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{{Short description|Espionage against the United States by Soviet intelligence agencies}}
{{For|events after 1991|Russian espionage in the United States}}
As early as the 1920s, the [[Soviet Union]], through its [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]], [[Joint State Political Directorate|OGPU]], [[NKVD]], and [[KGB]] intelligence agencies, used Russian and foreign-born nationals ([[Resident spy|resident spies]]), as well as [[Communist]]s of American origin, to perform [[espionage]] activities in the [[United States]], forming various spy rings.<ref name="Haynes">[[John Earl Haynes|Haynes, John Earl]], and [[Harvey Klehr|Klehr, Harvey]], ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America,'' [[Yale University Press]] (2000) {{ISBN|0-300-08462-5}}</ref><ref name="Weinstein">{{cite book |last1=Weinstein |first1=Allen |author-link1=Allen Weinstein |author-link2=Alexander Vassiliev |last2=Vassiliev |first2=Alexander |title=The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America: The Stalin Era |url=https://archive.org/details/hauntedwoodsovie00wein |url-access=registration |___location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=1999|isbn=9780679457244 }}</ref><ref name="AP">''Retrieved Papers Shed Light On Communist Activities In U.S.'', [[Associated Press]], January 31, 2001</ref> Particularly during the 1940s, some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to [[Moscow]], such as information on the development of the atomic bomb (see [[atomic spies]]).<ref name="Haynes"/><ref name="Weinstein"/><ref name="AP"/> Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and [[disinformation]] operations, known as [[active measures]], and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":1" />
==First efforts==
During the 1920s [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|Soviet intelligence]] focused on military and industrial espionage in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, specifically in the aircraft and munitions industries, in order to industrialize and compete with Western powers, as well as strengthening the [[Soviet armed forces]].<ref>{{Cite web| title=Guide to the Study of Intelligence - Intelligence Between The World Wars, 1919-1939 | url=https://www.afio.com/publications/WHEELER%20Douglas%20Intelligence%20Between%20the%20War%201919%201939%20from%20AFIO%20INTEL_SPRGSUM2013_Vol20_No1_FINAL.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114015543/http://www.afio.com:80/publications/WHEELER%20Douglas%20Intelligence%20Between%20the%20War%201919%201939%20from%20AFIO%20INTEL_SPRGSUM2013_Vol20_No1_FINAL.pdf | archive-date=2014-01-14}}</ref> The United States opened diplomatic ties to the Soviet Union in 1933, normalizing relations, but also opening the door to a number of spies which initially focused on technological espionage.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Red Spies In America: Stolen Secrets And The Dawn Of The Cold War|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/red-spies-america-stolen-secrets-and-the-dawn-the-cold-war|access-date=2021-09-17|website=www.wilsoncenter.org|language=en}}</ref> One early Soviet spy was [[Jones Orin York]] who was recruited by the KGB's predecessors in 1935.<ref name=":13" /> The Soviets' [[Amtorg Trading Corporation]] established in 1924 would become a nexus of espionage.<ref name=":13" />
Historian [[Harvey Klehr]] describes that the American businessman [[Armand Hammer]] "met Lenin in 1921 and, in return for a concession to manufacture pencils, agreed to launder Soviet money to benefit communist parties in Europe and America."<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-09-19|title=Rich and red: The USSR's prize assets {{!}} Harvey Klehr|url=https://thecritic.co.uk/rich-and-red-the-ussrs-prize-assets/|access-date=2022-01-30|website=The Critic Magazine|language=en-GB}}</ref> Historian [[Edward Jay Epstein]] noted that "Hammer received extraordinary treatment from Moscow in many ways. He was permitted by the Soviet Government to take millions of dollars worth of czarist art out of the country when he returned to the United States in 1932."<ref>{{Cite news|date=1981-11-29|title=THE RIDDLE OF ARMAND HAMMER|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/29/magazine/the-riddle-of-armand-hammer.html|access-date=2022-01-30|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> According to journalist Alan Farnham, "Over the decades Hammer continued traveling to Russia, hobnobbing with its leaders to the point that both the CIA and the FBI suspected him of being a full-fledged agent."<ref>{{Cite web|title=ARMAND HAMMER: TINKER, TRAITOR, SATYR, SPY A SCATHING NEW BIOGRAPHY PAINTS THE GLOBETROTTING FOUNDER OF OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM AS A BLATANT OPPORTUNIST, A WOMANIZER--AND PERHAPS EVEN A SOVIET SPY. - November 11, 1996|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1996/11/11/218180/|access-date=2022-01-30|website=money.cnn.com}}</ref>
==Browder and Golos networks==
[[Earl Browder]], [[General Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA), served as an agent recruiter himself on behalf of Soviet intelligence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Andrew|first=Christopher M.|title=The Sword and the Shield : the Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB.|date=2000|publisher=Basic Books|others=Vasili Mitrokhin|isbn=978-0-465-01003-5|___location=New York|oclc=727648881}}</ref><ref name="Sudoplatov">Sudoplatov, Pavel Anatoli, Schecter, Jerrold L., and Schecter, Leona P., ''Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness — A Soviet Spymaster'', Little Brown, Boston (1994)</ref> Browder later stated that "by the mid-thirties, the Party was not putting its principal emphasis on recruiting members." Left unstated was his intent to use party members for espionage work, where suitable. Browder advocated the use of a ''United Front'' involving other members of the left, both to strengthen advocacy of pro-Soviet policy and to enlarge the pool of potential recruits for espionage work. The illegal residency of [[NKVD]] in the US was established in 1934 by the former [[Berlin]] resident [[Boris Bazarov]].