Boris E. Skvirsky

A Russian revolutionary and diplomat, who from 1922 to 1933 served as the Soviet unofficial representative in the USA and made a significant contribution into the US diplomatic recognition of the USSR in November 1933.

Boris Skvirsky was born on October 15, 1887, in Odessa, the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine) into the family of a landlord who soon went broke and turned to the trade of vodka making. He attended three years in a Jewish primary school and in 1906 graduated from a secondary school of commerce. Skvirsky joined the revolutionary movement during the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907. At its height in October 1905, he participated in the student protest movement in Odessa. He earned his living as a private tutor and in July 1907 applied for admission to the Tomsk Technical Institute, but failed the physics entrance examination. Afterwards, he joined his father in Harbin, Manchuria, where he earned his living teaching at a Jewish school and simultaneously participated in underground activities of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary party (commonly known as Eser party and its members as es-ery).  In June 1908 he was arrested and sentenced to a prison term in Harbin (which he served from June 1908 to June 1911) followed by “perennial exile.” In 1911, he was sent to exile in Yakutskaya Gubernia in the Russian Far East, where he taught at a Yakut school.  In Yakutsk from August 1912 to July 1913, he married Lydia I. Chevanova, a political exile and a former militant of the Eser party.  In July 1913, they escaped by separate routes and were reunited in Nagasaki, Japan.

From Japan Skvirsky proceeded to Brisbane, Australia, where he worked in various menial jobs while active in assisting political émigrés and in publishing a paper for Russian workers. Later, he managed to attend night classes in math and physics at a local university.  With the Russian democratic revolution of February 1917, Skvirsky became a  supporter of the democratic Provisional Government and sought its assistance to enable Russian political émigrés’ return to Russia. The Government gave money to send the émigrés back home, and on July 4, 1917, Skvirsky arrived in Vladivostok, where he found work as an office employee, joined the left wing of the Eser party and was elected a member of local Soviet (Russian revolution-bred form of government, which combined legislative and executive functions) from that party. In early 1918, after the right-wing socialists (commonly known as Mensheviks) and the Esers retired from the Soviets in protest to Bolshevik abuse of power, Skvirsky was elected member of the Vladivostok Zemstvo (the Russian system of self-government since 1864) and later vice-chairman of its executive council or Uprava. With arrival of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia (AEFS) in the Far East, Skvirsky managed to establish a rather close relationship with its commander Brigadier General William S. Graves. In 1920 Skvirsky occupied the post of assistant minister of foreign affairs in the Zemstvo Provisional Government of the Maritime Province.  After the departure of the AEFS in March 1920, the Japanese forces arrived in early April. By the end of the year, Skvirsky by then dissatisfied with the Eser party, established contact with the Far Eastern Bureau of the Bolshevik party (RCP (b)) and moved to Chita, the capital of the “buffer” Far-Eastern Republic (DVR) where he became an assistant minister of foreign affairs and in August 1921 applied for Communist party membership.

In mid-October 1921, Skvirsky was sent to Washington, D.C. as part of the DVR four-member “trade” delegation to the Washington Conference on Naval Disarmament and Far Eastern Affairs (November, 12, 1921 to February 6, 1922) and after it was closed continued for a few months as “acting chairman” of the Chita Delegation. After the DVR was incorporated into the RSFSR in November 1922, Skvirsky was appointed by the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID) as its “unofficial representative” in the United States and in 1923, he was assigned as the Soviet diplomatic agent. By September of the same year, he organized Russian (later, Soviet Union) Information Bureau, which began publishing its magazine, Soviet Union Review, devoted to propaganda of the achievements of the socialist state, as well as a few economic publications to encourage potential business. Skvirsky soon became an authorized representative of VOKS – the Soviet society promoting cultural contacts – and helped to establish a program of Soviet-American cultural exchange. For 11 years Skvirsky was the chief spokesman for the Soviet Union in the United States and was instrumental in facilitating the US official recognition of the Soviet Union  in November 1933. In February 1936, The Washington Star wrote,

Not since the days of Citizen Zenet has any foreign diplomat a harder task in this country than Boris Skvirsky. Never has one acquitted himself better under difficult circumstances. For 11 years he was without official standing, and to his patient and tactful work in building solid foundations goes much of the credit for the resumption of Russo-American relations in 1933.

Skvirsky was appointed charge d’affairs at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. (later counselor) and continued with his diplomatic and cultural liaison functions until he was recalled to Moscow in February 1936 (to be succeeded by Constantine Oumansky.) In a farewell article, The Washington Post quoted Skvirsky as saying, “It has meant 15 years out of my life, but I have enjoyed it very much. I’ve come to have a very great respect for America, and I shall miss my many American friends…”

