Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (73 page)

Sussman had pursued a high-risk strategy. He had never admitted espionage to the FBI but had admitted concealing his Communist Party
membership, named numerous others who were secret members, and
agreed to testify about Rosenberg's party membership if needed. The
FBI had no direct evidence of his participation in espionage, although
under questioning David Greenglass had speculated that Sussman had
been a source for Julius. Possibly the Bureau and federal prosecutors, including Roy Cohn, may have decided not to pursue the matter of espionage in view of Sussman's willingness to testify on the matter of Rosenberg's CPUSA membership. And Sussman must have believed that none
of his old comrades who knew about his activities would confess. Whatever the explanation, Nathan Sussman, one of the earliest and longest
serving of Julius Rosenberg's spies, successfully maneuvered through
these difficulties and disappeared from public view.

The Rosenberg network at its peak in early 1945 had nine agents, all reporting to the KGB via Julius Rosenberg. He, in turn, was under the supervision of KGB officer Alexander Feklisov. Managing the KGB's most
productive XY network was a top priority. But Feklisov also supervised
two independent XY line sources, "Block" and "Serb." A 1945 KGB report stated: ""Block"-Stephen Urewich. B. in '13 in the USA. In 40
he got a job at "Corpus's" [Western Electric's] radio valve factory. Not a
fellowcountryman. Sympathetic toward the USSR. Married, 1 child.
"Block's" parents are from Belarus. Recruited by "Aleksey" [Yatskov] in
November 42. Since November 43, he has been handled by "Callistratus" [Feklisov]. Only gives radio valves; no oth. opportunities. $75 a
month."23

American "radio valves"-that is, electronic vacuum tubes-were the
world's most advanced, but Feklisov's other agent, "Serb," was higher on
the espionage food chain. Formerly cover-named "Relay," he had been assigned in July 1944 as an agent handler for both Urewich and an
unidentified "Nina." The 1945 KGB memo identified him as

"Serb"-Joseph Chmilevski. z6 years old, b. in the USA. Mother is Polish, father is Ukrainian. Married (Helene). i child. A fellowcountryman [Communist] since '37. He was in Spain from Jan. to Oct. '37. He was wounded, and
his right leg was amputated. Prosthesis. Recruited in Aug. 42 by "Volunteer''
[Morris Cohen]. A radio operator and a jr. engineer at a sonar laboratory in
Camden ("Hydro" [RCA]). Until July 44, "Serb" worked with "Twain" [Semenov], whom he knew as "Norman." Now-handled by "Callistratus" [Feklisov], whom he knows as "Alex." Hot-tempered personality, shattered nerves.
His wife used to know "Twain."

Despite his "shattered nerves," Semenov told Moscow Center, Chmilevski provided "valuable materials on radio, especially radar technology. "24

An agent cover-named "Solid" appeared in three decoded KGB cables
in 1943 and 1944, but the broken messages had no information that
pointed to "Solid's" identity, and the FBI made no progress on uncovering him. However, "Solid," whose cover name shifted to "Reed" in late
1944, appears in Vassiliev's notebooks in numerous KGB reports dated
from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s. His real name is nowhere given,
but ample details about the KGB's contact with him make his identification easy. The most telling entries: a 1943 report describing "Solid" as
"the chief of the Chem. Division of the U.S. Tariff Commission" and a
1945 report on XY line sources that stated: "Sources: 1. Reed ("Solid")chief of the Chem. Division of the country's Tariff Commission, PhD in
chemistry. With us since '35. Materials were paid on delivery." In 1943
and 1945 the chief of the Tariff Commission's Chemical Division was
James Hibben.25

James Herbert Hibben was born in Indianapolis on 14 May 1897. He
graduated from the University of Illinois in 1920, after serving in the
Army in World War I, and received a PhD from the University of Paris
in 1924. From 1925 to 1927 he was a National Research Fellow at Princeton, consulted for the Bureau of Standards, and then served on the research staff of the geophysical laboratory of the Carnegie Institution from
1928 to 1939. He had a distinguished scientific career; his best-known
work, The Raman Effect and Its Chemical Application (1939), dealt with a new form of secondary radiation. As chief of the Chemical Division of
the U.S. Tariff Commission from 1939 until his death in 1959, his job was
to provide information to government agencies, industry, and Congress
on foreign trade issues pertaining to chemicals and chemical products.
During World War II, he served on numerous interdepartmental committees dealing with military-industrial mobilization."