<ref name="Andrew">[[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]], ''The [[Mitrokhin Archive]]: The KGB in Europe and the West'', Gardners Books (2000), {{ISBN|0-14-028487-7}}</ref> In 1935, [[NKVD]] agent [[Iskhak Akhmerov]] entered the US with false identity papers to assist Bazarov in the collection of useful intelligence, and operated without interruption until 1939, when he left the US. Akhmerov's wife, an American who worked for Soviet intelligence, was [[Helen Lowry]] (Elza Akhmerova), the niece of CPUSA General Secretary Earl Browder. Information from Soviet archives has revealed that Browder's younger sister Marguerite worked until 1938 as an NKVD operative in Europe. She discontinued this work only when Browder himself requested her release from duty, fearful that her work would compromise his position as General Secretary.<ref name="Haynes" />
In the 1930s, the chief Soviet espionage organization operating in the U.S. became the [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]]. [[J. Peters]] headed the secret apparatus that supplied internal government documents from the [[Ware group]] to the GRU. Browder assisted Peters in building a network of operatives in the administration of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. This group included [[Alger Hiss]], [[John Abt]], and [[Lee Pressman]] (Pressman admitted participation in the group, but denied it was involved in espionage). Courier for the group at the time was [[Whittaker Chambers]]. Browder oversaw the efforts of [[Jacob Golos]] and his girlfriend, [[Elizabeth Bentley]], whose network of agents and sources included two key figures at the Department of Treasury, [[Greg Silvermaster|Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]] and [[Harry Dexter White]].
One early Soviet spy
Golos established a company called ''World Tourists'' with money from Earl Browder, the General Secretary. The firm, which posed as a travel agency, was used to facilitate international travel to and from the United States by Soviet agents and CPUSA members. World Tourists was also involved in manufacturing fake passports, as Browder used such a false passport on covert trips to the Soviet Union in 1936.
Soviet intelligence did not like Golos' refusal to allow Soviet contact with his sources (a measure implemented by Golos to protect himself and to ensure his continued retention by the NKVD). The NKVD suspected Golos of [[Trotskyism]] and tried to lure him to Moscow, where he could be arrested, but the US government got to him first. But even then, he did not reveal his agent network. After Browder went to prison in 1940, Golos took over running Browder's agents. In 1941, Golos set up a commercial forwarding enterprise, called the US Shipping and Service Corporation, with [[Elizabeth Bentley]], his lover, as one of its officers.
Sometime in November
==Secret apparatus==
By the end of 1936 at least four mid-level [[State Department]] officials were delivering information to Soviet intelligence: [[Alger Hiss]], assistant to Assistant Secretary of State [[Francis Bowes Sayre Sr.|Francis Sayre]]; [[Julian Wadleigh]], economist in the Trade Agreements Section; [[Laurence Duggan]], Latin American division; and [[Noel Field]], West European division.
| author-link = Whittaker Chambers
| title = Witness
| url = https://archive.org/details/witnessw00cham
| url-access = registration
| publisher = [[Random House]]
| year = 1952
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/witnessw00cham/page/498 498]
| isbn=0-89526-571-0}}</ref><ref>Suvorov, Viktor, ''Icebreaker'', London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd. (1990), {{ISBN|0-241-12622-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Whittaker Chambers: a biography |url=https://archive.org/details/whittakerchamber00tane |url-access=registration |author-link=Sam Tanenhaus |first=Sam |last=Tanenhaus |___location=New York |publisher=Random House |year=1998 |isbn=0-375-75145-9}} <!-- books.google.com suppressed page nbrs --></ref>
In 1993, experts from the Library of Congress traveled to Moscow to copy previously secret archives of Communist Party USA ([[CPUSA]]) records, sent to the Soviet Union for safekeeping by party organizers. The records provide an irrefutable record of Soviet intelligence and cooperation provided by those in the radical left in the United States from the 1920s through the 1940s. Some documents revealed that the CPUSA was actively involved in secretly recruiting party members from African-American groups and rural farm workers. The records contained further evidence that Soviet sympathizers had indeed infiltrated the State Department, beginning in the 1930s. Included were letters from two U.S. ambassadors in Europe to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and a senior State Department official. Thanks to an official in the State department sympathetic to the Party, the confidential correspondence, concerning political and economic matters in Europe, ended up in the hands of Soviet intelligence.<ref>[https://billingsgazette.com/news/world/retrieved-papers-shed-light-on-communist-activities-in-u-s/article_bd5e5ca5-38b7-5dcd-b645-b203cbaa0445.html ''Retrieved Papers Shed Light On Communist Activities In U.S.''], Associated Press, January 31, 2001</ref>
