Introduction
Mikhail A. Mil'shtein was Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU) rezident in New York from 1936 to 1938. The photograph below was taken in America in July 1937 during the visit of two celebrated Soviet pilots, Valery Chkalov and Mikhail M. Gromov. Chkalov (interred in Kremlin wall) and Gromov had recently set aviation records comparable to Charles Lindberg, and were taking a 'victory lap' in the United States. The fourth person in the photograph, a woman, is unidentified. [1]
An introduction in America, July 1937.
From right to left (men): Mikhail Milsthein, Mikhail Gromov, Valery Chkalov, Unidentified (Young Male)
Unidentified.
The general physique and head conformation of "Unidentified" bear a resemblance to Alger Hiss.
Background and History
The first source of information that Alger Hiss was an agent for Soviet intelligence was Whittaker Chambers' testimonial to Adolf Berle in September 1939 (Berle Notes on Meeting with W. Chambers). A second source became public in 1995-6 when the NSA declassified the Venona Program, its secret Soviet message decryption project. One of the Venona decrypts, No. 1822, 30 March 1945, dealt exclusively with "ALES", the cryptonym of a Soviet agent who had been working with Red Army Intelligence (GRU) since 1935 and who had been at Yalta in 1945. Virtually all Historians of Soviet 1930/40's espionage, as well as the NSA and the FBI, agree that ALES was Alger Hiss. A third primary source on Hiss surfaced in the 2002 book Sacred Secrets from Jerrold and Leona Schecter. This broad treatise identified GRU officer Mikhail A. Milshtein as one of Hiss's control officers in the United States, and revealed Hiss’s surreptitious briefings of Milshtein at Yalta on American negotiating positions and policy.
Alger Hiss’s involvement in espionage began in the summer of 1934 when J. Peters brought Whittaker Chambers to Washington, D.C. and introduced him to Harold Ware, Hiss and other members of Ware’s surreptitious Party unit. At this time Chambers was an operative chiefly connected to the CPUSA’s Secret Apparatus. Within months, however, Chambers received a new ‘boss,’ a foreign national whom he knew as “Bill.” Unbeknownst to Chambers, “Bill” was a GRU resident (station chief), effectively making him Chambers’ Soviet case officer. “Bill” assigned new work to Chambers but let stand—to Chambers’ great puzzlement—the connection to Peters and the Ware communists in Washington. This relationship/arrangement lasted for two years until “Bill” suddenly left New York. Another GRU officer (Boris Bykov) became Chambers’ Soviet control and systematically supplanted Peters in developing the espionage activities of the Party underground in Washington. [2]
Before General Milshtein died he penned a book-length memoir, Through Years of War and Poverty. It was published in 2002 by his family. Any reading of Milshtein's memoir conveys that he had an important, consequential career in Soviet Military Intelligence. With respect to Alger Hiss, the notable Milshtein event is this: "Thus, at 25 years of age, I became resident of Soviet military intelligence in the United States of America." Milshtein was 25 in 1936, and stationed at the Soviet Consulate in New York. He became resident when the incumbent, Leonid Tolokonskii, was recalled that summer. As GRU resident in the U.S., Milshtein would have ultimate responsibility for tracking and exploiting the propitious circumstances developing in Washington, D.C., namely a Hiss career move from the Justice Department to the U.S. State Department. As recounted in Witness:
- "But the opportunity to go to State could not be passed up. We discussed the question at length and decided that at whatever cost in the Solicitor General's good will, Alger Hiss must go to the State Department. There was not a question of direct espionage at that time. But Hiss and I sensed that that was what we were heading for, and we discussed it. But the first result that we foresaw from Alger's new job was the possibility of widening the apparatus in the State Department. That soon became Alger's underground activity and took the form of a regular campaign." [3]
The Introduction photograph above is a provocative picture of Mikhail Milshtein taken at a time when he was GRU resident in America. He is photographed presiding over the introduction of an unidentified young male who bears a remarkable resemblance to Alger Hiss. The exact date and location of the photograph are not known. However, on July 23, 1937, The Washington Post carried a story captioned: "Soviet Aviators Rescue Society From Doldrums: Transpolar Airmen Who Set Long Distance Record Arrive Tomorrow for Embassy Fetes." Hiss was employed at the State Department at this time. Further, it was standard operating procedure for the GRU to provide a 'security detail' (24x7) for such visitors to preclude any possibility of defection.
Unidentified and Hiss
Unidentified, 1937. Possibly Alger Hiss (age 32)
Alger Hiss, 1951 (age 47)
Alger Hiss, early 70's
Comment and Analysis
The notion that "Unidentified" is possibly Alger Hiss is justified by prima facie similarities in head conformation—ear, nose mouth, chin and hair—reflected in the three photographs above. Those facial features, hair and head shape all bear a resemblance. However, a conclusive determination that Unidentified is Hiss can only be obtained through rigorous forensic examination. Forensic photographic analysis is a science. With respect to identifications, the science is more effective at proving the negative, i.e. that a subject in a photograph is not a given person. With this in mind the three photographic exhibits have been examined by a leading expert in forensic photography. This examination resulted in verification of both similarities as well as dissimilarities between Unidentifid and Hiss. The conclusion reached was, (1) it cannot be established beyond a reasonable doubt that Unidentified is Alger Hiss and (2) it cannot be established beyond a reasonable doubt that Unidentified is not Alger Hiss. In other words, despite significant conformities among the three likenesses, no definitive determination is possible. The low pixel resolution of the exhibits, unknown lighting characteristics and a 14 year age difference were major factors precluding a definitive verdict.
