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==Markov==

==Markov==

One of the documents in the Venona collection is an anonymous letter, dated 7 August 1943, to "Mr. Guver" (Hoover). It identifies Soviet "intelligence officers and operations that stretched from Canada to Mexico." It also includes accusations of war crimes against the KGB Rezident in Washington, Vassili M. Zarubin (a.k.a. Zubilin), and his deputy, Markov (in the United States under the alias of Lt. Col. Vassili D. Mironov).

 

In August 1943 an anonymous letter drafted on a Russian typewriter was mailed in Washington, DC to [[FBI]] Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. The original text in Russian was addressed to "Mr. Guver."  It identifies Soviet "intelligence officers and operations that stretched from Canada to Mexico."  This extraordinary note denounced Zarubin and 10 other [[KGB]] officers in North America, along with two of their assets, [[Hollywood]] film producer [[Boris Moros]] and [[Andrey Shevchenko]] working at Bell Aircraft Niagra Falls.  FBI Special Agents quickly concluded that the letter was genuine and largely accurate, although they gave little credence to its claim that the Soviets were passing secrets to Japan.

 

Pavel Sudoplatov cites Markov, who's real name was Lt. Col. Mironov, [[KGB]] Rezident [[Vasili Zarubin]]'s assitant, as the author of the letter. <ref>Pavel Sudoplatov, with Anatoli Sudoplatov, Jerrold L. and Leona P. Schecter, ''Special Tasks: Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness and Soviet Spymaster'' (New York: Little, Brown, 1994), pp. 196-197.</ref>

 

The FBI subsequently increased surveillance of persons named in the letter and were able to get Moros and Shevchenko to cooperate as double agents. <ref>US House of Representatives, [[Committee on Un-American Activities]], "Soviet Espionage Activities in Connection With Jet Propulsion and Aircraft," 81st Congress, 1st Session, 1949, pp. 101-128.</ref>  Nevertheless, the FBI did apparently not pass copies of the anonymous letter to other agencies until after [[World War II]], nor did Special Agents try to recruit the Soviet officers identified by its author. It identifies Soviet "intelligence officers and operations that stretched from Canada to Mexico." It also includes accusations of war crimes against the KGB Rezident in Washington, Vassili M. Zarubin (a.k.a. Zubilin), and his deputy, Markov (in the United States under the alias of Lt. Col. Vassili D. Mironov). <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/preface.htm VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957,] pg. 9. Washington, DC: National Security Agency/Central Intelligence Agency, 1996. Laguna Hills, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1996.</ref>

The anonymous author asserted that Zarubin and his deputy Markov were directly implicated in  the bloody occupation of eastern Poland during the Nazi-Soviet alliance of 1939-41 and the murder of some 15,000 Polish soldiers--officers and NCOs, regulars and reservists--captured by the Red Army. The letter provided accurate and early confirmation of Soviet complicity in the executions in the [[Katyn Massacre|Katyn Forest]] were German occupation forces in April 1943 discovered a mass grave containing 4,300 Polish corpses. Only someone "in the know" could have revealed that Polish soldiers had been interned at Kozelsk and Starobelsk and that Polish soldiers had been killed "near Smolensk." This information was known to only a handful of people in 1943 and was carefully concealed for almost 50 years by Soviet authorities.

The anonymous author asserted that Zarubin and his deputy Markov were directly implicated in  the bloody occupation of eastern Poland during the Nazi-Soviet alliance of 1939-41 and the murder of some 15,000 Polish soldiers--officers and NCOs, regulars and reservists--captured by the Red Army. The letter provided accurate and early confirmation of Soviet complicity in the executions in the [[Katyn Massacre|Katyn Forest]] were German occupation forces in April 1943 discovered a mass grave containing 4,300 Polish corpses. Only someone "in the know" could have revealed that Polish soldiers had been interned at Kozelsk and Starobelsk and that Polish soldiers had been killed "near Smolensk." This information was known to only a handful of people in 1943 and was carefully concealed for almost 50 years by Soviet authorities.