The Spy Who Stole America's Atomic Secrets and Got Away with It

Behind Enemy Lines Yakov M. Hirschson The Unknown Spies The Spy Who Stole America’s Atomic Secrets And Got Away ESPIONAGE With It or decades he fooled the West into thinking that a handful of bungling n the early 1950s, the controversial Morton Sobell and others (see Zman Adar I Fcommunist sympathizers had smuggled the most sensitive atomic FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover began a 5771/February 2011). secrets out of America’s most guarded facilities. Only after his death did the Imassive campaign to root out spies who Meanwhile, the greatest spy—the only were aiding the Soviet Union in obtaining professional spy the Russians managed Soviets reveal the stunning fact that they had planted a professional spy America’s atomic secrets. He pursued a to plant inside the Manhattan Project— deep inside the ultra-secret Manhattan Project, the research and develop- number of suspects, many of whom never completely escaped Hoover’s attention. In had any access to America’s secret atomic fact, almost no one had ever heard of the ment program that produced the first atomic bomb. knowledge. These included the Rosenbergs, man, George Koval, at the time of his death 114 | ZMAN • November 2012 ZMAN • Cheshvan 5773 | 115 on January 31, 2006. It seemed that he had Some of these immigrants from Eastern taken his secret with him to the grave. Europe brought with them the liberal But then, in November 2007, Russian political views that were all the rage in their President Vladimir Putin awarded Koval the homeland. Among them was Abraham Koval, Golden Star medal, Russia’s highest decora- a carpenter from Telekhany, a town in White tion, posthumously declaring Koval a “hero Russia (today known by its Russian name, of the Russian Federation.” Putin revealed Belarus) near Minsk. He and his wife Ethel that Koval had been the agent behind the arrived in the US in 1910. Their oldest son code name “Delmar” who was recorded in Isaya was born in 1912. Next came George in many spy books as one of the greatest Soviet spies ever. His work had greatly hastened The Kovals were very successful and the Soviet nuclear program, allowing the their1913 andchildren finally excelled Gabriel in in their 1919. studies. The nation to stun the world when it detonated parents inculcated their three sons with communist ideology from childhood. George Putin awarded Koval a Golden Star medal In fact, Delmar’s identity had remained went to study electrical engineering in posthumously for his work for the Soviet Union. suchits first a secretatomic thatbomb Putin, in 1949. himself a former the University of Iowa at age 15, where he George Koval. remained for two and a half years. true name until 2006. At that time Putin The outbreak of the Great Depression noticedKGB officer, a portrait had not of discoveredKoval at the the opening man’s brought the growth of Sioux City to an of a museum of the GRU (Russia’s military atomic bombs in the US was known, was abrupt halt. In 1932, suffering from the espionage agency) and asked, “Who is that?” aProject,” strict militaryas the effortsecret. to Eachproduce of the the three first harsh economic turnaround, Abraham For years, American historians had sites involved were strictly guarded with Koval packed up his belongings and moved concluded that Russia’s ability to produce an the highest security possible. To be able to back with his family to the Soviet Union. atomic bomb so early could not have been smuggle secrets out of them took extreme The Kovals were convinced that under the purely the work of independent nuclear professionalism. A spy who entered there scientists and engineers. It must have been would have had to have a solid plan of action, of joy. After all, the communists had freed accomplished through espionage, allowing even more solid training in espionage, the Russiacommunist from systemthe yolk they of the would oppressive find a Czar life Russia to speed up its research by stealing ability to lie without giving himself away and promised complete equality to all. America’s knowledge and experience. But and more than a bit of “good luck.” The senior Koval had led an organiza- for decades the blame had fallen on such Koval was not a simple American who tion in America whose goal was to convince The Great Depression sent many Americans like the Kovals people as the Rosenbergs and Harry Dexter was sympathetic to the Soviet cause—such a fellow Jews to move to the Soviet Union. seeking a better life elsewhere. Here Americans hang onto man would not have been able to get the job (This organization was at odds with the a train to Canada in search of jobs. Treasury Department who died suddenly of done. Koval was trained and had experience Zionist movement, which was simultane- aWhite, heart a attackhigh-ranking shortly official after beingin Roosevelt’s subpoe- as a spy for Russian intelligence. To this day ously seeking to convince Jews to move to naed to testify at a hearing of the House it remains unclear how a person like Koval Palestine….) With the sudden turn in his Committee on Un-American Activities in fortune, Abraham Koval saw it as the right 1948. The truth, though, was not revealed time to follow his own advice. until Putin made the knowledge public over managed to infiltrate the Manhattan Project. The Kovals traveled to Russia under 50 years later. Childhood American passports, intending to move In sharp contrast to the Rosenbergs, George Koval was an American by birth, back to Minsk. However, upon their arrival George Abramovitch Koval was in a position born in Sioux City, Iowa. In the early 1900s the authorities refused to permit this (prob- where he had access to some of the most that city was blossoming into a center of ably out of fear that this family had come to sensitive secrets about the atom bomb. This business and culture. It attracted immi- spy for America). Instead, the Kovals were included the initiator, the section of the bomb grants from Europe and Russia, including sent to settle in the city of Birobidzhan in that triggers the chain reaction—without many Jewish merchants and craftsmen. the “Jewish Autonomous Oblast” in Siberia. which Russia would never have been able to These Jews were largely successful (at least This was where Stalin had hoped to create produce its own atom bomb. in the material sense), opening shuls and a Soviet-communist paradise for Jews that Of course, the entire “Manhattan forming social circles of their own. would convince them to resettle there Port on the Missouri River in Sioux City, Iowa. 116 | ZMAN • November 2012 ZMAN • Cheshvan 5773 | 117.

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