confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift [[#refCohen93|from the Soviets]]. | | Chambers' version was corroborated by [[Marxist]]<ref>Alan Wallach, "Marxist Art Historian: Meyer Schapiro, 1904-1996," ''Against the Current'' 62 (May-June 1996), p. 52</ref> [[Columbia University]] [[art]] [[historian]] [http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro], who confirmed that he arranged the purchase (and produced the canceled check dated December 23, 1936); by the [[Massachusetts]] Importing Company of [[Manhattan]], which confirmed selling him the rugs (and produced the [[Bill of Sale]]); by White's widow and Silverman (who confirmed that they had received their rugs sometime between late 1936 and the fall of 1938); and by Wadleigh, [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 who confessed] to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him, confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift [[#refCohen93|from the Soviets]]. |
| | That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] ([http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1451875/Michael-Straight.html code-named "Nigel"])—an [[#refPlatt99|FDR protégé]] and intimate family friend of the President and First Lady, who was also a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa member of] the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]] (and would become an [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 153</ref> and [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/nyregion/michael-straight-who-wrote-of-connection-to-spy-ring-is-dead-at-87.html publisher of ''The New Republic'']), then working at the [[State Department]]—mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 183-184</ref> Akhmerov worried that Straight "might guess that Hiss [Akhmerov again used Hiss's real name] belongs to our family" or "find out Hiss's nature" as a [[GRU]] agent.<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 155-156</ref> | | That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] ([http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1451875/Michael-Straight.html code-named "Nigel"])—an [[#refPlatt99|FDR protégé]] and intimate family friend of the President and First Lady, who was also a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa member of] the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]] (and would become an [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 153</ref> and [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/nyregion/michael-straight-who-wrote-of-connection-to-spy-ring-is-dead-at-87.html publisher of ''The New Republic'']), then working at the [[State Department]]—mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 183-184</ref> Akhmerov worried that Straight "might guess that Hiss [Akhmerov again used Hiss's real name] belongs to our family" or "find out Hiss's nature" as a [[GRU]] agent.<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 155-156</ref> |
| − | On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a car, using $400 [[#refHissAppellate|he said Alger Hiss loaned him]].<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 39</ref> Hiss would [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html deny making the loan], but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money [[#refNoe9|to buy furniture]] for a new house, but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 198-202</ref> and could not produce receipts for any purchases, nor explain why they had used cash from savings rather than the checking and charge accounts they otherwise used for such purchases.<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 73</ref> | + | On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a used car, using $400 (equivalent to more than [[#refBLS|$6,000 today]]) [[#refHissAppellate|he said Alger Hiss loaned him]].<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 39</ref> Hiss would [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html deny making the loan], but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money [[#refNoe9|to buy furniture]] for a new house, but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 198-202</ref> and could not produce receipts for any purchases, nor explain why they had used cash from savings rather than the checking and charge accounts they otherwise used for such purchases.<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 73</ref> |