page_title: Isaiah Oggins
section_title: Soviet underground espionage
hierarchical_section_title: Isaiah Oggins / Career / Soviet underground espionage
caption_attribution_description: English: Three different nationalities on Kitaiskaia Street 日本語: キタイスカヤ通りを歩く3民族 中文: 在Kitaiskaia Street的三民族
context_page_description: Isaiah Oggins was an American-born communist and spy for the Soviet secret police. After working in Europe and the Far East, Oggins was arrested, served eight years in the GULAG detention system, and was summarily executed on the orders of Joseph Stalin.
context_section_description: As of August 26, 1926, when he applied for his U.S. passport, Oggins had joined the Soviet  underground and was readying for his first overseas assignment, probably in Germany and France.  In April 1928, his wife Nerma applied for her first U.S. passport.  The couple departed from New York on May 5, 1928, for a villa in the Zehlendorf district of Berlin, Germany.  They reported to Ignace Reiss.  Their job was to maintain a low profile and inhabit their residence, so that other Soviet agents could periodically use it as a safe house for various espionage related activities. To accomplish this mission, Cy and Nerma had to avoid any appearance of being interested in Communist politics; they had to avoid even reading Communist newspapers. Friend Sidney Hook spotted Oggins in the Gendarmenmarkt, as described in his autobiography Out of Step (1984). Oggins had to resist the temptation to have meetings with his old friend, although he did not always resist this temptation fully.
  The Ogginses moved from Berlin to Paris in the Spring of 1930. In Neuilly-sur-Seine, they watched White Russians, Trotskyites including Trotsky's Paris-based son, Lev Sedov, and the family of Michael Feodorovich Romanov. After exposure of l'affaire Switz (1933–1934, involving Robert Gordon Switz, Lydia Stahl, and Arvid Jacobson), the Ogginses left Paris (September 1934) and returned to the States with their young son Robin (b. 1931).  After a brief stint in New York, they left for San Francisco.  Leaving his wife and child behind, Cy Oggins set off for China in September 1935, where he served through 1937.
  In Shanghai, Oggins reported to Grace and Manny Granich (brother of Mike Gold).  In 1936, he worked in Dairen during the Manchukuo and traveled to Harbin.  He reported to Charles Emile Martin (AKA George Wilmer, Lorenz, Laurenz, Dubois—born Matus Steinberg of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky) and wife Elsa Marie Martin (AKA Joanna Wilmer, Lora, Laura).  (Martin later served in the Red Orchestra, spying on Nazi Germany.)  By October 1937, the Martins and Ogginses fled separately after Chiang Kai-shek attacked Manchuria in July.
  Oggins rejoined his wife and son in Paris in February 1938, only to leave again in May.  Nerma Berman Oggins left Paris with their son in September 1939 and returned to New York.  (The State Department believes he was stationed in France 1937-1938.)
caption: Early 20th-century photo of Harbin, site of Oggin's last posting before his arrest by the Soviets
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