Hibben's older and more famous brother, Paxton, may have first stimulated James's sympathy for the Soviet cause. During a brief and controversy-filled seven years with the State Department early in the twentieth
century, Paxton Hibben served in St. Petersburg and learned Russian.
He next turned to journalism and declared his sympathy for socialism.
After World War I, he became involved in humanitarian relief efforts in
Armenia and Russia, praising the Bolsheviks and criticizing Herbert
Hoover's refusal to work through the Russian Red Cross, an organization
Hoover castigated as a political tool of the Soviet regime. In one speech
Paxton Hibben compared "Lenin's vision for Russia with that of Christ on
the Mount of Olives." As an officer in the Army Reserves, he was tried in
1923 on grounds that his defense of the USSR constituted disloyalty, but
he was acquitted after testifying that he was not a member of the Communist Party. A prominent defender of Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco
and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, he was arrested numerous times in Boston
protesting their convictions for murder. He wrote for the Communistaligned cultural journal New Masses and produced popular biographies
of Henry Ward Beecher and William Jennings Bryan before dying of
pneumonia in December 1928. The high regard with which the Soviet
Union held Paxton was attested to by its decision to bury his ashes in
Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery, the favored burial grounds of the Soviet elite.27

The 1945 XY line report stated that James Hibben began working for
Soviet intelligence in 1935, and under his cover names of "Solid" and
"Reed" he was noted as an XY line agent in 1937, 1938, 1942, 1943, and
1945. The entries offer few specifics about the information he provided,
although presumably it was in his area of expertise, chemistry. But his
work was clearly valued. A 1943 memo noted that he had been paid a
regular monthly stipend of $350 in the 1930s (in excess of $5,000 a month
in 2008 dollars), with bonuses for especially valuable materials. In addition, Hibben gave a lead on a new source, a secretary on the staff of Senator Robert Wagner (D-New York) who was given the cover name "Riddle" after she was recruited by a KGB officer. A KGB report said: ""Solid'
[Hibben] described `Riddle' [unidentified] as a young woman from a working class family, a true friend of the Soviet Union, and an honest and
potentially useful person.' Frank [unidentified KGB officer] met with her
several times, and the facts were confirmed. She agreed to work with us.
Her connections in government agencies are of interest." (The latter remark suggests that "Riddle" worked for the Senate Labor Committee,
which Wagner chaired.)28

One of the KGB officers who worked with Hibben was Gayk
Ovakimyan, chief of the legal station. As the KGB American stations
began to shrink in the late 1930s, Ovakimyan prudently warned Hibben
that there might be an interruption in contact and received from him a
material password of some sort that the KGB could use to establish the
bona fides of an officer reestablishing contact. And in 1939 contact was
suspended.

In late 1942 the KGB began to reactivate old agents. The New York
station sent Semenov, its senior XY line officer, to Washington to renew
contact with James Hibben. The disruption in operations, however, included everyone forgetting the arrangements Ovakimyan had made in
1938; the material password Hibben had given him had been lost or misplaced. Ovakimyan himself had been arrested by the FBI in 1941 and
deported. Semenov's attempt to reestablish contact, consequently, had
a somewhat farcical quality. The KGB New York station reported to
Moscow:

"Twain" [Semenov] went to Wash. to restore the connection with "Solid" [Hibben], which had been interrupted in '39. We know very little about him or
his work with us. We only know that he had been connected with Gennady
[Ovakimyan], whom "Solid" and his wife knew as "Victor," and that he had
signed his name on receipts as "George Jackson."

"Solid" lives in Chevy Chase. "Twain" arrived by taxi at the same time as
another car with a man and a woman in it (the woman was driving). He
stepped out and went to open the garage. At that point, "Twain" asked the
woman if "S" lived in that house. Then-the conversation was as follows:

T-Hello, are you Dr. N's friend?

S-Yes. What can I do for you?

T-A good friend of mine, who is also a friend of yours, asked me to stop
by and say hello....

S-(interrupting) Who are you talking about?

T-Your friend Victor. He told me that you were very kind to him, helped
him with his work, advised him on a number of issues, etc.

S-I have no idea who or what you're talking about. I also don't understand why you wanted to meet me.

