“1. Armed insurrection with battles in principal cities; In 1937 Mesarosh went to Spain as a ‘volunteer’ in the Spanish Civil War. Whatever its beginnings, the war was quickly co-opted by the USSR using the Red Army and the KGB. The KGB's role was primarily its charter for internal security, aka "the secret police." Mesarosh’s assignments in the American forces were those of Party political cadre, purity, conformity and discipline. When he returned to the States, Mesarosh was “pre-empted” by the KGB to a seat on the CPUSA’s National Committee. The reason given to Earl Browder was, “He had done fine work in routing out Trotskyites [in Spain].” Mesarosh’s signal contribution in Spain was the “liquidation” of Stalin’s political enemies.
Stephan Mesarosh, aka "Steve Nelson"
Fleischinger-Lassek-Mesarosh
Josef Fleischinger and Elizabeth Lassek Fleischinger immigrated to America in 1903. Records indicate they were of Austrian descent. They settled in Philadelphia and later became naturalized U.S. citizens. Elizabeth Fleischinger had a sister, Maria (Mary) Lassek, who ostensibly married a Serbian man with the surname Mesarosh. In February 1920, Josef and Elizabeth Fleischinger returned to the ‘Old Counrty’, Europe, to visit family and friends. There they visited Maria Mesarosh living in the vacintity of Subocka, Yugoslavia (formerly Serbo-Croatia). Maria Mesarosh was unhappy in her marriage and conspired with her sister and brother-in-law to return with them to America without official immigration papers. Accompanying Maria were her 17 year old son, Stephan, and two daughters. The Mesarosh family arrived at the Port of New York aboard the SS Argentina on June 12, 1920. Port of Entry immigration records show that Maria Mesarosh entered the United States under the pretense that she was the wife of Josef Fleischinger and that her son and daughters were his children.
Legends of a Soviet Agent
On June 12, 1920, the SS Argentina arrived at the Port of New York City from Trieste, Italy. A manifest sheet at Ellis Island (#7399-29-2) records the arrival of Stefan Mesarosh, age 18, born Subocka, Pakaric, Yugoslavia, accompanied by Maria a widow, age 32, mother of Stefan, and two sisters. (FFF 100-16847-133)
On June 14, 1920, Stephan Mesarosh executed a U.S Immigration certificate of arrival (# 483305) under the name Joseph Fleisbinger. (FFF100-16847-99)
On September 21, 1923, Mesarosh enrolled in a YMCA night school course (Plan Reading) in Philadelphia, PA. He gave his age as 20, his nationality as Hungarian and his religion as Catholic. (FFF 100-16847-134)
On January 15, 1924, Mesarosh, while residing at 1041 North Leithgow St, Philadelphia, PA, filed a declaration of intention to naturalize (#84010) in the Eastern District Court of Philadelphia under the name Stephan Mesarosh. He stated on this declaration that he was born on January 1, 1903, in Chaglich, Austria (FFF 100-16847-152).
On January 25, 1925, Stephan Mesarosh joined the Communist Party at Philadelphia, PA. (FFF 100-16847-498)
On August 3, 1925, Stephen Mesarosh completed a marriage application in Pittsburgh, PA, to be married to Margaret Yeager of Pittsburgh. The application set forth that he was 22 years old, born in Yugoslavia. Mesarosh listed his father’s name as Michael Mesarosh born in Austria and his mother’s name as Mary Mesarosh nee Lassek born in Austria, presently living in Philadelphia. Margaret Yeager’s father was stated as Otto Yeager.
On May 17, 1928, at Detroit, MI, Mesarosh filed a petition for naturalization under the name Stephan Mesarosh.
On November 26, 1928, at Detroit, MI, Mesarosh was granted a certificate of naturalization under the name Stephan Mesarosh.
In 1929, Mesarosh went to the Soviet Union as a student sponsored by the CPUSA to attend the Lenin Institute in Moscow. Mesarosh traveled under the name "Louis Evans." Arrangements for his trip to the USSR were made through World Tourist, the Communist front business run by Jacob Golos. (VSEAR, p.105)
On February 25, 1931, Mesarosh was arrested in Scranton PA for disorderly conduct. At this time he gave his name as “Steve Nelson”, age 28, born Rankin, PA, nationality Swede.
On May 13, 1931, “Steve Nelson” was arrested at Swoyersville PA for Communist activities. (FFF 100-16847-134)
On August 14, 1931, Mesarosh was issued U.S. passport #432-638 under the name “Steve Nelson”. In the application for this passport “Steve Nelson” claimed he was born at Rankin, PA, and that his deceased father was Otto Nelson, born in Sweden. (100-16847-483) “Otto” evidently derived from the fact that his wife’s father and brother both had the given name Otto.
In 1933 the above referenced 1931 passport for “Steve Nelson” was renewed at the U.S. embassy in Vienna, Austria. “In his application for renewal, 'Nelson' stated that he had resided in Russia from September 1931 to May 1933.” (FFF-100-16847-10x)
On February 23, 1937, Mesarosh was issued a US passport in the name of Joseph Fleischinger. Mesarosh used this passport in March 1937 to travel to Europe aboard the Queen Mary as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.
