Ignacy Witczak was a

GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...

''illegal'' officer in the United States 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 ...

. Witczak's code name with the GRU and as deciphered by 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 ...

and other counterintelligence investigations was "R". He operated under the cover of a student and then instructor at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in the 1940s. Shortly after the defection on 5 September 1945 of

Igor Gouzenko Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (; ; January 26, 1919 – June 25, 1982) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, and a lieutenant of the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). He defected on September 5, 1945, th ...

, a GRU code clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Samuel Witczak, an instructor at the University of Southern California, disappeared from a beach in Southern California, never to be seen again. Later his wife disappeared as well. In a 1952 Senate report, he was identified as a Soviet spy; his name had surfaced in the Venona decrypts. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

search for Witczak is described in the memoirs of FBI special agent Robert Lamphere. The

had learned Witczak had entered the United States from Canada on a false passport and suspected Witczak was not his true name. Later the FBI was able to trace some of Witczak's former agents, but never learned what happened to him. ''Enemy Amongst Trojans'' tells the rest of the story. Recent document releases in Britain and Russia, one showing

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...

reported on him, identify Witczak as “Litvin” and explain what happened to him after returning to the Soviet Union. Litvin's GRU career ended during a purge of Jews, but he survived that, later becoming a translator of American books on intelligence.

Evidence of espionage

Ignacy Witczak is referenced in the following

Venona 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 ...

decryptions and FBI reports: *3, 4, 5 KGB San Francisco to Moscow, 2 January 1946; *25 KGB San Francisco to Moscow, 26 January 1946;detailing a Soviet espionage operation in the United States *FBI report, "Soviet Espionage Activities, 19 October 1945," attached to Hoover to Vaughan, 19 October 1945, President's Secretary's Files, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Mo.; *FBI report, "Soviet Activities in the United States," 25 July 1946, Clark M. Clifford papers, Truman Library.

References

*William Stevenson, ''Intrepid's Last Case'' (New York: Villard Books, 1983). *New York FBI report, 5 April 1946, Comintern Apparatus file, serial 5236; FBI report, "Soviet Espionage Activities," 19 October 1945," attached to Hoover to Vaughan, 19 October 1945, President's Secretary's Files, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Mo.; *FBI report, "Soviet Activities in the United States," 25 July 1946, Clark M. Clifford papers, Truman Library; *David Dallin, Soviet Espionage (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955), pg. 286. *Robert J. Lamphere and

Tom Shachtman Tom Shachtman (born February 15, 1942) is an American author, journalist, filmmaker, and educator. He has published more than 30 books across a variety of topics, including histories, biographies and books for children. He lives in Connecticut. A ...

, ''The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story'' (New York: Random House, 1995), 34–36. * John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'', Yale University Press (1999), pgs. 183–185, 418–419, 370, 467. The authors thank retired FBI agent John Walsh, who in 1946 tried to spot Bunia Witczak and her son on the deck of the Sakhalin when it docked in a South American port, for noting the likelihood that R. was Witczak.
Transparence et secret aux États-Unis
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Witczak, Ignacy Soviet spies against the United States Venona project GRU officers

Evidence of espionage

References

Further reading