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The year before, at the funeral of Marshal Józef Piłsudski<ref>[http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935)], Polska: History</ref> in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] William C. Bullitt<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt: Diplomat and Prophet]," ''American Diplomacy'', January 24, 2003</ref> had confidentially assured 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>Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231106769, p. 2. Cf. Michael Pearson, ''The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

The year before, at the funeral of Marshal Józef Piłsudski<ref>[http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935)], Polska: History</ref> in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] William C. Bullitt<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt: Diplomat and Prophet]," ''American Diplomacy'', January 24, 2003</ref> had confidentially assured 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>Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231106769, p. 2. Cf. Michael Pearson, ''The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] gave Hiss a rug from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, Executive Session, August 17, 1948</ref> Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S., had given Chambers $800 to buy four 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]] Meyer Schapiro,<ref>John Russell, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro, 91, Is Dead; His Work Wove Art and Life]," ''The New York Times'', March 4, 1996</ref> 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, who confessed to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him,<ref>William R. Conklin, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 Aided Red Spy Ring, Wadleigh Admits; Tells Hiss Jury He Channeled Up to 500 U.S. Documents to Soviet in 1936-37]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 1949, p. 16</ref> confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, pp. 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift from the [[Soviets]].<ref>Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] gave Hiss a rug from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, Executive Session, August 17, 1948</ref> Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S., had given Chambers $800 to buy four 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]] Meyer Schapiro,<ref>John Russell, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro, 91, Is Dead; His Work Wove Art and Life]," ''The New York Times'', March 4, 1996</ref> 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, who confessed to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him,<ref>William R. Conklin, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 Aided Red Spy Ring, Wadleigh Admits; Tells Hiss Jury He Channeled Up to 500 U.S. Documents to Soviet in 1936-37]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 1949, p. 16</ref> confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, pp. 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift from the [[Soviets]].<ref>Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> (whose victims would number over ten million),<ref>Norman Davis, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all Now It Can Be Told, Even in Russia]," ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1990</ref> Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to Oleg Gordievsky,<ref>"[http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Buckingham Honours Oleg Gordievsky],"  The University of Buckingham: News, February 28, 2005</ref> the [[KGB]] London station chief who defected in 1985.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65</ref>

By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> (whose victims would number over ten million),<ref>Norman Davis, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all Now It Can Be Told, Even in Russia]," ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1990</ref> Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to Oleg Gordievsky,<ref>"[http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Buckingham Honours Oleg Gordievsky],"  The University of Buckingham: News, February 28, 2005</ref> the [[KGB]] London station chief who defected in 1985.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65</ref>