On March 31, 1937, Mesarosh and Joe Dallet were the leaders of a group of 25 Americans who were interdicted by French authorities as they tried to enter Spain. Mesarosh initially gave his name as Jose Fleisbinger. Later when arraigned before a magistrate in Ceret, France, he used the name on his passport, Joseph Fleischinger. Joe Dallet used his real name. (NYT, March 28 and April 2, 1937)
On November 9, 1937, Mesarosh returned to New York aboard the SS Aquitania (Cunard Line) as passenger Joseph Fleischinger, born in Philadelphia, 27 February 1902. The Aquitania ran between Southampton, England, and New York City. [3-4]
On March 14, 1941, Mesarosh, while living in San Francisco, CA, applied for a Social Security Account Number under the name “Steve Joseph Nelson.” He listed his place of birth as Rankin, PA, and his date of birth as December 26, 1903. He listed his father as Michael O. Nelson and his mother as Mary Lesak. (Current SSA records reflect his date of birth as January 1, 1903)
On July 8, 1943, while living in Oakland California Mesarosh executed a Selective Service questionnaire under the name “Steve Nelson.” On the questionnaire he stated that he was also known as Steve J. Mesarosh and that he was born in Subocka, Jugoslavia on December 26, 1903.
In addition to "Fleisbinger", "Fleischinger", "Evans" and "Nelson", other reported aliases of Mesarosh are "Charles Benson", "The Carpenter", "Stari", "Stefo", and “Hugo”. It is noted that the alias/covername “Stari“ in all probability is a contraction/diminutive of the Russian word “starik” meaning “oldtimer”. (FBI FOIA File-100-16847-505)
Stephan Mesarosh, Soviet Agent
Stephan Mesarosh’s native country was the Slavic Kingdom of Serbs and Croats. His native language was Serbian, closely related to Russian. It was in Serbo-Croatia that he first heard about and became swayed by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. He came to the United States as an adult-aged illegal alien. Educationally and culturally, he had no appreciation of United States history or constitutional democracy. In depression-era America, he readily gravitated to the precepts of proletarian revolution. By 1923 he had joined the YCL; in 1925, at age 22, he joined the American Communist Party.
The CPUSA sent the young Mesarosh to Moscow in 1929 to attend the Lenin Institute. Established by the CPUSSR and KGB, the Lenin Institute was an academic front whose mission was to produce fifth column Comintern agents. After a year, Mesarosh returned to the U.S. and aggressively plied his revolutionary trade. To facilitate this work he adopted the Party alias, “Steve Nelson.” The name is first noted in public records in 1931 when he gave it to Pennsylvania police who had twice arrested him, the first time for disorderly conduct, the second time for Communist activity. In August 1931, his bona fides established, Mesarosh obtained a U.S. passport as "Steve Nelson" and returned to Russia. Over the next two years he traveled to countries in Europe and Asia performing subversive Comintern missions and learning Soviet intelligence tradecraft.
Mesarosh returned to America in 1934 a Communist in full. Evidence for this is the periodical Social Justice published in Pennsylvania during the 1930’s. The issue of March 22, 1937, contained an article captioned, “Red Plotters Push Drive in Pennsylvania Mines.” The article reported the plans and program of one Steve Nelson as follows:
“2. To raid arsenals, incite rebellion in the Army and route police with rifles, artillery and poison gas;
“3. To overthrow the entire existing system of government and to seize control of the country by means of a revolutionary committee of workers;
“4. To set up a Soviet state on the ruins of the old order and under ruthless dictatorship of the proletariat to exterminate by murder and massacre, all enemies of the revolution.”
The National Party sent Mesarosh to California in 1939 where he was assigned Section and District organizing posiitons in the State Party. Mesarosh also continued his covert KGB modus operandi: He lead a ‘special control commission’ to identify and remove informants, and he recruited spies against the Manhattan Project at Berkeley. This concealed persona of Mesarosh is reflected in the recorded words of his wife to a Party member in Oakland: “You don’t know it but this is only temporary work [Section Organizer] for Steve. This isn’t the kind of work he has always been engaged in. The work he appears to be doing isn’t what he is here to do chiefly. He has been able to do some of the work he really wants to do, but the opportunity hasn’t arisen for him to do it full-time around here. He didn’t come out here chiefly to do the work you know about.” In another recorded meeting, in this instance with Vassily Zarubin, KGB resident for the U.S., Mesarosh referred to Russia as “home” and intermittently spoke Russian. There is sufficient knowledge about Soviet Russia to presume that, while in Moscow at the Lenin Institute, Mesarosh became a member of the CPUSSR as well as a naturalized citizen of the USSR.
"Steve Nelson" has no legal basis—it was never the result of a truthful, official name change. The alias was an unlawful contrivance used for sedition against the United States. Stephan Mesarosh did everything in his power to destroy American democracy. Yet, as he was doing so, he applied for a U.S. Social Security Number. In his application he falsely stated that his name was Steve Joseph Nelson, that he was born in Rankin, PA, on December 26, 1903, and that his father was Michael O. Nelson. Typically, Mesarosh was not so pure a Communist as to not avail himself of America’s benefits and blessings.
In 1981, Mesarosh published a memoir titled, Steve Nelson, American Radical. The intent was to present himself as a legitimate American citizen involved in legitimate, if extreme, politics. History should record otherwise.
Sources
1. FBI FOIA FILE 100-16847
2. Steve Nelson, American Radical, Steve Nelson, James R.Barrettt, Rob Ruck, 1981
3. Venona, Soviet Espionage in America and the American Response (VSEAR), Central Intelligence Agency, Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner , Editors, 1996
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