T-Victor spoke very highly of you, as someone who could be trusted. I'd
like you to help me the same way you helped him.

S-I'm very flattered to hear such a high opinion of me, but I still don't
know who or what you're talking about.

T-To convince you that I'm not here by accident, I can remind you that
you did some work for him for which you were rewarded. At the time, you
used the name "George Jackson." Does this convince you that I really am a
friend of Victor's and that you can trust me completely?

S-I've used a lot of names in my lifetime. Incidentally, what does this
Victor you keep talking about look like and where is he now?

T. described Gennady, but S. did not admit to knowing him. It was obvious
that he was frightened of provocation and knew full well what T. was talking
about.

T. was unable to convince S. He promised to ask for oth. information and
relate it to S. at their next meeting. S. made it clear that he was prepared to
meet again.

It was a frustrating result. But early in 1943 the KGB New York station
reported: "After receiving additional information from C. [Center] about
"S's" ["Solid's"/Hibben's] work with "Gennady" [Ovakimyan], a znd meeting was held, where we managed to win his trust." But the problems of
reestablishing a working relationship with Hibben were not entirely over.
The New York station continued:

At the 3rd meeting, "S" was even more friendly to "Twain." According to a cipher telegram from C. he used to get $35o a month + valuable materials were
paid for extra. "You indicate that this system is currently unsuitable and even
think that we can work with him without compensation, on an ideological
basis, by carrying out educational work, etc. We will take this directive of yours
into account in future work with the probationer, but at the same time, we will
be unable to begin work with him solely on ideological grounds. Prior to 1939,
we worked with him on the basis of paying him well for his services. Therefore, it isn't entirely clear to us why you think that now, in time of war, when
the risk is significantly greater, he would have a more conscientious attitude toward his work than before and agree to work solely on an ideological basis."

And in April 1943 the New York station added:

"S." harbors mistrust, even though he talks about his past work. "He maintains
that about a year before the connection with him was broken off, he and his
wife came to NY, where they met with `Gennady.' During this meeting, 'Gennady' suggested that they might have to discontinue meetings for a while.
`Solid' says that in connection with this, he had given `Gennady' some object or other, which was supposed to have served as a material recognition signal
for any comrade of ours approaching him with the aim of re-establishing a
connection. All of our arguments about the fact that this object might have
long since been destroyed have come to nothing. At the last meeting, he said
that it was enough for him if `Twain' were to name the object he had given to
`Gennady.' We reported this by telegraph and hope to receive a description of
this object in the coming days."

Perhaps the object was found or Ovakimyan back in Moscow remembered what it was. In any event, later documents show that Hibben became once more a valued XY line source.29

Moscow Center accepted that it would have to continue to pay Hibben to elicit information. In a report on technical intelligence for 1944,
the Center suggested: "`After the war, "Reed" [Hibben] should be stirred
to greater activity, in part on a mater. [material-that is, cash] basis. For
now, we propose to use him to cover the Bureau of Standards, which
works on questions pertaining to "E." ["Enormous"/Manhattan Project].Other reports on Hibben's activities during the war show that the KGB
considered using him to contact a Washington acquaintance of his, the
prominent atomic physicist George Gamow, and that in 1943 he was
"`used to cover the military medical school, the Franklin Institute of Research, etc."' After he returned to the Soviet Union, Semenov offered
this evaluation of Hibben: ""`Solid" [Hibben]. Contact was re-established
with him in 1943 after a 4-year interruption. For a long time he was extremely reticent, demanding that the material password be produced that
had been arranged at the time communications with him were terminated. We managed, however, to obtain from him valuable materials regarding the location of the Japanese chem. industry, the production of
mil. chemicals in Germany and occupied Europe, etc.' "3°

The FBI became interested in Hibben in December 1945, when he
tried to contact Mary Price, already under investigation and surveillance
because Elizabeth Bentley had named her as a Soviet source. The investigation noted his close relationship with people at Amtorg and the Soviet
Embassy and reports that he had used his position to attempt to obtain
classified information on explosives for which he had no clear professional
need. But nothing turned up to cause the FBI to focus on Hibben. Neither the FBI nor any congressional committee seemed to have questioned him. Presumably deactivated with other sources after Bentley's
defection, Hibben remained undisturbed as chief of the Tariff Commission Chemical Division until his death in 1959.'31