In the late 1930s and 1940, Soviet intelligence had multiple staging areas for plots to murder exiled Russian revolutionary [[Leon Trotsky]], then living in [[Mexico City]]. [[Iosif Grigulevich|Josef Grigulevich]], an NKVD agent who had direct orders from Stalin to kill Trotsky, had a safe house in Zook's Drugstore in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite web|last=Mexican|first=Tom Sharpe The New|title=Book links Trotsky assassin to Plaza pharmacy, now Haagen-Dazs shop|url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/book-links-trotsky-assassin-to-plaza-pharmacy-now-haagen-dazs-shop/article_7410349e-c962-5aaa-afea-5634962c621c.html|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Santa Fe New Mexican|date=24 January 2011 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Farwell|first=Matt|date=2019-08-15|title=Jeffrey Epstein Chose New Mexico for a Reason|magazine=The New Republic|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/154761/jeffrey-epstein-zorro-ranch-new-mexico-history|access-date=2021-07-10|issn=0028-6583}}</ref> The Soviets had two plans to assassinate Trotsky, one involving the Mexican Stalinist [[David Alfaro Siqueiros|David Siqueiros]], and the other the Spanish [[Ramón Mercader]]. One account of the first, failed raid on Trotsky's home states that Grigulevich tricked [[Robert Sheldon Harte]], an American Communist who was Trotsky's bodyguard, into opening the gate. The Soviets failed to kill Trotsky during this attempt, but betrayed Harte, and they killed him for being a witness. Siqueiros then escaped to Chile with the help of [[Pablo Neruda]].<ref name=":10" /> Grigulevich likely then crossed the border north and took refuge at Zook's Pharmacy. The second later attempt by Mercader was successful and Trotsky was murdered in Mexico.<ref name=":10" />
==
Jacob Albam and the Sobles ([[Jack Soble|Jack]] and [[Myra Soble|Myra]]) were indicted on espionage charges by the FBI in 1957; all three were later convicted and served prison terms. Alleged members of their spy ring, the [[Jane Foster Zlatovski|Zlatovskis]], remained in [[Paris]], [[France]], where the laws did not allow their extradition to the United States for espionage. [[Robert Soblen]] was sentenced to life in prison for his espionage work at [[Sandia National Laboratories]], but jumped bail and escaped to [[Israel]]. After being expelled from that country, he later committed [[suicide]] in [[Great Britain]] while awaiting extradition back to the United States.<ref name="Haynes"/><ref name="Cooperation">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930105930/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809718,00.html ''Cooperation''], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', August 19, 1957</ref>
[[Boris Morros]], formerly a Soviet spy, became an FBI counterspy and reported on the Soble spy ring.<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=1957-10-12|title=Club Life|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1957/10/19/club-life|access-date=2021-09-17|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Wartime espionage==
During [[World War II|the Second World War]], Soviet espionage agents obtained classified reports on electronic advances in radio-beacon artillery [[Fuze (explosives)|fuzes]] by [[Emerson Radio]], including a complete proximity fuze (reportedly the same fuze design that was later installed on Soviet anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down [[Francis Gary Powers]]'s [[Lockheed U-2|U-2]] in 1960).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts, Sam, 1947-|title=The brother : the untold story of atomic spy David Greenglass and how he sent his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair|date=2001|publisher=Random House|isbn=0-375-50013-8|edition= 1st|___location=New York|oclc=45639061}}</ref> Thousands of documents from the [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA) were photocopied or stolen, including a complete set of design and production drawings for [[Lockheed Aircraft]]'s new [[P-80 Shooting Star]] fighter jet.<ref name="Feklisov">Feklisov, Aleksandr, and Kostin, Sergei, The Man Behind the Rosenbergs, Enigma Books (2001)</ref>
According to Soviet agent [[Pavel Sudoplatov]], five spy rings for the Soviet Union were targeting the United States during World War II: one was based in [[Amtorg Trading Corporation|Amtorg]] in [[New York City]], another spy ring was based in the [[Embassy of Russia in Washington, D.C.|Soviet Embassy in the United States]] at [[Washington, D.C.]], another was based in the Soviet [[Consul (representative)|Consulate General]] in [[San Francisco]], another was based out of [[Mexico City]] and ran by [[Lev Vasilevsky|Vasilevsky]], and the fifth was the [[Iskhak Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] led ring which targeted [[Communist Party USA|United States Communist Party members]] for the Kremlin's needs.{{sfn|Sudoplatov|1994|p=217}}
===Atomic bomb secrets===
[[Joseph Stalin]] directed Soviet intelligence officers to collect information in four main areas. [[Pavel Fitin]], the 34-year-old chief of the KGB First Directorate, was directed to seek American intelligence concerning Hitler's plans for the war in Russia; secret war aims of London and Washington, particularly with regard to planning for [[Operation Overlord]], the second front in Europe; any indications the Western Allies might be willing to make a separate peace with Hitler; and American scientific and technological progress, particularly in the development of an [[atomic weapon]].<ref name=":13">{{Cite web|date=2006-11-01|title=Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957|url=https://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/preface.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061101062050/https://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/preface.htm|archive-date=2006-11-01|access-date=2021-09-17|website=cia.gov}}</ref> [[Pavel Sudoplatov]] claimed to have led the efforts to obtain information about the [[Manhattan Project]]{{sfn|Sudoplatov|1994}} in an alleged "Department S" but this has been questioned because Sudoplatov made false accusations about [[J. Robert Oppenheimer|Oppenheimer]] and others.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pavel A. Sudoplatov|url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/pavel-sudoplatov|access-date=2021-09-17|website=Atomic Heritage Foundation|language=en}}</ref>