After a brief stay in Moscow, Skvirsky was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Soviet ambassador, but was recalled to Moscow on November 1, 1937. In Moscow, he was immediately subjected to a vetting by a special branch of the Central Committee of VCP (b) – a routine procedure in the 1936-1941 period for communists returning from overseas postings, which, however, too often amounted to a purge. Meanwhile, the former ambassador was given a job of a head of “Medical Instruments” trust. Skvirsky’s “vetting” (or, rather, purge) was completed in late March 1938. Although he was cleared of the charges brought in the course of his party purge, its materials were transferred to the NKVD that arrested Skvirsky on July 15, 1938. According to the available information, Skvirsky spent almost three years in prison without trial. On July 8, 1941, soon after the Nazi attack against the Soviet Union, he was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR “for participation in a terrorist organization and espionage” and executed on July 30, 1941 at the Kommunarka testing ground not far from Moscow, which since 1937, was one of the major sites of mass executions. He was rehabilitated in November 1955. ¹

A “street name” should not be confused with an operational pseudonym – a cover name used primarily in the ciphered cable traffic. As a rule, assets and contacts do not know their operational pseudonyms, nor operational pseudonyms of their handlers and couriers, whom they usually know only as Karl, Bill, Alex, Sam, and not by true name or even an alias.

An operational pseudonym should not be confused with a “street name” – a cover name used by an officer, an agent-group leader or a courier in the company of assets or contacts of an intelligence service.

Abram Einhorn was born in Odessa, a cosmopolitan Black Sea port of the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine) on August 20, 1899 in the family of a Jewish locksmith Ossip Einhorn. At the age of 14, after graduating from a 4-grade city school, he joined his father’s trade, but after a few years joined the Russian revolutionary movement. In 1916, Einhorn joined the Russian Social-Democratic Party (RSDRP – internationalists) and soon after the Russian democratic revolution of February 1917, he joined the Bolsheviks. Einhorn was one of the organizers of the Alliance of Socialist Labor Youth in his native Odessa, and in January 1918, he took part in the armed uprising, which resulted in the victory of the Bolsheviks. After the Red Army was driven out of Odessa, Einhorn took part in the Russian civil war in the Ukraine and in the Volga region. For some time he was fighting as part of a Red Army armored train team, when his comrades-in-arms gave him a nickname, “Taras.” Einhorn returned to Odessa with the Red Army in the spring of 1919 and soon became head of department of operations of Odessa city Cheka. However, the Red Army was soon driven out of Odessa once again. Einhorn stayed back in Odessa under the White Army and managed to organize an underground intelligence network. After the Red Army final return to Odessa, Einhorn became deputy head of the secret operations department of the regional Cheka. However, in 1920 he was dispatched to Turkestan in Central Asia, where for two years he served as Cheka authorized representative.

In 1921, Einhorn shifted to the Intelligence Office of the Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea. In 1921-1922, he briefly travelled to Rumania and Poland with intelligence missions and then came to Moscow to study at the oriental department of the Military Academy of the RKKA, from which he graduated in 1924. After his graduation Einhorn briefly worked as a functionary at the Comintern’s youth arm – The Communist Youth International, but soon shifted to the INO – the foreign intelligence arm of Cheka successor agency, OGPU. His revolutionary nickname, “Taras“, became his operational pseudonym.  In 1925-1926, Einhorn was posted as a clandestine (“illegal”) operative in Turkey, France, Germany and Palestine. In 1926-1927, he was posted in Italy under an official cover of a diplomat. After his return to Moscow in 1927, he worked at the INO OGPU oriental section, where he supervised operations in Iran and India. In 1928-1929, he was an “illegal” INO station chief in Iran. ¹

In early 1930, Einhorn arrived in New York, where he became part of an “illegal”station under the cover of a businessman engaged in market surveys with a view of purchasing tools and equipment for his trade mission in Iran or in the Middle East. But his real mission was to obtain American industrial secrets. In the semi-official history of the Russian foreign intelligence Einhorn is credited with laying the basis for OGPU industrial espionage operations in the United States. In particular, he is credited with obtaining a complete set of drafts of one of the military aircrafts designed by Sikorsky. One of the INO’s reports written in 1931 recognized Einhorn’s successes as “enormous.” Among his achievements the report listed “materials on chemical industry (evaluated as a $1 mln. saving for the Soviet industry); a complete set of materials on a Packard diesel engine and establishment of “regular communication line with America,” which was described as “live, illegal.” ² 

Among Einhorn’s achievements the above cited account listed “obtaining letterheads of American and Canadian documents… for the Soviet illegal intelligence.” Soon after his arrival in the USA Einhorn established contact with American Communist, Jacob Golos, through whom he would ensure a continuous supply of authentic US documentation for the needs of the Soviet foreign intelligence. In 1931, Einhorn recruited Catherine (Kitty) Harris, a Comintern functionary and a former common-law wife of the leader of the CPUSA, Earl Browder. Harris would become a long-time special courier of the OGPU-NKVD foreign intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s. ³ In the same year Einhorn married an American Communist Leonora Sarney, who would soon become his intelligence associate. ⁴ While working in the USA, Einhorn travelled to China and Japan with intelligence missions. ⁵

Einhorn returned to Moscow in the spring of 1934 or late 1933 ⁶ and briefly worked as an operative of the Special department of GUGB NKVD before he was sent to Vladivostok in the Soviet Far East in March 1935. In the Far East, Einhorn supervised intelligence operations targeted at Japan, China and the USA. However, in August 1936 he was suddenly summoned back to Moscow. ⁷ According to available accounts, since August 1936 Einhorn worked as head of inspection in the Moscow regional NKVD office, which was an apparent demotion. In February, 1937 he was further demoted to a position of an employee for special assignments at the counterintelligence department of GUGB NKVD.

