Last year, Jerrold L. and you can Leona P. Schecter displayed conclusions using their recently penned book: Sacred Treasures: Exactly how Soviet Cleverness Functions Changed Western History, during the a cold Combat Globally Records Investment (CWIHP) seminarments into the demonstration was in fact available with Kai Bird (writer of a forthcoming bio of Oppenheimer and you may former Wilson Cardio Fellow), Roentgen. Bruce Craig (Federal Coalition to have Records), Ronald Radosh (co-publisher from The country of spain Betrayed: The brand new Soviet Union regarding Foreign language Municipal Combat) and you will Hayden Peake (Joint Military-intelligence College)

The writer of your letter so you’re able to Stalin was found simply within the 1994 by Lieutenant-general Pavel Sudoplatov inside the memoir Unique Employment (pp

Most of the fresh talk when you look at the conference concerned about a previously not familiar Russian file received by the Schecters, hence raised the matter concerning whether or not Robert Oppenheimer, one of the major scientists of New york Endeavor you to establish new atomic bomb, was a great Soviet spy.

The newest file under consideration is a letter from the Merkulov so you can Lavrenti Beria, the head of your own Soviet atomic venture, dos Oct 1944 (mouse click to see the newest file).

The Merkulov letter to help you Beria enhances the matter of if or not Robert Oppenheimer is actually good spy to the Soviet Commitment inside wartime several months when he led the newest Manhattan investment. Brand new letter have to be read inside the perspective from Soviet intelligence businesses in the us while in the World war ii. Robert Oppenheimer’s long time subscription from the Communist Group of You is made secret into the 1942 since the he was getting used because an excellent Soviet cleverness investment because of the Communist Below ground to help you let obtain nuclear secrets. Oppenheimer had been explain to you the fresh Western Communist Cluster and the Comintern, brand new Communist International up to ordre kone fra Irland 1944. Soviet intelligence decided that instance surgery was basically too high-risk because of increased FBI security regarding Communist Class operatives. At that time one to Stalin acceded to help you Chairman Roosevelt’s consult and you may dissolved brand new Comintern during the 1943, Soviet intelligence was required to rearrange its espionage streams on Joined Claims. New letter address contact information you to condition, as well as others.

Less than we present three analytical commentaries on the Merkulov letter:

The fresh page are asked because of the Gregg Herken,whowrote from inside the Brotherhood of your own Bomb “it is difficult to understand whether that it cable are proof of Oppenheimer’s complicity or shows the fresh (understandable) focus of Kheifetz or any other NKVD operatives so you can curry favor with the workplace.” (p.93) Gregory Kheifetz is actually operating significantly less than coverage since the Soviet vice consul San Francisco out-of later 1941 toward june out-of 1944. Herken argued within the a change on H-Diplo: ” We suspect Kheifetz, who had been appreciated so you’re able to Moscow into the middle-1944, of ‘cushioning his resume’ by the claiming that he got employed Oppenheimer. Kheifetz’s purpose try easy: he had been trying to prevent execution having failure to execute while he was this new NKVD’s chief spy from the San francisco.”

Herken are mistaken. Kheifetz was not recalled to own failing woefully to create neither to have inactivity. Neither was the guy provided for the fresh gulag. He had been remembered because the he was called within the a secret letter so you’re able to Stalin from the an enthusiastic NKVD administrator regarding the Washington, DC rezidentura. He had been accused of being part of a ring led from the the latest rezident Vasili Zarubin, allegedly working for the fresh new Germans and also the Japanese. Stalin purchased these appreciated so you can Moscow to investigate brand new charge, which were dismissed. Brand new manager, Lieutenant Colonel Vasili Dimitrovich Mironov, including delivered an unsigned letter so you can J. Edgar Hoover, introducing the brand new intelligence things of one’s Zarubins and you may Kheifetz, that FBI entitled new Unknown Letter. 196-197). It is clear in the material you to both the emails in order to Hoover and Stalin was sent because of the Mironov.

For those curious, this new Unknown Letterto Vacuum, gotten to your August seven, 1943, from the Russian modern having English translations, is present towards the pp. 51-53 within the Robert Louis Benson and you can Michael Warner, eds, VENONA Soviet Espionage and also the American Response 1919-1957, NSA, CIA. Arizona, DC. 1996.