A well-known Soviet case was of [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]], the first US citizens convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime. The married couple lived in New York City and were accused of spying for the Soviet Union and sending information regarding radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and sending nuclear weapon designs. Following the [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission]], the declassification of the [[Venona project]] in 1995 revealed more information about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, and confirmed that a widespread Soviet spy network did exist during the Cold War. However, many agents were never prosecuted or publicly implicated, for instance [[Theodore Hall]], because much Venona evidence was withheld until 1995.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/15 15]|url-access=registration}}</ref>
During this time, [[George Koval]] who infiltrated the Manhattan Project as a member of the [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]], also passed stolen atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-11-13|title=Christopher Andrew on the lost history of global intelligence|url=https://macmillan.yale.edu/news/christopher-andrew-lost-history-global-intelligence|access-date=2021-07-07|website=The MacMillan Center|language=en}}</ref> [[Harry Gold]] and [[Klaus Fuchs]] were also Soviet spies.<ref name=":10" /> Harry Gold was a courier for other Soviet spies such as Klaus Fuchs.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Harry Gold|url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/harry-gold|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Atomic Heritage Foundation|language=en}}</ref>
===Silvermaster spy ring===
The [[United States Treasury]] Department was successfully penetrated by nearly a dozen Soviet agents or information sources, including [[Harold Glasser]] and his superior, [[Harry Dexter White]], assistant secretary of the treasury and the second most influential official in the department.<ref name="Haynes"/><ref name="Weinstein"/> In late May 1941, Vitali Pavlov, a 25-year-old NKVD officer, approached White and attempted to secure his assistance to influence U.S. policy towards [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]. Pavlov's memoirs, after decades of being in the KGB, alleged that White agreed to assist Soviet intelligence in any way he could. [[Whittaker Chambers]] states White's principal function was aiding the infiltration and placement of Soviet operatives within the government, and protecting sources.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Ferran|first=Lee|title=Why a Top U.S. Official Was Accused of Being a Soviet Spy After Pearl Harbor|url=https://www.history.com/news/pearl-harbor-soviet-spy-harry-dexter-white|access-date=2021-07-10|website=HISTORY|date=6 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref> When security concerns arose around [[Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]], White protected him in his sensitive position at the [[Board of Economic Warfare]]. White likewise was a purveyor of information and resources to assist Soviet aims, and agreed to press for the release of German occupation currency plates to the Soviet Union. The Soviets later used the plates to print unrestricted sums of money to exchange for U.S. and Allied hard goods.<ref name="Schecter">Schecter, Jerrold and Leona, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'', Potomac Books (2002)</ref>
In August 1945, [[Elizabeth Bentley]], fearful of assassination by the Soviet [[Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union)|MGB]], turned herself in to the government. She implicated many agents and sources in the [[Jacob Golos|Golos]] and [[FBI Silvermaster File|Silvermaster]] spy networks, and was the first to accuse [[Harry Dexter White]] of acting on behalf of Soviet interests in releasing occupation plates to Moscow, later confirmed by Soviet archives and former KGB officers.<ref name="Sudoplatov"/><ref name="Schecter"/> U.S. counterintelligence archives in the [[Venona project]] contain "damning evidence" against White—showing evidence for his inappropriate contacts with Soviet agents.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|title=Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case - CIA|url=https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/volume-49-no-1/treasonable-doubt-the-harry-dexter-white-spy-case/|access-date=2021-07-10|website=www.cia.gov|language=en}}</ref>
In a twist of history, Harry Dexter White would participate in the [[Bretton Woods Conference]], which created the American-led, post-war financial and economic order.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|last=Rao|first=Ashok|date=2014-08-24|title=This Soviet spy created the US-led global economy|url=https://www.vox.com/2014/8/24/6057119/harry-dexter-white-ben-steil|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Vox|language=en}}</ref> Although White was sympathetic to the Soviet Union, he was still capitalist in his economic thinking, and there was only so much he could do to benefit the Soviet Union at a conference for liberal internationalism, an idea the Soviets opposed.<ref name=":8" /> Ultimately, the main result was that President Truman would nominate a European to Managing Director of the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]] instead of Harry Dexter White.<ref name=":9" /> Dr. James C. Van Hook, joint historian of the [[Department of State]] and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]., says "It is difficult to understand how White's detractors could characterize Bretton Woods, a fundamental institution of liberal capitalism, as inherently pro-Soviet."<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":6" />
=== Aftermath ===
President [[Harry S. Truman]]'s [[Executive Order 9835]] of 22 March 1947 tightened protections against subversive infiltration of the US Government, defining disloyalty as membership on a list of subversive organizations maintained by the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]]. Truman, however, was opposed to the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] of 1950, calling it a "Mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step towards totalitarianism".<ref name=spartacus>
