At the same time, the Soviet sources suggest, Beria may have thought that Wallenberg, whose cousins Jacob and Marcus had close contacts with the German underground, was involved in attempts by SS Commander Heinrich Himmler to arrange a separate peace with Britain, giving the Allies control of Eastern Europe. One Soviet source also says Beria maintained his own clandestine contacts with Himmler and senior Gestapo commanders throughout the war, as several Soviet publications have alleged this year, and might have feared that Wallenberg had found out about the traitorous links. The disclosures coincide with the new sympathetic portrait of Wallenberg in the Soviet press and follow the forced retirement in April of former Foreign Minister Gromyko, a key link the Wallenberg saga. The Soviet sources say the new investigation was undertaken in response to fresh appeals by the Swedish Wallenberg Committee. At the time, Gromyko blamed earlier false reports about Wallenberg's fate on a minister for state security who later was executed for unrelated criminal activity.
Confusion still reigns.
One well-placed source contradicting the official Soviet account of Wallenberg's death offered by Gromyko, says without explanation that he now believes the Swede was flown to Kiev, where he was tortured and died within 10 days of his abduction in early 1945. But a number of former prisoners of the NKVD reported sharing cells with him between 1945 and December, 1974. The mystery persists, senior Soviet officials say, because all evidence in the case likely was destroyed years ago. An article in the June 5 edition of the Soviet weekly New Times said such practices were common in the Stalin era. It conceded that this is difficult to accept for people who admire Wallenberg and owe him their lives.