Alexander Koral Alexander Koral was an American member of the Communist Party of the United States ( CPUSA ) who headed a network of spies for Soviet intelligence during World War II called the " Art " or " Berg " group . Koral ' s wife , Helen Koral , also was involved with the group . Career . The FBI first detected Koral in 1941 while surveiling Gaik Ovakimian , whom the FBI did not realize at the time was the head of KGB operations in the United States . The FBI noted Ovakimian meeting several times with Koral , though no espionage could be proved . Koral was working at the time as a school district maintenance man . After the War , in 1947 , Koral confessed , when confronted by the FBI , to being a courier for the KGB from 1939 to 1945 . Koral told the FBI he was paid two thousand dollars to travel to different cities to pick up and deliver small packages and envelopes to different persons , including Nathan Gregory Silvermaster and Helen Silvermaster . In December 1945 , Koral was sent to tell Silvermaster “ no more visits would be made to him ” , at the time of Elizabeth Bentley ' s defection and the Soviet networks were being compromised . Koral identified Semyon Semenov as one of his contacts in Soviet intelligence to whom he had delivered materials . Koral was also a contact of Michael Straight . Koral ' s code name in the Soviet intelligence , and as deciphered in the venona decrypts is " Berg " . Public exposure . On August 8 , 1948 , the Washington Post reported : The curtain will rise again Monday morning [ April 9 , 1948 ] on Washington ' s current spy thriller when the House Committee on Un - American Activities calls upon two key witnesses to tell the public what they know of Communist espionage here . . . One witness will be Victor Perlo . . . The other will be Alexander Koral , described by Chairman Karl Mundt ( R . , S . Dak . ) as a former " contact " man between New York and Washington . On August 10 , 1948 , the Washington Post reported : Two ashenfaced men stood up in the crowded caucus room of the Old House Office Building and were confronted by Miss Elizabeth T . Bentley , confessed courier for Communist underground . . . Both men , on the advice of counsel , refused to say whether or not they knew Ms . Bentely on the ground that an answer might tend to incriminate them . . . One was Victor Perlo . . . The other was Alexander Koral , a 51 - year - old maintenance man employed by the New York City Board of Education , who was remindded when he was on the stand that he had already signed a confession to Government authorities of his part in a Washington - New York spy circuit . Koral refused to affirm or deny that he had made such a confession , and he refused to say on grounds of self - incrimination whether or not he is now or ever had been a Communist . . . Investigator Louis J . Russell , former FBI agent , took the stand . . . " Koral . . . had a sone who was ill and had a large amount of hospital and medical bills . " Koral was linked by Russell to Nathan Gregory Silvermaster . Venona . Alexander Koral is referenced in the following Venona project decrypts : After Venona . The Cold War International History Project ( CWIHP ) has the full text of former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev ' s Notebooks containing new evidence on Koral ' s cooperation with the Soviet Union . Sources . Documentation : Books :