{{cite web| url = http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAinternal.htm
|title = Internal Security Act | author = Spartacus | publisher = schoolnet.co.uk
|access-date = 2011-04-11 }}
</ref>
== Cold War espionage ==
{{See also|Cold War espionage}}[[File:Bugged-great-seal-closed.jpg|thumb|Replica of The Thing, which contained a Soviet bugging device, on display at the [[NSA]]'s [[National Cryptologic Museum]]]]
Soviet espionage operations continued during the Cold War. The [[Venona project]], declassified in 1995 by the [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission]], contained extensive evidence of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America.<ref name=":4">{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/15 15]-16|url-access=registration}}</ref>
On August 4, 1945, several weeks before the end of World War II, a delegation from the [[Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization|Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union]] presented a bugged carving to Ambassador Harriman, later known as [[The Thing (listening device)|The Thing]], as a "gesture of friendship" to the Soviet Union's [[Allies of World War II|war ally]]. The device, embedded in a carved wooden plaque of the [[Great Seal of the United States]], was used by the [[Government of the Soviet Union|Soviet government]] to spy on the United States. It hung in the ambassador's [[Spaso House|Moscow residential study]] for seven years, until it was exposed in 1952 during the tenure of Ambassador [[George F. Kennan]].<ref>George F. Kennan, Memoirs, 1950–1963, Volume II (Little, Brown & Co., 1972), pp. 155, 156</ref>
The [[Mitrokhin Archive]] showed that the Soviets did not just perform espionage in terms of gathering intelligence, but also used its intelligence agencies for "[[active measures]]" a form of political warfare involving forgeries and [[disinformation]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Walton|first=Calder|date=2016-12-23|title="Active measures": a history of Russian interference in US elections|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/science-and-technology/active-measures-a-history-of-russian-interference-in-us-elections|access-date=2021-04-05|website=Prospect Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Communist Party USA ===
During the Second World War, the [[Communist Party USA]] was a center of Soviet espionage in the United States. After the war, this continued. Espionage historian [[John Earl Haynes]] states that the CPUSA was essentially a Soviet "[[fifth column]]", though "dried up as a base for Soviet espionage once the administration got serious about internal security".<ref name=":42">{{cite web|last=Haynes|first=John Earl|date=February 2000|title=Exchange with Arthur Herman and Venona book talk|url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html|website=JohnEarlHaynes.org|access-date=2021-11-09}}</ref>
The Communist Party USA received a substantial subsidy from the USSR from 1959 until 1989. Because the CPUSA consistently maintained a pro-Moscow line, many members left over time dissatisfied with events of Soviet repression, such as in [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungary in 1956]] and in [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovakia in 1968]]. The Soviet funding ended in 1989 when [[Gus Hall]] condemned the initiatives taken by [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2014-04-30|title=The curious survival of the US Communist Party|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26126325|access-date=2021-05-26}}</ref>
In 1952, Jack and [[Morris Childs]]—both American-born ex-Soviet spies—became FBI double agents, and informed on the CPUSA for the rest of the Cold War, monitoring the Soviet funding and communications with Moscow.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Klehr|first=Harvey|date=2017-07-03|title=Opinion {{!}} American Reds, Soviet Stooges|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/opinion/communist-party-usa-soviet-union.html|access-date=2021-11-10|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Babcock|first=Charles R.|date=1981-09-17|title=Soviet Secrets Fed to FBI for More Than 25 Years|language=en-US|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/09/17/soviet-secrets-fed-to-fbi-for-more-than-25-years/5dcdaab1-1d05-4e0f-8c25-87ecf852d67c/|access-date=2021-11-10|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>
=== Spy motivations and Soviet recruitment techniques ===
According to longtime CIA officer Frederick Wettering, many turncoats to the Soviets were not ideologically communist, such as [[Aldrich Ames]] and [[John Anthony Walker|John Walker]] who "did it strictly for the money." Wettering summarized the motivations as "MIRE -- money, ideology, revenge and ego."<ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S. Spy History Is Older Than the Nation Itself|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1213034&page=1|access-date=2021-11-07|website=ABC News|language=en}}</ref>
According to Russian investigative writer, [[Andrei Soldatov]]:<ref>{{Cite news|last=Soldatov|first=Andrei|date=2021-08-29|title=Inside Vladimir Putin's Shadowy Army of Global Spies|language=en|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-vladimir-putins-shadowy-army-of-global-spies|access-date=2021-11-07}}</ref><blockquote>In Soviet times, intelligence and counterintelligence branches of the KGB were closely interconnected. In addition to its espionage abroad, the KGB was always busy collecting “intelligence from the territory,” a euphemism for recruiting foreign nationals in the Soviet Union, with an eye to subsequently running them as agents in their home countries. Regional departments of the KGB were tasked with recruiting foreigners traveling throughout the country.</blockquote>Former KGB defector [[Jack Barsky]] stated, "Many a right-wing radical had unknowingly given information to the Soviets (under a 'false flag'), thinking they were working with a Western ally, such as Israel, when in fact their contact was a KGB operative."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barsky|first=Jack|title=Deep undercover : my secret life and tangled allegiances as a KGB spy in America|date=2017|isbn=978-1-4964-1686-5|___location=Carol Stream, IL|oclc=979545331}}</ref>
