Evening star., 1953-05-27
Soviet Shoots 4
As U. 5. Spies
Dropped byAir
Dismal Example
Of Phony Charges
Says State Official
BY the Assoeioied Press

SuyS SEuIe OTTICIOI
By the Assoeioted Press
MOSCOW, May 27.-The So
Wet government charged the
United States today with para
chuting four spies-a1l appar-
emily Of Ukrainian or Russian
origin - into the Ukraine a
month ago. A communique said
the four had been arrested, tried
and executed.
The announcement from the
Ministry of Internal Affairs said
the four admitted at their trial
that they jumped into the Uk-
raine, one of the republics of the
Soviet Union, on April 26 from
an unmarked" four motored
American plane flying from
Athens, Greece. It said they
confessed they were sent in on
diversioniSt, terrorist and espion-
age assignments. with radios for
contact with American spy GEN.
tiers in West Germany.
CA State Department spokes-
man today said the Soviet an
nouncement was another
dismal example of phony
charges issued from time to
time by the Communists in an
effort to delude their own peo-
ple." He added that it was
"too fantastic" to deserve any
other comment.
(RusSia made a similar an
nouncement on December 49,
1851, saying two American
spies with Russian names had
been executed after having
been dropped by parachute
from a plane over Moldavia,
formerly a part of Romania.
The then Secretary of State,
Dean Acheson, denounced the
charge as a complete fabrica-
tion.)
Executed by Firing Squad.
The communique said the men
claimed the American intelli-
gence service had ordered them
to settle in Kiev and Odessa.
1t said they were ordered to
murder Soviet citizens, if neceS-
Sary, to obtain identification
certificates to replace forged
papers they carried when they
jumped.
The men, executed by a firing
squad, were identified as Alex
ander Vasilievich Lakhno, Alex
ander Nikolaevich Makov, Sergi
1ozisimovich Gorbunov and
Dmitri Nikolaevich Remigi.
The ministry communique was
published today in both Pravda
and Izvestia. In effect, it charged
that an American plane had
violated the Soviet frontier.
Fascist Link Charged.
The communique, which was
also broadcast by the Moscow
radio, said Lakhno, Makov, and
Gorbunov were "active accom-
plices of the Fascist oc-
cupiers and betrayed the Soviet
people" during the Great Fa-
therland War" (World War III.
After the war. the communique
said. all four of the alleged spies
had fled to West Germany and
found new masters and pro-
tectors in American intelligence
organs"
The ministry said all four con-
fessed they had enrolled at a
special espionage diversionist
school Of the American intelli-
gence" at Bad Wiessee, near
Munich. West Germany. There,
1t charged. they received sub
stantial training" in methods to
carry out terror, diversion, and
espionage" On Soviet territory.
On April %, the communioue
continued, accompanied by a
man identified as a Capt. Holli-
day Of the American intelligence
service, the four were taken in
an American plane to Athens.
The communique said the four
confessed at their trial they were
met at Athens by an American
intelligence service officer identi-
fled as Maj. Harold Irving Fidler.
Maj. Filder, the ministry said,
had been to the Soviet Union
three times in 1851 as a diplo-
matte courier of the United
States State Deartment.
"On the evening of April 25,"
the communique continued, "the
diversionists were equipped with
parachutes and placed by Fidler
on the aforementioned four
engined American aircraft with
out Identification marks. The
aircraft delivered them to the
place where they were dropped
onto the territory of the U. S.
S. r"