Walter Krivitsky Walter Germanovich Krivitsky ( Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий ; June 28 , 1899 – February 10 , 1941 ) was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing Nazi - Soviet non - aggression pact before defecting weeks before the outbreak of World War II . Biography . Early life . Born to Jewish parents as Samuel Ginsberg in Podwołoczyska ( Pidvolochysk , then Galicia , Austria - Hungary ) , he adopted the name " Krivitsky " ( a name based on the Slavic root for " crooked , twisted " ) as a revolutionary " nom de guerre " when he entered the Bolshevik intelligence around 1917 . He operated as an " illegal " ( agent with false name and papers ) in Germany , Poland , Austria , Italy and Hungary , and rose to the rank of control officer . He is credited with stealing plans for submarines and planes , intercepting Nazi - Japanese correspondence , and recruiting many agents , including Madame Lupescu and Noel Field . In May 1937 , Krivitsky was sent to The Hague to operate as the " rezident " , or regional control officer , operating under cover of an antiquarian . It appears that he coordinated intelligence operations throughout Western Europe . Defection . At that time the General Staff of the Red Army was undergoing a purge in Moscow , which Krivitsky and close friend , Ignace Reiss , both abroad , found deeply disturbing . Reiss wanted to defect , but Krivitsky repeatedly held back . Finally Reiss did defect , which he announced in a defiant letter to Moscow . Reiss ' assassination in Switzerland in September 1937 prompted Krivitsky to defect the following month . In Paris , Krivitsky began to write articles and made contact with Lev Sedov ( Trotsky ' s son ) and the Trotskyists . There he also met undercover Soviet spy Mark Zborowski , known as " Etienne , " whom Sedov sent to protect him . Sedov died mysteriously in February 1938 , but Krivitsky eluded attempts to kill or kidnap him while in France , including flight to Hyères . At the end of 1938 , anticipating the Nazi conquest of Europe , Krivitsky sailed from France to the United States . With the help of journalist Isaac Don Levine and literary agent Paul Wohl , he produced an inside account of Stalin ' s underhanded methods called " In Stalin ' s Secret Service " ( also published as " I Was Stalin ' s Agent " ) , published in 1939 after appearing first as a series in the " Saturday Evening Post " . ( Note : the title appeared as a phrase in an article written by Reiss ' wife on the first anniversary of her husband ' s assassination : " Reiss . . . had been in Stalin ’ s secret service for many years and knew what fate to expect . " ) The book received a tepid review by the very influential " New York Times " . Violently attacked by the Left in America , Krivitsky was vindicated when a Nazi - Soviet non - aggression pact ( which he predicted ) was signed in August 1939 . Caught between dedication to socialist ideals and detest of Stalin ' s methods , Krivitsky believed that it was his duty to inform . This decision caused him much mental anguish , as he impressed on American defector Whittaker Chambers . Krivitsky told Chambers , " In our time , informing is a duty " ( recounted by Chambers in his autobiography , " Witness " ) . Krivitsky testified before the Dies Committee ( later to become the House Un - American Activities Committee ) in October 1939 , and sailed as " Walter Thomas " to London in January 1940 to reveal secrets to British Military Intelligence , MI5 . It is a matter of controversy whether he gave MI5 clues to the identity of Soviet agents Donald Maclean and Kim Philby . There is no doubt , however , that the NKVD learned of his testimony and initiated operations to silence him . He soon returned to North America , landing in Canada . Always in trouble with the US Immigration and Naturalization Service , Krivitsky was not able to return to the United States until November 1940 . Krivitsky retained Louis Waldman to represent him on legal matters . ( Waldman was a long - time friend of Isaac Don Levine . ) Death . The August 1940 assassination of Trotsky in Mexico convinced him that he was now at the top of the NKVD hit list . His last two months in New York were filled with plans to settle in Virginia and to write , but also with doubts and dread . On February 10 , 1941 , at 9 : 30 a . m . he was found dead in the Bellevue Hotel ( now The George ) in Washington , DC , by a chambermaid , with three suicide notes by the bed . His body was lying in a pool of blood , caused by a single bullet wound to the right temple from a . 38 - caliber revolver found grasped in Krivitsky ' s right hand . A report dated June 10 , 1941 , indicates he had been dead for approximately 6 hours . According to many sources , ( including Krivitsky himself ) he was murdered by Soviet intelligence , but the official investigation , unaware of the NKVD manhunt , concluded that Krivitsky committed suicide . Two people with close ties to him later recounted opposite interpretations of his death . Reiss ' wife wrote : In the United States , he had to make a new start in life , without knowing the country or the language . He did find friends , good friends , but among them he realized how frightfully alone he was . . . He lived in relative security and even affluence from the sale of his articles . His family was safe and well cared for , he had friends , it seemed he could start a new life . But something else had happened . For the first time he had the leisure to see himself in his new situation . He had broken with his old life and had not built a new one . He went to a hotel in Washington , wrote a letter to his wife and one to his friends , and put a bullet through his head . . . To those who knew his handwriting , his style , his expressions , there could be no doubt that the had written them . Chambers recounted his memoirs : One night one of my close friends burst into my office at Time . He was holding a yellow tear - off that had just come over the teletype . < br > " They have murdered the General , " he said . " Krivitsky has been killed . " < br > Krivitsky ' s body had been found in a room in a small Washington hotel a few blocks from the Capitol . He had a room permanently reserved at a large downtown hotel where he had always stayed when he was in Washington . He had never stayed at the small hotel before . Why had he gone there ? < br > He had been shot through the head and there was evidence that he had shot himself . At whose command ? He had left a letter in which he gave his wife and children the unlikely advice that the Soviet Government and people were their best friends . Previously , he had warned them that , if he were found dead , never under any circumstances to believe that he had committed suicide . Who had forced my friend to write the letter ? I remembered the saying : " Any fool can commit a murder , but it takes an artist to commit a good natural death . " . . . < br > Krivitsky also told me something else that night . A few days before , he had taken off the revolver that he usually carried and placed it in a bureau drawer . His seven - year - old son watched him . < br > " Why do you put away the revolver ? " he asked . " In America , " said Krivitsky , " nobody carries a revolver . " " Papa , " said the child , " carry the revolver . " Survivors . At first news of his death , Whittaker Chambers found Krivitsky ' s wife Antonina ( " Tonia " according to Kern , " Tonya " according to Chambers ) and son Alek in New York City . He boarded them on a train to Florida , where they stayed with Chambers ' s family ( who had already fled New Smyrna ) . Both families hid there several months , fearing further Soviet reprisals . The families then returned to Chambers ' s farm in Westminster , Maryland . Within a short time , however , Tonia and Alek returned to New York . Both wife and son lived in poverty for the rest of their lives . Son Alek died of a brain tumor in his early 30s , after serving in the US Navy and studying at Columbia University . Wife Tonia ( who changed her surname legally to " Thomas " ) continued to live and work in New York City until retiring to Ossining , where she died aged 94 in 1996 in a nursing home .