=== Cambridge Five ===
Notable cases of Cold War Soviet espionage included [[Kim Philby]], a Soviet double agent and British intelligence liaison to American intelligence, who was revealed to be a member of the "[[Cambridge Five]]" spy ring in 1963.<ref name=":4" /> The other four members of the "Cambridge Five" spy ring included [[Donald Maclean (spy)|Donald Maclean]], [[Guy Burgess]], [[Anthony Blunt]], and [[John Cairncross]], although [[Michael Straight]] was also involved with the Soviet spy ring and there were possibly other alleged members.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|last=Lehmann-Haupt|first=Christopher|date=2004-01-05|title=Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Is Dead at 87|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/nyregion/michael-straight-who-wrote-of-connection-to-spy-ring-is-dead-at-87.html|access-date=2021-06-12|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The Cambridge Spy Ring focused on serving the Soviet Union in the Cold War by infiltrating British intelligence and providing secret information to the Soviet top leaders, and causing mistrust in British intelligence in the United States.<ref name=":5" />
Kim Philby, along with [[Bill Weisband]], would end up betraying the existence of the Venona project to the Soviets, between 1945 and 1948.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=West|first=Nigel|date=2002-03-01|title='Venona': the British dimension|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02684520412331306440|journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=17|issue=1|pages=117–134|doi=10.1080/02684520412331306440|s2cid=145696471 |issn=0268-4527|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
=== Active measures ===
[[Active measures]] ({{langx|ru|активные мероприятия|translit=aktivnye meropriyatiya}}) are a form of [[political warfare]] that was conducted by the Soviet Union. These ranged from simple propaganda and forgery of documents, to assassination, terrorist acts and planned sabotage operations.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Abrams|first=Steve|date=2016|title=Beyond Propaganda: Soviet Active Measures in Putin's Russia|journal=Connections|volume=15|issue=1|pages=5–31|doi=10.11610/Connections.15.1.01|jstor=26326426|issn=1812-1098|doi-access=free}}</ref> In the US the KGB's main active measures were [[disinformation]] and the spread of conspiracy theories.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" />
Retired KGB Major General [[Oleg Kalugin]], former Head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for the KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of [[Soviet intelligence]]":<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2017-06-14|title=Russian fake news is not new: Soviet Aids propaganda cost countless lives|url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/jun/14/russian-fake-news-is-not-new-soviet-aids-propaganda-cost-countless-lives|access-date=2021-04-15|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref>
: "Not intelligence collection, but subversion: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly [[NATO]], to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs. To make America more vulnerable to the anger and distrust of other peoples."<ref name="Kalugin">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070627183623/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/ Interview of Oleg Kalugin on CNN] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627183623/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/|date=June 27, 2007}}</ref>
The doctrine of active measures was taught in the [[Academy of Foreign Intelligence|Andropov Institute]] of the [[KGB]] situated at [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|Foreign Intelligence Service]] (SVR) headquarters in [[Yasenevo District]] of Moscow. The head of the "active measures department" was [[Yuri Modin]], former controller of the [[Cambridge Five]] spy ring.<ref name="Mitrokhin">{{cite book|last1=Mitrokhin|first1=Vasili|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/25373/the-mitrokhin-archive/|title=The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West|last2=Andrew|first2=Christopher|date=2000|publisher=Penguin|isbn=0-14-028487-7|author-link1=Vasili Mitrokhin|author-link2=Christopher Andrew (historian)}} ([[Mitrokhin Archive|en.wikipedia]]) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=T3pzswEACAAJ&dq=The%20Mitrokhin%20Archive google books])</ref><ref name=":0" />
One example of active measures by the KGB was [[Operation INFEKTION|Operation "Denver"]] (also nicknamed Operation INFEKTION), a propaganda campaign which fabricated and spread the idea HIV/AIDS was invented by the US as a biological weapon from [[Fort Detrick]], Maryland.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=2020-05-26|title=Lessons From Operation "Denver," the KGB's Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign|url=https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/operation-denver-kgb-aids-disinformation-campaign/|access-date=2021-04-15|website=The MIT Press Reader|language=en}}</ref> As part of the disinformation campaign the KGB, through affiliated Soviet press and Soviet bloc intelligence agencies, disseminated publications that claimed to be independent investigative work, such as the "Segal report" by [[Jakob Segal]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Part of the goal was to shift attention away from the Soviets' own [[Soviet biological weapons program|biological weapons program]]. In 1992, SVR head [[Yevgeny Primakov]] admitted that the KGB had instigated and perpetuated the myth of a manmade AIDS.<ref name=":1" /> The conspiracy theories fed into [[HIV/AIDS denialism|AIDS denialism]] and may have led to preventable deaths across the United States, and South Africa.