Farm Security Administration
Who did Nathan Gregory Silvermaster work for from 1935 to 1938?
Nathan Gregory Silvermaster Nathan Gregory Silvermaster ( November 27 , 1898 – October 7 , 1964 ) , an economist with the United States War Production Board ( WPB ) during World War II , was the head of a large ring of Communist spies in the U.S . government . It is from him that the FBI Silvermaster File , documenting the Bureaus investigation into Communist penetration of the Federal government during the 1930s and 1940s , takes its name . His wife , Helen and stepson , Anatole Volkov , were members of his ring . He was identified as a Soviet agent in the WPB operating under the code names Pel , Pal , Paul in the Venona decrypts ; and as Robert both in Venona and independently by defecting Soviet intelligence courier Elizabeth Bentley . Background . Silvermaster was born to a Jewish family in Odessa , Russia ( present-day Odessa , Ukraine ) in 1898 . He moved with his family to China , where he learned to speak perfect English with a British accent . He emigrated to the United States and earned his B.A . from the University of Washington in Seattle ( where he was stated to be a known Communist ) and a Ph.D . from the University of California , Berkeley , where his thesis was entitled Lenins Economic Thought Prior to the October Revolution . He became a naturalized American citizen in 1926 . He was reported to be in contact with a very large number of Communist Party USA officials , and was active in a number of Communist front groups . Career . Civil service . From August 1935 to November 1938 , Silvermaster worked in the Farm Security Administration . From November 1938 to July 1940 , he worked on the Maritime Labor Board . From July 1940 to December 1944 , he worked in the Department of Agriculture . While nominally remaining on the employment rolls of the Farm Security Administration , Silvermaster arranged in 1942 to be detailed to the Board of Economic Warfare . The transfer , however , triggered objections from military counter-intelligence who suspected he was a hidden Communist and regarded him as a security risk . On July 16 , 1942 the U.S . Civil Service Commission recommended Cancel eligibilities .. . and bar him for the duration of the National Emergency . Silvermaster denied any Communist links and appealed to Under Secretary of War Robert Patterson to overrule the security officials . Both White House advisor Lauchlin Currie ( identified in Venona as the Soviet agent operating under the cover name Page ) and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White ( identified in Venona as the Soviet agent operating under the cover names Lawyer ; Jurist ; Richard ) intervened on his behalf . Silvermaster subsequently received two promotions and pay raises . From 1942 to 1945 , he was also assigned to the United States Treasury . In mid-1945 , he joined the Reconstruction Finance Corporation ( later War Assets Corporation ) . In March 1946 , he resigned from government . On August 28 , 1950 , Lee Pressman ( a member of the Ware Group , a precursor to the Silvermaster and Perlo ) said of Silvermaster , I believe he was with the Maritime Labor Board when I was with the CIO , and in that connection I may have had some business dealings with him ( apparently referring to Silvermasters time with that union 1938–1940 ) . Espionage : Silvermaster Group . Kathryn S . Olmsted , the author of Red Spy Queen ( 2002 ) , points out : Every two weeks , Elizabeth would travel to Washington to pick up documents from the Silvermasters , collect their Party dues , and deliver Communist literature . Soon the flow of documents grew so large that Ullmann , an amateur photographer , set up a darkroom in their basement . Elizabeth usually collected at least two or three rolls of microfilmed secret documents , and one time received as many as forty . She would stuff all the film and documents into a knitting bag or other innocent feminine accessory , then take it back to New York on the train . Moscow complained that around half of the photographed documents received in the summer of 1944 were unreadable and suggested that Ullmann receive more training . However , Pavel Fitin , who was responsible for analyzing the material , described it as very important data . At the War Production Board , Silvermaster was able to provide the Soviet Union with a large amount of data on arms , aircraft , and shipping production . In June 1943 , Silvermaster sent a War Production Board report on arms production in the United States , including bombers , pursuit planes , tanks , propelled guns , howitzers , radar and submarines , sub chasers , and the like , to Soviet intelligence . Then , in December 1944 , the New York MGB office cabled another Silvermaster report stating : ( Silvermaster ) has sent us a 50-page Top Secret War Production Board report .. . on arms production in the U.S . In 1944 , Silvermaster was associated with Harry Dexter White at the Bretton Woods conference , and his testimony before the US Senate Internal Security Subcommittee covers 175 pages of interrogation and exhibits regarding his espionage activities in the U.S . The Silvermaster spy ring operated primarily in the Department of the Treasury but also had contacts in the Army Air Force and in the White House . Sixty-one of the Venona cables concern the activities of the Silvermaster spy ring . This represents 1% of the total ( approx 6,000 cables ) and 3% of the ( 2,000 ) translated/partially translated VENONA cables . - Nathan Gregory Silvermaster , Chief Planning Technician , Procurement Division , United States Department of the Treasury ; Chief Economist , War Assets Administration ; Director of the Labor Division , Farm Security Administration ; Board of Economic Warfare ; Reconstruction Finance Corporation Department of Commerce - Helen Silvermaster , wife - Anatole Boris Volkov , stepson - Solomon Adler aka Schlomer Adler , U.S . Department of the Treasury - Norman Chandler Bursler , United States Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division - Frank Coe , Assistant Director , Division of Monetary Research , Treasury Department ; Special Assistant to the U.S . Ambassador in London ; Assistant to the Executive Director , Board of Economic Warfare ; Assistant Administrator , Foreign Economic Administration - Lauchlin Currie , Administrative Assistant to President Roosevelt ; Deputy Administrator of Foreign Economic Administration ; Special Representative to China - Bela Gold , Assistant Head of Program Surveys , Bureau of Agricultural Economics , United States Department of Agriculture ; Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization ; Office of Economic Programs in Foreign Economic Administration - Sonia Steinman Gold , Division of Monetary Research U.S . Treasury Department ; U.S . House of Representatives Select Committee on Interstate Migration ; U.S . Bureau of Employment Security - Irving Kaplan , Foreign Funds Control and Division of Monetary Research , United States Department of the Treasury Foreign Economic Administration ; chief advisor to the Military Government of Germany - George Silverman , civilian Chief Production Specialist , Material Division , Army Air Force Air Staff , War Department , Pentagon - William Henry Taylor , Assistant Director of the Middle East Division of Monetary Research , United States Department of Treasury - William Lud Ullman , delegate to United Nations Charter meeting and Bretton Woods conference ; Division of Monetary Research , Department of Treasury ; Material and Services Division , Air Corps Headquarters , Pentagon - Harry Dexter White , Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ; Head of the International Monetary Fund Death . He died on October 7 , 1964 , aged 65 , possibly in Harvey Cedars , New Jersey . External sources . - Christopher M . Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin , The Sword and the Shield : The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB ( New York : Basic Books , 1999 ) - Gregg Herken . Brotherhood of the Bomb . New York : Henry Holt and Company , 2002 . - 746 , 747 , 748 Venona New York KGB to Moscow , May 25 1942 Data on construction and distribution of U.S . military aircraft . - 1061 , 0162 , 1063 Venona New York KGB to Moscow , July 3 , 1943 , pg . 1 pg . 2 Numerical strength of the United States Army Air Forces . - Richard C.S . Trahair and Robert Miller , Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage , Spies , and Secret Operations ( New York : Enigma Books , 2008 ) . - The Cold War International History Project ( CWIHP ) has the full text of former KGB agent Alexander Vassilievs Notebooks , containing new evidence on Silvermasters role in Soviet espionage in the United States - FBI Silvermaster File 65-56402 ( 26,000+ pages ) - Silvermaster Group FBI FOIA ( 1,950 pages )