Irving Charles Velson (June 3, 1913 – 1976) was an American labor leader who had a long career in the

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) secret apparatus and who allegedly worked for Soviet Military Intelligence (

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 ...

). He was the son of Clara Lemlich Shavelson and changed his name to Velson by 1938. Velson worked as a machinist at the

Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York (state), New York, U.S. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a se ...

from 1931 to 1938. According to Congressional investigators, Velson worked closely with

J. Peters J. Peters (born Sándor Goldberger; 11 August 1894 – 1990) was the most commonly known pseudonym of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was a journalist, political activist, and accused Soviet spy who was a leadi ...

, head of the CPUSA's secret apparatus, and supported Cpl. Robert Osman in espionage activities on behalf of the GRU in the Panama Canal Zone. Robert Gladnick, a former CPUSA functionary and a member of the Lincoln Brigade supported this version. Gladnick stated that Bernard Schuster (aka Bernard Chester) then director of the CPUSA's antimilitarist operations, was replaced in the mid-1930s by Velson, in a program to develop secret Communist groups among American military personnel.

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 ...

decrypts show Velson reporting on weapons technology and other agent handling tasks. Velson'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 ...

is "Nick".

Venona

Velson is referenced in the following

decryptions: *1324 GRU New York to Moscow, 11 August 1943; *1456 GRU New York to Moscow, 8 September 1943.

References

* Testimony of Charles I. Velson, 26 September 1951, ''Unauthorized Travel of Subversives Behind the Iron Curtain on United States Passports,'' U.S. Congress, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act, Senate Judiciary Committee, 207–217 * Testimony of Charles I. Velson, 6 May 1953, ''Investigation of Communist Activities in the New York City Area,'' U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. Mr. Velson testified that he was 39 years old at that time, hence, born in 1913 or 1914. * Robert Gladnick, ''I Was a Fifth Columnist,'' Gladnick folder,

Isaac Don Levine Isaac Don Levine (January 19, 1892 – February 15, 1981) was a 20th-century Russian-born American journalist and anticommunist writer, who is known as a specialist on the Soviet Union. He worked with Soviet ex-spy Walter Krivitsky in a 1939 e ...

papers, Emory University Library, Atlanta, Ga.
The Political Graveyard
* John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'', Yale University Press (1999), pgs. 185-186, 369, 466. * ''New York Red Book 1939'' lists him as a 1938 candidate for the New York State Senate, 11th District, under the name Velson, not Shavelson. * "Short biographies of candidates who will be voted upon here Tuesday," ''New York Times'', November 5, 1938, gives Velson's date of birth as June 3, 1913. {{DEFAULTSORT:Velson, Charles 1913 births 1976 deaths American communists American people in the Venona papers American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American spies for the Soviet Union Espionage in the United States