The following list of Americans in the Venona papers is a list of names deciphered from codenames contained in the

Venona project The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (later absorbed by the National Security Agency), which ran from February 1, 1943, until Oc ...

, an American government effort from 1943–1980 to decrypt coded messages by intelligence forces of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. To what extent some of the individuals named in the Venona papers were actually involved with Soviet intelligence is a topic of dispute. The following list of individuals is extracted in large part from the work of historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr and reflects their previous points of view.John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr (1999)
''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America''
Yale University Press, However, Haynes' positions on the meaning and correct identification of names on the list continues to evolve. Non-Americans may also be mentioned in passing.

Notes and disclaimers on the list

Names marked with a double asterisk (**) do not appear in the Venona documents. Inclusion has been inferred to correlate with codenames or similarly spelled names found in the documents. Similarly, identities that have been inferred by researchers (i.e., the name appears in the Venona documents, but positive identification of the individual bearing that name does not), are also marked with a double asterisk (**).

List

* John Abt, attorney and politician** *

Solomon Adler Solomon Adler (August 6, 1909 – August 4, 1994) worked as U.S. Treasury representative in China during World War II. Adler was identified by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley as a Soviet spy and resigned from the Treasury Department in 19 ...

, economist** * Rudy Baker, politician** *

Joel Barr Joel Barr (January 1, 1916 – August 1, 1998), also Iozef Veniaminovich Berg and Joseph Berg, was part of the Soviet Atomic Spy Ring. Background Born Joyel Barr in New York City, to immigrant parents of Ukrainian Jewish origin. He attended C ...

, engineer * Alice Barrows, educator *

Theodore Bayer Theodore Bayer (died 1959) was president of the ''Russky Golos'', or ''Russian Voice'' Publishing Company, which published an anti-capitalist Russian-language newspaper during the Great Depression and World War II. ''Russky Golos'' was funded by ...

, President, ''Russky Golos'' Publishing *

Cedric Belfrage Cedric Henning Belfrage (8 November 1904 – 21 June 1990) was an English film critic, journalist, writer and political activist. He is best remembered as a co-founder of the radical US weekly ''National Guardian''. Later Belfrage was referenced ...

, journalist *

Elizabeth Bentley Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American spy and member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union from 1938 to 1945 until she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intellige ...

, teacher and politician *

Joseph Milton Bernstein Joseph Milton Bernstein (September 30, 1908 – July 1975) was an American accused of spying for the Soviet Union and later confirmed as a Soviet agent by the US intelligence program Venona. Background Joseph Milton Bernstein was born on Septem ...

Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CPUSA during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s. Durin ...

, American communist and General Secretary of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Rev ...

from 1934 to 1945. * Paul Burns** * Sylvia Callen** * Virginius Frank Coe * Lona Cohen** * Morris Cohen**, Communist Party USA & Portland Spy Ring member who was courier for

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

physicist Theodore Hall. * Judith Coplon, Department of Justice employee *

Lauchlin Currie Lauchlin Bernard Currie (October 8, 1902 – December 23, 1993) worked as White House economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II (1939–45). From 1949 to 1953, he directed a major World Bank mission to Colombia and re ...

, White House economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt and director of World Bank mission to Colombia. * Byron T. Darling** * William Dawson, United States Ambassador to Uruguay * Eugene Dennis, politician and labor organizer * Samuel Dickstein, politician and judge** *

Martha Dodd Martha Eccles Dodd (October 8, 1908 – August 10, 1990) was an American journalist and novelist. The daughter of William Edward Dodd, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first Ambassador to Germany, Dodd lived in Berlin from 1933–1937 an ...

**, daughter of William Dodd, who served as the United States ambassador to Germany between 1933 and 1937. * William E. Dodd, Jr., educator; son of William Dodd and brother of Martha Dodd * Laurence Duggan, head of the South American desk at the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

during World War II. * Eufrosina Dvoichenko-Markov * Nathan Einhorn * Jack Bradley Fahy * Linn Markley Farish, senior liaison officer with

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death ...

's Yugoslav Partisan forces * Edward J. Fitzgerald * Charles Flato *

Isaac Folkoff Isaac "Pop" Folkoff also known as "Volkov," "Folconoff," and "Uncle" (1881 -1975), was a senior founding member of the California Communist Party and West Coast liaison between Soviet intelligence and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Caree ...

* Jane Foster * Zalmond David Franklin * Isabel Gallardo * Boleslaw K. Gerbert * Rebecca Getzoff * Harold Glasser, U.S. Treasury Dept. economist,

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

(UNRRA) spokesman. *

Bela Gold Bela Gold, also Bill Gold, (1915–2012), was a Hungarian-born American businessman and professor. Biography Bela Gold was born on 30 January 1915, in Kolozsvár (then in Austria-Hungary, now Cluj-Napoca, in Romania). His parents were Esthe ...

