Jump to content

Grigory Kheifets: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Streamlined narrative.
Line 17: Line 17:
During the hearings of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]], the investigators invoked Heifetz's name several times probing his contacts with [[Bertolt Brecht]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=McLellan |first=Joseph |date=1979-04-08 |title=Bertolt Brecht by J. Edgar Hoover |language=en-US |work=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/04/08/bertolt-brecht-by-j-edgar-hoover/66b62916-bc2e-451f-9fb7-b56b67251949/ |access-date=2022-11-19 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> [[Paul Robeson]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Hearings before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives |pages=4496}}</ref> and others. Kheifets was implicated in the "[[Haakon Chevalier]] affair" as the Soviet operative behind the abortive attempt to recruit the head of [[Manhattan Project]], J. Robert Oppenheimer.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stanley |first=Alessandra |date=2 October 2017 |title=The Communist Party’s Party People |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/opinion/the-communist-partys-party-people.html |url-status=live |website=NYTimes.com}}</ref>
During the hearings of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]], the investigators invoked Heifetz's name several times probing his contacts with [[Bertolt Brecht]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=McLellan |first=Joseph |date=1979-04-08 |title=Bertolt Brecht by J. Edgar Hoover |language=en-US |work=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/04/08/bertolt-brecht-by-j-edgar-hoover/66b62916-bc2e-451f-9fb7-b56b67251949/ |access-date=2022-11-19 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> [[Paul Robeson]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Hearings before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives |pages=4496}}</ref> and others. Kheifets was implicated in the "[[Haakon Chevalier]] affair" as the Soviet operative behind the abortive attempt to recruit the head of [[Manhattan Project]], J. Robert Oppenheimer.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stanley |first=Alessandra |date=2 October 2017 |title=The Communist Party’s Party People |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/opinion/the-communist-partys-party-people.html |url-status=live |website=NYTimes.com}}</ref>


==California on the Crimea==
==California in the Crimea==


In 1943 a world-famous actor of the Moscow Yiddish State Art Theater, [[Solomon Mikhoels]], together with the poet [[Itzik Feffer]], toured the United States on behalf of the Soviet [[Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee|Jewish Antifascist Committee]] (JAC). Their assignment was to raise money and convince American public opinion that Soviet [[anti-Semitism]] had been crushed as a result of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s policies. Kheifets coordinated the tour. Before their departure, [[NKVD]] Chief [[Lavrenti Beria]] instructed Mikhoels and Feffer to emphasize the great contribution of Jews to science and culture in the [[Soviet Union]]<ref name=":2" />.
In 1943 a world-famous actor of the Moscow Yiddish State Art Theater, [[Solomon Mikhoels]], together with the poet [[Itzik Feffer]], toured the United States on behalf of the Soviet [[Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee|Jewish Antifascist Committee]] (JAC). Their assignment was to raise money and convince American public opinion that Soviet [[anti-Semitism]] had been crushed as a result of [[Joseph Stalin]]'s policies. Kheifets coordinated the tour. Before their departure, [[NKVD]] Chief [[Lavrenti Beria]] instructed Mikhoels and Feffer to emphasize the great contribution of Jews to science and culture in the [[Soviet Union]]<ref name=":2" />.

Revision as of 01:48, 20 November 2022

Grigory Kheifets, also known as Grigori Kheifetz (1899-1981), was a Soviet intelligence officer, lieutenant colonel of the NKVD-MGB. He was one of the principals in the Soviet nuclear espionage. From December 1941 until July 1944 he was the San Francisco Soviet intelligence station chief, or Rezident.[1]

Early Life

Grigory Markovich (Girsh Mendelevich) Kheifets (Григорий Маркович Хейфец) was born on May 7, 1899 in Dvinsk, Latvia to tradesman Mendel Yankelevich Kheifets and Tsivya Abramovna Leyvy. The family soon moved to Riga (where his father worked in a printing shop). In 1915, he joined the Bund, after which the authorities banished the family from Riga. In 1917, Kheifets graduated from a vocational school in Bogorodsk, near Moscow. He studied politics and economics at Communist University. In 1919, he joined the Bolshevik party and in 1919-1920 fought in the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, in the Western Front and the Caucasus, where he was lightly injured in his arm.[2] After the war, he briefly served as secretary to Lenin's widow Nadezhda Krupskaya[3][4]

Career

Since 1921 Kheifets worked in Comintern as an agent of OMS under diplomatic cover. In 1924, he was OMS’s rezident in Latvia posing as a Soviet consular agent, and from April 1925, in Constantinople under the cover of Consul General. In 1927-1929, he was an OMS emissary in China, Germany, Austria, France and other countries. While working illegally under the guise of a student from India he received an engineering degree from Jena Polytechnic, Germany, where he established several underground cells. From April 1927 he was the OMS representative in Shanghai, and from 1928, in Berlin. In February 1929 he returned to Moscow to become Executive Secretary of the “Ogonyok” publishing house, then Managing Editor of the “Inventor” magazine. Since June 1931 - he is on clandestine assignments in France and the United States. Upon returning to the USSR in October 1935, he became assistant section head of NKVD INO (intelligence)[2][4].