Einhorn was arrested on March 21, 1937 on standard charges of Trotskyism, German espionage and contacts with the “enemies of the people,” the list of which included his brother, who was a prominent official in the Young Communist League. After a two-year detention in NKVD inner jail, Butyrka and one more prison, he was sentenced to eight-year prison term on June 21, 1939, which he served in prison labor camps in the Russian Far East. Having served his term, he was set free in the summer of 1945, but was deprived of the right to live in Moscow and other large cities. For a few years Einhorn worked in low managerial jobs in small regional towns until in 1949 he was arrested again by MGB and sentenced to “a perpetual banishment for free settlement” in the far eastern Krasnoyarsk region. Einhorn was rehabilitated in late 1954 and returned to Moscow in December, 1954 suffering from a spontaneous leg gangrene and died on January 14, 1955. ⁸

The Founding Convention of CPA that took place in Chicago, IL on September 1 – 7, 1919 drafted and approved a Constitution and a Program, as well as elected a Central Executive Committee of 15 and an Executive Secretary. ¹

As Vassiliev would explain years later, he discovered a list of “names and code names of agents and sources of Soviet intelligence,” entitled “Collapses in the USA,” at an early stage in his research. ² The list was composed by Anatoly Gorsky, then an officer of the MGB foreign intelligence headquarters, who was a station chief in Washington, D.C. from September 1944 to December 1945. It listed the names and cover names of 77 Americans and 15 Soviet intelligence operatives in five groups that were compromised by betrayals of their group leaders and/or couriers from 1938 to 1948. The list included (in the order of their appearance):

1. The group of “Karl,” identified as Whittaker Chambers, listing 21 persons, including  Alger Hiss and his brother Donald Hiss, Harry Dexter White and one Soviet operative, Boris Bukov;

2. The group of “Redhead,” identified as Hedwig Gumperz, a former Comintern and OGPU agent who defected to the FBI in 1947, listing six persons, including State Department official Laurence Duggan and the famous Soviet spymaster, Elizaveta Zarubina;

3. The group of “Buben,” identified as a former official of CPUSA Louis Budenz, who denounced Communism in 1945, listing six people, including one Soviet operative;

4. The group of “Sound” – “Mirna,” identified as Jacob Golos, an American Communism and a longtime agent of Soviet intelligence who died in November 1943, and Elizabeth Bentley, his assistant since 1938, who defected to the FBI in November, 1945. The group listed 43 persons, including seven Soviet operatives;

5. The group of “Berg” – “Art,” identified as New York engineer Alexander Koral and his wife Helen, who testified about their involvement in Soviet espionage in 1948, listing 16 persons, including five Soviet operatives.

Despite the list’s obvious riches, it was not cited nor even mentioned in The Haunted Wood. Its existence had remained unknown to the public until 2004, when Dr. David Lowenthal, professor emeritus of the University College of London, discovered its copy among the papers of his late brother, the lawyer, author, filmmaker and a longtime Alger Hiss defender John Lowenthal. In early 2002, the copy of the list was entered by Vassiliev as evidence that he had seen the name of Alger Hiss in the clear, in the course of a libel case against John Lowenthal’s London publisher, Frank Cass & Co Ltd. That libel case centered around Alexander Vassiliev’s assertion that he had seen the name of Alger Hiss written in the clear in the KGB intelligence files released to him in 1994-1995.

Dr. David Lowenthal shared his finding with Dr. Eduard Mark, a historian with the United States Air Force (now deceased), who, in turn, brought it to the attention of Dr. John Earl Haynes at the Library of Congress, who arranged for its transliteration and translation, which in early 2005 was posted on H-HOAC (an online forum for discussing the history of American Communism), which was followed by a heated discussion.

The copy of the Vassiliev’s notes sent by Dr. David Lowenthal to Dr. Eduard Mark, was apparently deficient –with a few lines missing on top of the first page. Following my request, Dr. Lowenthal kindly re-scanned the copy in his position. The new scan displayed the missing lines, which included the title on top: “Report of Anatoly Gorsky to Savchenko S.R., 23 December, (19)49.” The list with Vassiliev’s notation in its bottom, “Dec. 1948,” was likely an attachment to the December 23, 1949 report.

In late 2005, Vassiliev saw the Gorsky list posted on Dr. John Earl Haynes’s website. Their subsequent contact eventually resulted in the second collaborative book based on Vassiliev’s notes, SPIES: The Rise and Fall of KGB in America (2009), which Vassiliev co-authored with Haynes and the latter’s longtime coauthor, historian Harvey Klehr. ³ In the spring of 2009, Vassiliev’s notebooks were posted on the web site of the Woodrow Wilson Center and subsequently deposited at the Library of Congress. The Gorsky List is part of Vassiliev’s so-called Black Notebook, posted at WWC website and itself part of Alexander Vassiliev Papers at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. ⁴

Click here to see my discussion of the Gorsky list