* Harry Gold, sentenced to 30 years for his role in the Rosenbergs' ring * Sonia Steinman Gold * Jacob Golos, "main pillar" of

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

spy network, particularly the Sound/Myrna group, he died in the arms of

* George Gorchoff * Gerald Graze** * David Greenglass, machinist at Los Alamos sentenced to 15 years for his role in Rosenberg ring; he was the brother of executed

Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

* Ruth Greenglass * Theodore Alvin Hall, Manhattan Project physicist who gave

plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exh ...

purification secrets to Soviet intelligence. * Maurice Halperin, American writer, professor, diplomat, and Soviet spy (NKVD code name "Hare"). *

Kitty Harris Kitty Harris (Unknown – 1966) was a Soviet secret agent and "long-time special courier of the OGPU-NKVD foreign intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s." Harris was identified only in 2001 when her code name "Ada" or "Aida" was found in decla ...

Clarence Hiskey Clarence Francis Hiskey (1912–1998), born Clarence Szczechowski, was a Soviet espionage agent in the United States. He became active in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) when he attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. He bec ...

** * Cary Hiles *

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in co ...

, Lawyer involved in the establishment of the United Nations, both as a U.S. State Department and UN official. *

Donald Hiss Donald Hiss (December 15, 1906 – May 18, 1989), also known as "Donie" and "Donnie", was the younger brother of Alger Hiss. Donald Hiss's name was mentioned during the 1948 hearings wherein his more famous and older brother, Alger, was a ...

** *

Harry Hopkins Harry Lloyd Hopkins (August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946) was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hopkins directed New Deal relief programs before servi ...

, One of FDR's closest advisers & New Deal architect, esp.

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA); as a diplomat in charge of relations between FDR and Stalin his name naturally appears on the list. * Louis Horwitz * Bella Joseph** * Emma Harriet Joseph * Gertrude Kahn * Joseph Katz * Helen Grace Scott Keenan *

Mary Jane Keeney Mary Jane Keeney (1898–1969) and her husband Philip Olin Keeney were librarians and charter members of the liberal The Progressive Librarians Council. She worked at the Board of Economic Warfare in Washington D.C. during World War II. In Novem ...

, librarian *

Philip Keeney Philip Olin Keeney (1891–1962), and his wife, Mary Jane Keeney, were librarians who became part of the Silvermaster spy ring in the 1940s.Rosalee McReynolds, Louise S. Robbins: ''The Librarian Spies: Philip and Mary Jane Keeney and Cold War Espio ...

* Alexander Koral** * Helen Koral * Samuel Krafsur * Charles Kramer, economist * Christina Krotkova * Sergej Nikolaevich Kurnakov *

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fr ...

, mayor of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

* Stephen Laird * Oscar Lange, economist and diplomat *

Richard Lauterbach Richard Edward Lauterbach (June 18, 1914, New York - September 20, 1950, New York) was the ''Time'' magazine Moscow bureau chief during World War II. Background Lauterbach was born in New York in 1914. He studied China and the Far East under Pro ...

, employee at ''Time'' magazine * Duncan C. Lee * Michael S. Leshing *

Helen Lowry Elza Akhmerova, also Elsa Akhmerova was an American citizen, born Helen Lowry. She is a niece of Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). She died of leukemia. From 1936 to 1939, Lowry was an equal par ...

* William Mackey * Harry Samuel Magdoff * William Malisoff, owner and manager of United Laboratories *

Hede Massing Hede Tune Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" (also "Hede Eisler," "Hede Gumperz," and "Redhead") (6 January 1900 – 8 March 1981), was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United Sta ...

** * Robert Owen Menaker * Floyd Cleveland Miller *

James Walter Miller James Walter Miller (1890–1950) was an American citizen and an alleged asset of the San Francisco Office of the KGB from 1943 to 1945. Miller worked in the United States Government wartime mail censorship office. Miller was allegedly recruite ...

* Robert Miller** * Robert G. Minor,

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

* Leonard Emil Mins * Nichola Napoli * Franz Neumann** *

David K. Niles David K. Niles (November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1952; Boston, Massachusetts) was an American political advisor who worked in the White House from 1942 to 1951 for the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Niles was one ...

* Eugénie Olkhine *

George Oppen George Oppen (April 24, 1908 – July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism and moved to Mexico in 1950 to avoid the attentions ...

** *

Mary Oppen Mary Oppen (November 28, 1908 – May 14, 1990), was an American activist, artist, photographer, poet and writer. She published an autobiography, ''Meaning a Life'' (1978), and a book of verse, ''Poems and Transpositions'' (1980). Early life O ...