Since July 1936 - Kheifets was a rezident in Italy, where he recruited the young physicist Bruno Pontecorvo[5]. In the summer of 1938 he was recalled to Moscow, dismissed from NKVD and appointed deputy chairman of VOKS. In October 1941, he was reinstated in NKVD and from November 1941 was the NKVD station chief in San Francisco under the guise of the Soviet Vice Consul. There he launched work on the intelligence support for the Soviet nuclear project. According to the former Soviet head of intelligence Pavel Sudoplatov, Kheifets established a confidential contact with the scientific director of the US nuclear project, J. Robert Oppenheimer[5][6][7][8][9]. However, the extent of Oppenheimer's cooperation with Kheifets later became subject of much disagreement among historians[9][10].

In November 1944 Kheifets was recalled to Moscow. Since December 1944 he was senior analyst, and then, head of the department of the 1st Directorate (intelligence) of the NKGB. Since May 1946 Kheifets served as head of Department "C" of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR[2][5].

In 1947, he was dismissed from MGB and appointed Deputy Executive Secretary of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC). On November 13, 1951, he was arrested in the JAC case. On February 2, 1953 Heifetz was sentenced to capital punishment. The sentence was stayed and investigation resumed on April 23, 1953, and on December 28, 1953, he was released and fully rehabilitated[2][3][4]. He died in Moscow in 1981[2].

HUAC Hearings

During the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, the investigators invoked Heifetz's name several times probing his contacts with Bertolt Brecht,[11] Paul Robeson,[12] and others. Kheifets was implicated in the "Haakon Chevalier affair" as the Soviet operative behind the abortive attempt to recruit the head of Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer.[13]

California in the Crimea

In 1943 a world-famous actor of the Moscow Yiddish State Art Theater, Solomon Mikhoels, together with the poet Itzik Feffer, toured the United States on behalf of the Soviet Jewish Antifascist Committee (JAC). Their assignment was to raise money and convince American public opinion that Soviet anti-Semitism had been crushed as a result of Joseph Stalin's policies. Kheifets coordinated the tour. Before their departure, NKVD Chief Lavrenti Beria instructed Mikhoels and Feffer to emphasize the great contribution of Jews to science and culture in the Soviet Union[5].

In 1944 and the first half of 1945, Stalin had a strategic plan was to use the Jewish issue to bring in international investment to rebuild the war-torn Soviet Union and to influence the postwar realignment of power in the Middle East. To this end, the Soviet Union would set a Jewish Soviet Republic in Crimea, dubbed "California in the Crimea", where survivors of Holocaust would be resettled. The co-ordination and execution of the plan was entrusted to Kheifetz [3][5]. In 1947, he left the MGB and was appointed Deputy Executive Secretary of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) in charge of international relations[2][4].

However, By 1948, Stalin lost interest in "California in the Crimea". JAC was disbanded in November that year, followed by the arrest of most of its members[3].

Arrest

On November 13, 1951, Heifetz was arrested in the JAC case. On February 2, 1953 he was sentenced to capital punishment. The sentence was stayed due to the death of Stalin, and investigation resumed on April 23, 1953. On December 28, 1953, he was released and fully rehabilitated[3]. He died on retirement in Moscow in 1981[2][4].

Family

• Wife - Maria Solomonovna Aleinikova (1900-1975), a graduate of Polotsk gymnasium for girls.

• Daughter - Cecilia Grigorievna Aleinikova-Kheifets (1922-2004), doctor-ophthalmologist, was married to the immunologist and virologist David Goldfarb[14] (1918-1990).

• Grandson - Alex Goldfarb (1947 - ), biochemist and activist.

• Granddaughter - Olga Goldfarb (1952 - ), pediatrician.

See also

References

  1. ^ The Venona Story, Robert L. Benson, Center for Cryptological History, National Security Agency.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Колесников, Юрий. СРЕДИ БОГОВ. Неизвестные страницы советской разведки (in Russian). ISBN 978-5-8041-0679-0.
  3. ^ a b c d e Redlich, Shimon (1995). War, the Holocaust and Stalinism. Harwood Academic Publishers. pp. 88–89.
  4. ^ a b c d e Abramov, Vadim (2005). Jews in KGB (in Russian). Moscow: Yauza-EKSMO. ISBN 9785699137626.
  5. ^ a b c d e Sudoplatov, Pavel (1995). Special Tasks. United States: Little, Brown.
  6. ^ Schecter, Leona (2002). Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, Inc. pp. 47–48, 50, 51, 56, 6179. ISBN 1-57488-327-5.
  7. ^ "Louise Bransten". Conservapedia.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Gilder, Louisa (2009). The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn. New York: Vintage Books. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-4000-9526-1.
  9. ^ a b Heynes, John Earl (2009). Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. United States: Yale University Press. pp. 49–57. ISBN 9780300123906.
  10. ^ Schecter, Jerrold (2003). "Was Oppenheimer a Soviet Spy? A Roundtable Discussion". The Wilson Center.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ McLellan, Joseph (1979-04-08). "Bertolt Brecht by J. Edgar Hoover". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-11-19.
  12. ^ Hearings before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives. p. 4496.
  13. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (2 October 2017). "The Communist Party's Party People". NYTimes.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ "Гольдфарб, Давид Моисеевич", Википедия (in Russian), 2022-06-20, retrieved 2022-11-19
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grigory_Kheifets&oldid=1122834108"