Notwithstanding the head/facial similarities, it is legitimate to also take into account other aspects of the Milshtein photograph, for example, Unidentified’s general physique, hair-style and attire. Alger Hiss was not indifferent to his professional attire. Whittaker Chambers took note of this in Witness: "I suppose that he owned several suits and sometimes changed them, but in my memory of him, he is always wearing an off-color brown suit of some heavy fabric." Photographs of Hiss from the 1930's reflect his penchant for a three button, single-breasted suit of tweed fabric. Available examples are the Cane Club (Johns Hopkins Yearbook) and Oliver Wendell Holmes photographs. In the Milshtein photograph Unidentified appears to be wearing the exact same type of suit (sans a vest on a warm July day). Additonally, Unidentified’s slender build is a match for Hiss, as is his dark hair parted on the left. [4]
Conclusion
The 1937 Milshtein photograph captures the Soviet intelligence officer in America who, at that very moment, had overriding responsibility for ALES, Alger Hiss. Moreover, that intelligence officer is identical with "Stalin's Jewish General" who at Yalta in 1945 received American secrets from agent ALES, Alger Hiss. Out of the tens of thousands of young adult men who might have come in contact with the famous Soviet pilots and their GRU escort on the streets of Washington, how can it be that a veritable Hiss doppelganger (double) happened to randomly get photographed with Hiss’s case officer? It can’t. There are no coincidences of this magnitude in espionage.
Notes, Sources, References
1. Skvoz' gody voin i nishchety : vospominaniia voennogo razvedchika, Mil'shtein, Mikhail Abramovich, 2002 (Chapter 2)
MILSHTEIN, Mikhail Abramovich (Mil'skii)
- Born 15 Sept. 1910, Achinsk, Enisei Province (now Krasnoyarsk Region); died 19 August 1992, Moscow
One of the best specialists on military agentive intelligence.
Jewish. From the bureaucratic class. General lieutenant (as of 8 May 1966. Doctor of military sciences, professor. In the Red army since 1932. Member of the Communist Party since 1931. Graduated from the pedagogical technicum in Moscow, 1930; the Higher Military Special School, 1941; the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy (1948).
Leader of the group of control and implementation of the central committee of the union of workers in education, 1930-1932, Red Army member of the first regiment of communication of the Moscow Military District; completed the course to prepare "one-yearers," commander of the platoon, 1932-1933
1933+ under the reconnaissance administration of the staff of the Workers' and Peasants’ Red Army. Employee of the First (ciphered) Section (1933-1934), employee of the rezidentura (1934-36) of the Reconnaissance Administration of the staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, secretary of the general consul of the USSR in New York under the surname Mil’skii, also a legal resident of the Reconnaissance Administration of the staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (1936-38).
Head of the 6th (USA, England) section, September 1938-September 1940; and 3rd section (September 1940-April 1941) of the divisions of the first section of the Reconnaissance Administration of the staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.
Participant in the Great Patriotic War [World War II]. Deputy director of the reconnaissance section of the staff of a group of troops of the Western region – the Western front, the Reserve Front (1941-42), chief of section, deputy chief of the first (military and strategic intelligence) administration of the Red Army’s General Staff’s General Intelligence Administration (1942-1946).
Senior faculty in the department of the army formed of foreign states (1948-54), head of the department of operational and strategic intelligence (1954-72) at the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy. Major general as of August 8, 1955.
Retired since February 1972. Chief scholarly advisor, head of the section of military and political studies of the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (February 1972-1992).
Awarded the order of Lenin, two orders of the Red Banner, the order of the Patriotic War, first degree, the Red Star, and other medals.
Obituary published in Krasnaia zvezda, 25 August 1992.
Works: Pochetnaia sluzhba; Skvoz’ gody voin i nishchety.
From: Lur’e and Kochik, GRU, dela i liudi, pp.164-165.
3. "But the opportunity to go ... the form of a regular campaign.": Witness, Whittaker Chambers, 1952, p.380.
Comment It is of historical note that biographical material on Mikhail Mil'shtein indicates that he was responsible for the defection of GRU Code Clerk Igor Gouzenko in Canada. In 1944 Milshtein was dispatched to North America on an inspection tour for his service. He visited Ottawa, Washington DC, Mexico City and San Francisco. In Canada he had grown suspicious of Gouzenko, and considered him to be susceptible to defecting. Milshtein was right, Gouzenko was being swayed by the thought of life in Canada. On return to Moscow, Milshtein reported these concerns and in the summer of 1945 they resulted in Gouzenko's recall home. Milshtein had been correct. Gouzenko's recall was the catalyst for his defection. With regard to Milshtein's 1944 mission to North America, there is reason to believe that while in the United States Alger Hiss was on his agenda, and that in Mexico City he reviewed operations against the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
4. "Photographs of Hiss from the 1930's reflect ... the Cane Club ... Oliver Wendell Holmes photographs.": Perjury, The Hiss-Chambers Case, Allen Weinstein, 1978, p.327.
Related Links:
NOVA Online: The 20th Century's Most Notorious Spies
Mystery of Ales, H. B. Laes, 14 June 2007
Wilder Foote and "The Mystery of Ales", Jefferson Flanders, 16 June 2007
"Ales" is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring, 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History, John Earl
Haynes and Harvey Klehr, 19 October 2007
The Mystery of "ALES", Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case, John Ehrman, Center for the Study of Intelligence
(CIA), December 2007