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> According to the [[U.S. State Department]], the [[Soviet Union]] used the campaign to undermine the United States' credibility, foster [[anti-Americanism]], isolate America abroad, and create tensions between host countries and the U.S. over the presence of American military bases.<ref name="statereport">{{cite report|url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/1987/soviet-influence-activities-1987.pdf|title=Soviet Influence Activities: A Report on Active Measures and Propaganda, 1986-87|date=August 1987|publisher=[[U.S. Department of State]]}}</ref> A cycle of misinformation and disinformation revolved between Kremlin-based and U.S.-based conspiracy theorists (such as [[Lyndon LaRouche]]).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Selvage|first=Douglas|date=2019-10-01|title=Operation "Denver": The East German Ministry of State Security and the KGB's AIDS Disinformation Campaign, 1985–1986 (Part 1)|journal=Journal of Cold War Studies|volume=21|issue=4|pages=71–123|doi=10.1162/jcws_a_00907|issn=1520-3972|doi-access=free}}</ref>
A series of Soviet active measures focused on exacerbating racial divisions in the United States. According to intelligence historian [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]], "[[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King]] was probably the only prominent American to be the target of active measures by both the FBI and the KGB." The FBI surveilled King and also tried to publicize adultery accusations against him, while posing as a former supporter. Meanwhile, the KGB tried but failed to influence MLK, Jr. through the CPUSA. Finding King not radical enough, the KGB sought to discredit him by portraying him as a supposed "Uncle Tom". After [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|King's assassination]], the KGB spread conspiracy theories about the government being involved in his murder.<ref name=":11">{{cite book|last1=Andrew|first1=Christopher|title=The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB|date=2001|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=0-465-00312-5}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web|title=Russians Targeted U.S. Racial Divisions Long Before 2016 And Black Lives Matter|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/10/30/560042987/russians-targeted-u-s-racial-divisions-long-before-2016-and-black-lives-matter|access-date=2021-07-10|website=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref> Following this, Yuri Andropov approved the forgery of anti-black pamphlets claiming to be from the [[Jewish Defense League]]. A more extensive sabotage plot was planned as "[[Operation PANDORA]]" but never implemented.<ref name=":11" /> The KGB later penned racist letters to appear as a [[Ku Klux Klan]] campaign against Olympic athletes from African and Asian countries to scare them from participating, ahead of the Soviets' [[1984 Summer Olympics boycott]].<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":12" />
According to [[Yuri Bezmenov]], a defector from the Soviet KGB, [[psychological warfare]] activities accounted for 85% of all KGB efforts (the other 15% being direct espionage and intelligence gathering). Bezmenov put the process into the four stages "destabilize, demoralize, crisis, normalization" where an enemy country would be undermined over several decades, and pointed out that once the Soviet Union took control of a country, such as Czechoslovakia, they disposed of actual revolution and radicalism.<ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/5gnpCqsXE8g |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Psychological Warfare Subversion & Control of Western Society|date=1983|last=Bezmenov|first=Yuri|language=en|___location=Los Angeles|access-date=2020-07-08|via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
=== Spy ring discoveries ===
Major spy discoveries occurred in the 1980s despite the looming end of the Cold War. The press dubbed 1985 the "Year of the Spy" due to the discovery of multiple spies and spy rings,<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Year of the Spy (1985)|url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/year-of-the-spy-1985|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Federal Bureau of Investigation|language=en-us}}</ref> many of them passing information to the Soviet Union, such as [[John Anthony Walker]] and [[Ronald Pelton]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name="CNN">{{cite news|title=Recent U.S. Spy Cases {{!}} CNN|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0102/spy.cases/content.html|access-date=February 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210005131/http://www.cnn.com/interactive/us/0102/spy.cases/content.html|archive-date=December 10, 2008|quote=1985 -- Walker family|ref=CNN}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported in 1987 that the Walker spy ring was "described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history."<ref>{{cite news|last=Shenon|first=Philip|date=January 4, 1987|title=In short: nonfiction|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D81730F937A35752C0A961948260|access-date=November 16, 2007}}</ref> During his time as a Soviet spy (1967-1985), Walker stole and sold codes that assisted the Soviets in deciphering encrypted Navy messages, which allowed them to monitor American naval assets. The Walker spy ring also compromised information about weapons, sensor data, and related naval tactics.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Mears|first1=Bill|last2=Berlinger|first2=Joshua|date=2014-08-29|title=Convicted Cold War spy John Walker dies in federal prison|url=https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/29/justice/cold-war-spy-dies/index.html|access-date=2021-05-26|website=CNN|language=en}}</ref> Other 1980s spies included [[Aldrich Ames]], a KGB [[Mole (espionage)|mole]]. Investigation of Ames' activities led to the [[1995 CIA disinformation controversy]] revealing that false reports were fed to the United States through Soviet double agents.<ref name="CNN" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=1995-10-31|title=CIA Heavily Infiltrated in Russia, Report Finds : Espionage: Operations in '80s severely compromised, Ames study shows. Senior officials were often kept in dark.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-10-31-mn-63237-story.html|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref>
