The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America - The Stalin Era

by Allen Weinstein, Alexander Vassiliev

Drawing upon previously secret KGB records released exclusively to Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood reveals for the first time the riveting story of Soviet espionage's "golden age" in the United States, from the 1930s through the early cold war.

Genres: History, Espionage, Nonfiction, Russia, Politics, American History, War

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Allen Weinstein was a historian and educator who served as the Ninth Archivist of the United States. Weinstein was a cofounder of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. His work included research into Soviet espionage acitivties during the 1930s and 1940s, topics he covered in his books Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case and The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era. Weinstein passed away on June 18, 2015 after suffering a pout of pneumonia.

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catching up with modern American history : it's a jolt to realize that we had swarms of US-Commie agents from 30s-50s, but this explains the Red Scare and the flamboyant arrival of Joe McCarthy. Crackpot idealism drew some to spying; with others it was a manic need to feel important - the only route to identity.

The most famous deceiver was Alger Hiss. One pundit called him the greatest actor the US ever produced. This intriguing volume scoops up Hiss and other spies. Regrettably the writing is clotted. Coauthor Weinstein modestly suffers four photos of himself. Revelations herein came to light when documents fr the Stalinist era became available (nothing thrilled Stalin more than a good Purge, which explains his sitting-on-a-chamber pot smile).

Martha Dodd: this hothouse flower found herself in Berlin in the 30s where Dado was US ambassador. She adored German weiners, then switched to Russian pickles. A Soviet spy, she later had to flee the US and spend most of wicked her life in Eastern Europe. (Why does author Erik Larson omit her Commie behavior fr "In the Garden of Beasts"? Who's being placated...?) Julius Rosenberg passed out atomic secrets like peppermints. Found guilty w wife, his public relations was manipulated by Russ influence within the US media.

Blueblood Michael Straight had the ear of FDR and Eleanor. He diddled w Commies while in the State Department, but eventually disentangled himself and wound up working for the National Endowment for Arts. (Why am I laughing--)

Then, there's Vassar grad Elizabeth Bentley whose older Russ beau was a
recruiter-group controller. As Moscow prepared to award him the Order of the Red Star, he expired in her apartment and she had to face the NYPD -- a scene that sounds like superb theatre. Drinking heavily, the secretive Bentley told Moscow that she was lonely. Moscow tried to come up with a bedmate. When she defected, '45, Moscow next tried to come up w ways of getting rid of her : subway fall, fake suicide, slow-acting poison?

Great - cautionary - stories. Hollywood won't touch Stalin. Historians say Stalin killed about 20 million. Pls, explain his 'protective' pr. Who's doing the pay off?

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is an old saying that truth is often stranger than fiction. Works of non-fiction can often prove that to be the case, revealing sometimes hidden or forgotten stories from our history. The Cold War, that epic conflict of ideologies fought largely in the shadows and still influencing the world we live in today, is just such an example. While so many great fictional spy stories were inspired by it ranging from Ian Fleming's James Bond novels to John le Carré's George Smiley, the real world of Cold War espionage can be just as fascinating as any thriller. The Haunted Wood proves that to be the case with its exploration of the Americans who spied for the Russians in the 1930s and 1940s.

Written by historian Allen Weinstein and former KGB agent turned journalist Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood was written following a brief opening up of former Soviet archives and the declassification of the American Venona project to decipher Soviet messages sent during the 1940s. It was the twin opening of Cold War archives that allowed for a look into the truth behind cases that were both well known, suspected, and indeed complete surprises. Weinstein and Vassiliev certainly present all three in the course of the book as it covers the lives and spying careers of various American agents of the Soviets.

Part of what makes the book compelling is the people it reveals. There are familiar names in its pages including Alger Hiss, Whitaker Chambers, Klaus Fuchs, Donald Maclean, and Kim Philby that those familiar with the period will recognize. Many of them make what could be considered the historical equivalent of cameo appearances in the book, filling in places in some of the other, perhaps lesser known stories. Or else filling in pieces of their own stories that had been suspected but not known for certain.

It's the lesser known stories that are among the book's high-points. There's Martha Dodd, daughter of the American ambassador to Nazi Germany (whose own story featured in Erik Larson's bestseller In the Garden of Beasts), which a cache of lovers including members of the Nazi government and a Soviet intelligence agent before marrying a millionaire whom she drew into her espionage. Another of the fascinating tales to come out of the book is that of Samuel Dickstein, a New York Congressman and judge, who for a time became the Soviets proverbial “man on the hill” known by his well-earned codename “Crook”. There are committed communists such as Ted Hall, a young man working on the Manhattan Project who helped give key information on the atomic bomb and whom effectively got away with a crime that the Rosenberg's were executed for. Another example is Elizabeth Berkley, an American who became known for a time as “the Red spy queen”, whose shifting allegiances helped end this golden age of Soviet espionage in America. The book is packed full of these tales and others like them, backed up by footnotes and documentation, that reveals an incredible story.