** *

Frank Oppenheimer Frank Friedman Oppenheimer (August 14, 1912 – February 3, 1985) was an American particle physicist, cattle rancher, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. A younger brother ...

** * Julius Robert Oppenheimer, Scientific director of the Manhattan Project and chief advisor to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. * Nicholas V. Orloff * Edna Margaret Patterson * William Perl * Victor Perlo * Vladimir Aleksandrovich Posner, United States War Department *

Lee Pressman Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following hi ...

* Mary Wolfe Price * Bernard Redmont** * Peter Rhodes * Stephan Sandi Rich * Kenneth Richardson, World Wide Electronics * Samuel Jacob Rodman, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration *

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, President of the United States, his name appears on the list under the code name "capitan". (

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

's codename was "boar." * Allen Rosenberg * Julius Rosenberg, United States

Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...

Laboratories, executed for role in the Rosenberg ring *

, executed for role in Rosenberg ring based on testimony of her brother, David Greenglass *

Amadeo Sabatini Amadeo is a Spanish and Portuguese name derived from the Latin name Amadeus. It may refer to: People * for people with the first name Amadeo * Amadeo I of Spain (1845–1890) * Amadeo Bordiga (1889–1970), founder of the Communist Party of Ita ...

* Alfred Epaminodas Sarant * Marian Miloslavovich Schultz * Milton Schwartz * John Scott, journalist * Ricardo Setaro * Charles Bradford Sheppard, Hazeltine Electronics * Abraham George Silverman *

Nathan Gregory Silvermaster Nathan Gregory Silvermaster (November 27, 1898 – October 7, 1964), an economist with the United States War Production Board (WPB) during World War II, was the head of a large ring of Communist spies in the U.S. government. It is from him that ...

, U.S. War Production Board (WPB) economist and head of a major ring of spies in the U.S. government. * Helen Silvermaster, Leader of the American League for Peace & Democracy and the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties. * Morton Sobell * Jack Soble * Robert Soble * Johannes Steele *

I. F. Stone Isidor Feinstein "I. F." Stone (December 24, 1907 – June 18, 1989) was an American investigative journalist, writer, and author. Known for his politically progressive views, Stone is best remembered for ''I. F. Stone's Weekly'' (1953–1971), ...

, Investigative journalist whose newsletter, I. F. Stone's Weekly, was ranked 16th out of 100 by his fellow journalists. * Augustina Stridsberg * Anna Louise Strong * Helen Tenney** * Mikhail Tkach, editor of the ''Ukrainian Daily News'' *

William Ludwig Ullmann William Ludwig Ullmann (August 14, 1908 – February 3, 1993) was an American Treasury Department official accused of spying for the Soviet Union. Biography He was born in Springfield, Missouri, on August 14, 1908. He attended Drury College ( ...

Irving Charles Velson Irving Charles Velson (June 3, 1913 - 1976) was an American who had a long career in the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) secret apparatus and who allegedly worked for Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU). He was the son of Clara Lemli ...

* Margietta Voge *

Henry A. Wallace Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was an American politician, journalist, farmer, and businessman who served as the 33rd vice president of the United States, the 11th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and the 10th U.S. ...

* William Weisband** * Donald Wheeler * Maria Wicher * Harry Dexter White, Senior U.S. Treasury department official, primary designer of the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. * Ruth Beverly Wilson *

Ignacy Witczak Ignacy Witczak was a GRU ''illegal'' officer in the United States during World War II. Witczak's code name with the GRU and as deciphered by the Venona project and other counterintelligence investigations was "R". He operated under a cover of a s ...

**Haynes notes: "Witczak, Ignacy = V (in Los Angeles, Witczak was icfalse papers taken from real Witczak a Polish Jew migrant to Canada who died in Spain. ource Stephenson Intrepid's Last * Ilya Elliott Wolston * Flora Don Wovschin *

Jones Orin York Jones Orin York (August 5, 1893 – July 1970) was recruited in California by Soviet spy Stanislav Shumovskij approximately in 1935. In 1950 York told the FBI that he had passed secrets to the KGB since the mid-1930s, including plans for a new ai ...

* Daniel Abraham Zaret, Spanish War veteran * Mark Zborovski, anthropologist

Footnotes

External links

NSA Venona site

FBI Files relating to Venona
Released in conjunction Moynihan Committee report. * John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, ''Venona; Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'', Yale University Press, 1999. . Se
Yale University Press Web site information on the book
* John Earl Haynes

(revised April 2009), on the author's web site. {{DEFAULTSORT:Americans In The Venona Papers 01 .Verona Espionage in the United States Spy rings Cold War spies World War II spies World War II espionage Venona papers

Notes and disclaimers on the list

List

See also

References

Footnotes

External links