==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation]]
* [[Amerasia]]
* [[Bella Dodd]]
* [[Chinese espionage in the United States]]
* [[David Karr]]
* [[Farewell Dossier]]
* [[
* [[Gouzenko Affair]]
* [[Hollow Nickel Case]]
* [[Lev Vasilevsky]]
* [[List of Americans in the Venona papers]]
* [[List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States]]
* [[Nuclear espionage]]
* [[Russian espionage in the United States]]
* [[Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections]]
* [[Russian involvement in regime change]]
* [[Russian Soviet Government Bureau]]
* [[The Americans|''The Americans'' (2013 TV series)]]
* [[The Thing (listening device)]]
{{div col end}}
==References==
{{reflist|2|}}
==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book
| last=Sudoplatov
| first=Pavel
| author-link=Pavel Sudoplatov
| title=Special Tasks
| url=https://archive.org/details/specialtasksmemo00sudo
| url-access=registration
| publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]]
| date=1 April 1994
| isbn=978-0316773522}}
* {{Cite book
| last = Chambers
| first = Whittaker
| author-link = Whittaker Chambers
| title = Witness
| url = https://archive.org/details/witnessw00cham
| url-access = registration
| publisher = [[Random House]]
| year = 1952
| isbn=0-89526-571-0}}
* [[John Earl Haynes]], [[Harvey Klehr]], and [[Alexander Vassiliev]], ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' ([[New Haven]]: [[Yale University Press]], 2009)
* John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America,'' Yale University Press
*[[Allen Weinstein]] and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999)
{{refend}}
==External links==
*[https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552673 Soviet Technospies] from the [https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
* For new evidence on Soviet espionage in the United States, see former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks [[Duncan Lee#External links|From the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)]]
* [http://ciml.250x.com/archive/comintern/termsadm.html V.I. Lenin, ''Terms of Admission into Communist International'', (July 1920)] First published 1921, ''The Second Congress of the Communist International, Verbatum Report'', Communist International, Petrograd
* Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. '''CI Reader: American Revolution into the New Millennium'''A Counterintelligence Reader Volume 3, Chapter 1: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050224074214/http://www.nacic.gov/history/CIReaderPlain/Vol3Chap1.pdf ''Cold War Counterintelligence''. PDF file.] office of the Director of Central Intelligence. Retrieved June 21, 2005.
* Proyect, Louis. [http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/american_left/klehr.htm ''Harvey Klehr's "The Secret World of American Communism"'']. Published online May 25, 2002. Retrieved June 21, 2005.
* Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., [https://web.archive.org/web/20060809112019/https://www.cia.gov/csi/books/venona/preface.htm ''Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957''], (Washington, D.C.: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996)*{{Citation
| last = Vassiliev
| first = Alexander
| title = Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks
| year = 2003
| url = https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/alexander-vassilievs-notebooks-and-the-documentation-soviet-intelligence-operations-the-unit-0
| access-date = 2012-04-21 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090227111504/http://www.hanford.gov/doe/history/docs/rl-97-1047/c2_s8.pdf The Hanford Site, Historic docs, Section 8 - Site Security]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050215123951/http://www.parida.com/ddd3.html Discouraged, Disillusioned and Duped], Eyewitness account of the era
* Razvedka, Intelligence Information and the Process of Decision Making: Turning Points of the Early Period of the Cold War (1944–1953) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320191858/http://usatruth.by.ru/c2.files/holodnajavojna9.htm |date=March 20, 2006 }} (In Russian).
* [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/de_toledo1.html Interview with Ralph De Toladano]
* [http://www.svr.gov.ru/history/place02.htm History of Russian foreign intelligence in North America (Russian)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710061012/http://svr.gov.ru/history/place02.htm |date=2007-07-10 }}, Official site of [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)]]
* Film: ''The KGB Connections: An Investigation Into Soviet Operations in North America'', 1982, Public ___domain: {{YouTube|aGfN3WRA0Vc}}.
*[http://www.whittakerchambers.org/ Whittaker Chambers | Witness in the Alger Hiss Case, Anti-Communist, ex-Communist, Spy, Editor, Journalist, Intellectual, Writer, Translator, Poet]
*{{Cite journal|last=Murphy|first=William T.|date=2021-01-02|title=First Decade of Soviet Espionage in America: 1924 to 1933|journal=International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence|volume=34|issue=1|pages=45–69|doi=10.1080/08850607.2020.1781442|s2cid=225440603}}
{{Soviet Spies}}
{{Cold War}}
{{Soviet Union–United States relations}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soviet And Russian Espionage In The United States}}
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:History of the government of the United States
[[Category:Russian intelligence operations]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]
[[Category:Cold War history of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Espionage in the United States]]
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