[Marxism] NYT: Aleksandr Feklisov, Spy Tied to Rosenbergs, Dies at 93

[Walter Lippmann]

(He said he spoke in part to shed "glory" on Mr. Rosenberg and his
wife, Ethel, who was also executed for espionage in 1953. He said
that Mrs. Rosenberg was not a spy and that Mr. Rosenberg gave the
Soviets no atomic secrets, although he and those he recruited did
provide valuable military information. He praised them as having put
ideals, those of Communism, ahead of patriotism to their own country.)
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November 1, 2007
Aleksandr Feklisov, Spy Tied to Rosenbergs, Dies at 93
By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Col. Aleksandr Feklisov, a Soviet spy whose long career included
directing the intelligence-gathering of Julius Rosenberg, who was
convicted of espionage and executed in 1953, and acting as an
intermediary between the White House and the Kremlin during the 1962
Cuban missile crisis, has died. He was 93.

Sergei Ivanov, head of the press service of the Russian Foreign
Intelligence Service, announced the death on Friday, said Interfax, a
Russian news service. Details of his death were not announced.

Mr. Feklisov was an intelligence officer for the Committee for State
Security, best known by its Russian abbreviation, K.G.B., from 1939
to 1974, and a contract officer for the service from 1974 to 1986. He
described his once-secret activities in a 1997 documentary on
American television and in writings that include his autobiography,
"The Man Behind the Rosenbergs" (2001).

He said he spoke in part to shed "glory" on Mr. Rosenberg and his
wife, Ethel, who was also executed for espionage in 1953. He said
that Mrs. Rosenberg was not a spy and that Mr. Rosenberg gave the
Soviets no atomic secrets, although he and those he recruited did
provide valuable military information. He praised them as having put
ideals, those of Communism, ahead of patriotism to their own country.

The successor agency to the K.G.B. has refused to comment on Mr.
Feklisov's statements and writings. His claims that espionage speeded
development of Soviet atomic weapons by 18 months contradict official
statements that the country's own scientists were almost wholly
responsible.

Some American reviewers of his writing flatly doubt the word of a
spy.

In an article at the time the Discovery Channel did the documentary
on Mr. Feklisov, Walter Schneir, writing in The Nation, warned
against "K.G.B. storytellers, strangers with mixed motives offering
us piecemeal instant history." Harvey Klehr in The New Republic in
2001 suggested that Mr. Feklisov was "clouded by Marxist-Leninist
illusions."

In the announcement of Mr. Feklisov's death, Mr. Ivanov said: "He
conducted serious missions related to the procurement of secret
scientific and technical information, including in the area of
electronics, radiolocation and jet aircraft technology," adding that
he also helped on nuclear issues.

Mr. Feklisov was born in Moscow on March 9, 1914, to a railroad
switchman and a housewife. They lived in a wooden shack and kept a
cow. The son was trained as a radio technician and recruited into the
intelligence service during a campaign to replace intellectuals with
workers with technical skills.

After arduous training, he was assigned to the Soviet Consulate in
New York in 1940 under the name Aleksandr Fomin. His code name was
Kalistrat. He took over running Mr. Rosenberg as his agent in 1944.
He wrote that of all his agents, Mr. Rosenberg was the only one he
considered a friend. In turn, Mr. Rosenberg told him their meetings
were "among the happiest moments of my life."

One happy moment occurred during the holiday season of 1944, when the
two exchanged presents. Mr. Rosenberg gave Mr. Feklisov documents and
parts to build a proximity fuse, a device that causes shells to
explode in the vicinity of a target so that a direct hit is not
required. The Soviets used one to shoot down the U-2 reconnaissance
plane flown by Francis Gary Powers in 1960.

Mr. Feklisov was next assigned to London, where his relationship with
Klaus Fuchs, a leading atomic scientist, was cooler but even more
productive. Mr. Fuchs gave him a diagram of the principle behind the
hydrogen bomb and the theoretical underpinning of its design.

In 1959, Mr. Feklisov helped set up and carry out security
arrangements during Krushchev's visit to the United States. In Iowa,
Krushchev stopped his car along country roads to jump out and stroke
ears of corn, causing alarm among Mr. Feklisov's troops.

During the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, Mr. Feklisov, then
K.G.B. station chief in Washington, and John Scali, a correspondent
for ABC, had several meetings, the content of which they passed on to
high officials in their governments. Some sources believe that a deal
for the Russians to remove their missiles from Cuba in return for an
American promise not to invade was suggested in one of their
conversations.

A major disagreement between Mr. Feklisov and Mr. Scali, who died in
1995, was who had suggested the meeting. Mr. Scali always insisted
that Mr. Feklisov both initiated the first meeting and suggested the
compromise, while Mr. Feklisov said it was Mr. Scali.

In his book, Mr. Feklisov said he told Mr. Scali that if the
Americans attacked Cuba, the Soviets would retaliate "at a sensitive
point for you." Mr. Scali asked if he meant West Berlin, and Mr.
Feklisov said yes, he wrote.

Mr. Feklisov wrote that it was beyond his authority to threaten
anything, but he was certain, he added, that Mr. Scali had passed on
the threat. If their conversations were influential in quelling the
crisis, Mr. Feklisov said, he was glad. But he said both had lacked
the stature to play the role some historians suggest that they
actually played.

"The mistake the Americans made was to overestimate my own
authority," Mr. Feklisov wrote. "I was speaking as a mere analyst
while they saw me as a Kremlin spokesman."

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service released no information on
survivors. Mr. Feklisov's book said he and his wife, Zinaida, had two
daughters, Natasha and Ira.

Mr. Feklisov, who retired in 1986, trained spies, did research on
intelligence matters and earned a doctorate in history. He also
participated in other secret operations "that are too recent to be
told," in his words.