Nicola Napoli, was the President of Artkino Pictures, Inc., the primary distributor of Soviet films in the United States, Canada, Central America and South America from 1940 to 1982. Napoli was a double agent Soviet Spy for the United States. In 1941, he became an informant for the secret information concerning formulas and products manufactured by Dupont Corporation of America. As part of his role he was a member of

Communist Party of the United States The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

(CPUSA) and is known to have passed classified Soviet intelligence information (NKVDUS) to US intelligence during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was the secretary for the Anti-Fascists movement in, New York.

Early life

Napoli was born 16 November 1905 in New York of Italian parentage and was taken to Italy at an early age by his parents. He returned to the United States in 1924.

Career

Up to 1928, Napoli edited ''Il Lavoratore'', an Italian Communist publication in New York.

Amkino Corp.

Amkino Corporation, founded in 1927, and headed by ,''

Giannalberto Bendazzi Giannalberto Bendazzi (17 July 1946 – 13 December 2021) was an Italian animation historian, author, and professor. Life and career Born in Ravenna, Italy, and raised in Milan, Bendazzi started his career as a journalist and at the same time a ...

(2016)''
Animation: A World History: Volume I: Foundations - The Golden Age
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

, p. 80–81, 79, 174-177Kirill Malyantovich.
How they fought cosmopolites at Soyuzmultfilm
' article from the Notes by Film Historian magazine, 2001 (in Russian) was a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based company. It was the official distributor of Soviet films in the United States through February 1940. In the mid-1930s, Napoli became an employee of Amkino Corporation, at that time the US distributor of Soviet films. In 1936 Napoli travelled to Russia and other European countries. At one time Napoli was an officer of

Intourist Intourist (, a contraction of , "foreign tourist" also Goskomturist ()) was a Soviet Union, Soviet then Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tour ...

, Inc., the parent company of World Tourist, which was operated by

Jacob Golos Jacob Golos (born Yakov Naumovich Reizen, Russian: Яков Наумович Рейзен; April 24, 1889 - November 27, 1943) was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary who became an intelligence operative in the United States on behalf of the U ...

, high level operative in the

CPUSA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

's. Napoli acted as a double agent Soviet Spy for the FBI in the United States. Shortly before Golos' death of a heart attack in November 1943, Golos told Soviet defector

Elizabeth Bentley Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American NKVD spymaster, who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles ...

that he was turning Napoli over to another Russian contact to continue the covert relationship.

Artkino production

''Artkino production'' was the name chosen by two

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

amateur movie makers, Jean D. Michelson and M.G. MacPherson, and unrelated to ''Artkino Pictures''. From the late 1920s to early 1930s, they completed several fiction short films.

Artkino Pictures

Artkino Pictures was the official distributor of Soviet film: newsreels, shorts, documentaries, and features in North America and South America from 1940 to 1980. In 1940, following the collapse of Amkino Corp., Napoli founded, with Rosa Madell, Artkino Pictures to continue Amkino's mission. During World War II, with the Soviet Union as part of the Allies, Napoli saw the firm's imports being accepted by a far wider number of cinemas than during the 1930s, with its

Red Scare A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...

. With the collapse of Soviet-American alliance following the war, Artkino was registered with the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the 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 o ...

under the

Foreign Agents Registration Act The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) ( ''et seq.'') is a United States law that imposes Public disclosure of private facts, public disclosure obligations on Foreign agent, persons representing foreign interests.

(FARA) as an agent of the US and Soviet Government. However, both the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

and the

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet ...

had full cooperation in gaining Artkino's full compliance. Following the death of

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

and attendant changes within the

Soviet film industry The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. ...

, allowing for production of non-political, artistic films, a wider market for Soviet film product resumed and Artkino found itself in increasing competition with other foreign film distributors in the United States.

International Film Exchange

The company held its own after Napoli's death, continuing under Madell's guidance until, nearing retirement age, she affiliated Artkino with

International Film Exchange International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

and allowed that company to take over Artkino's role in Soviet film importation and distribution by the late 1970s.

Venona cable messages

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 and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...

decrypt "1699 KGB New York to Moscow, 2 December 1944." is a Soviet intelligence cable message which lists the names of scientists engaged on the problem of atomic energy. It has

Saville Sax Saville Sax (July 26, 1924 – September 25, 1980) was the Harvard College roommate of Theodore Hall, who recruited Hall for the Soviets and acted as a courier to move the atomic secrets from Los Alamos to the Soviets. Biography Saville Sax was ...

contacting Napoli, who then directed him to Sergey Kurnakov.

References

FBI Silvermaster file
pgs. 463, 464 (PDF pgs. 64, 65). *John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pgs. 239, 259, 303. Ra FBI Files, (April, 2018).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Napoli, Nicola 1905 births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American newspaper editors American film people American people in the Venona papers American people of Italian descent American spies for the Soviet Union Espionage in the United States Members of the Communist Party USA Year of death missing