That story is that the true extent of Soviet penetration was virtually unknown at the time and even in the decades that initially followed. That was despite defections to the FBI, decrypts, spy trials, Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare that followed in his wake during in the 1950s. Indeed, McCarthy's specter hangs over the entire book but it's clear that what McCarthy preached about wasn't quite the case. There were spies, some in key locations to be sure, who helped the Soviet Union considerably in a brief period of time the book depicts. McCarthy though arrived too late, too loudly, and with too little factual information to have much real effect as things had been curtailed before he had ever come on the scene. Indeed, the Wisconsin senator's greatest legacy regarding this issue was to turn into a matter of partisan politics that (as the attempts at redeeming McCarthy's reputation by the likes of Anne Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Diane West show) continues to this day. One of the real accomplishments of The Haunted Wood is to separate the facts from the political hysteria to get at the heart of the matter, the fact behind the myths, and the people behind it all.

In fact, the book reveals the failures of Soviet intelligence with their American agents. For all their successes in penetrating different levels of the American government thanks to a combination of Communist sympathizers and spies-for-hire like Congressman Dickstein, there was so more they could have accomplished. This is especially evident from the chapter on the congressman and one particularly intriguing memo presented in the book for the first time that makes for remarkable reading even now in the light of ongoing events. Yet the heads of the Soviet spy stations and those tasked with running the agents found themselves caught up in the political turmoil of Stalin's purges, left instead to be overworked and struggling against the ever-changing dictates of their masters in Moscow. The book reveals that despite some agents like Ted Hall and the mysterious British agent known only as “Eric” effectively getting away with what they'd done, many others were left to their sad fates and wondering if what they had been done had been worthwhile.

For all these reasons, The Haunted Wood is a most remarkable work. It is a non-fiction book without a doubt and perhaps a bit on the dry side for some but the story it has to tell is a remarkable one. It is full of incredible characters and intrigue, close calls, betrayals and everything one expects from a classic spy thriller of the Cold War. Yet as the book shows, the story of Stalin's American spies could be far stranger than anything a writer could have dreamed of.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE HAUNTED WOOD Is a line from W.H. Auden's 1st SEPTEMBER 1939. A good rendition of this poem is read by Tom O' Bedlam on YouTube. His reading transfers the anxiety and confusion presented in this poem announcing the beginning of World War II.

Allen Weinstein's book presents an alternate conundrum: the infiltration of Communist propagandists i nto the fabric of American society from the 1930s until the mid-50s throughout America. He relates the cells, one to the other, how they operated and specifies their methods of communication and their top down command structure originating in Russia itself. He deals particularly with the Hiss/Chambers issue, the development of the atom bomb, and also the debate concerning the deaths of the Rosenbergs.

A lot of water has passed over the bridge since the 1950s. Yet the anxiety that I feel apparent in what I read today is very disarming.

[David Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is "what it says on the tin": Soviet Espionage during Stalin's reign. It focuses on the four or five years leading up to America's entry into WWII, the WWII years, and the espionage dealing with atomic secrets.

Most of my understanding of Soviet espionage is what happened during the Cold War years. There really isn't any overlap here. The authors say that the earliest document they uncovered that identifies the US as the USSR's foremost opponent is 1951, which is a bit after the events described here.

The nature of the agents covered in this book seems radically different than that of more modern Soviet spies. For the most part, they were idealists who believed that Communism was the answer to the world's problems. They weren't motivated by money. Many of them not only refused to take payments from the Soviets, but donated to the CPUSA and sent money to the USSR. As such, a number of these agents were troubled by Stalin's purges and the Nazi-Soviet pact. They certainly weren't fully informed about the purges, but for many it was hard to ignore the recall and disappearnce of their handlers.

I found the "crooks" to be the most interesting of these agents. One was a US Congressman who was fundamental in the formation of a precursor to the HUAC which concentrated on finding Communist agents. He formed this committee with the idea of exposing Nazis. Another interesting one was a movie studio executive who kept trying to get the USSR to invest in his Capitalist schemes!

My initial impression of the agents and schemes of the pre-war time was a "comedy of errors". That certainly overstates it. These agents were somewhat effective at passing useful information to the Soviets. But my impression persists. This impression, for me, continued (in a diminishing way) into the war years. These agents violated almost every "best practice" of spycraft we think of today. And, yet, their poor craft wasn't their downfall. It was agents who were disaffected by Stalin's policies and ended up going to American authorities.

The chapters about atomic spying come closest to meeting my preconceptions. The Julius and Ethel Rosenberg spy ring did forward significant secrets to the Soviets. Still, it took the Soviets years, even with this information, to build their bomb. One would think that, given the area dealt with scientific fact, Soviet scientists and engineers would have been able to bring their own experiments to fruition in a similar amount of time - roughly the same time it took for the Manhattan Project to yield results.

I found the book interesting, but a bit on the dry side. The information is provided in a matter-of-fact way. It may be out of line to expect history to be told in a more engaging fashion, but I've read enough of it that I know it can be done and done well. I don't exect a spy novel, but it's certainly possible to translate the source materials into a story that includes more human passion, emotion, and suspense.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book covers the period leading up to World War II, and is not that interesting. A better author could have had a eye for excluding or passing quickly over some of the content, but the writers were going for historical completeness rather than readability. Throughout the book there is an overabundance of blockquotes, footnotes, and many words in quotation marks to show that it is not the authors designation or description but the sources, and all of this breaks up the flow and destroys the voice of the author. The writers have selected a lot of items and put them in a logical order, but rarely speak authoritatively for themselves.

This dry historical approach makes sense because no other authors had the same access to KGB documents and those archives are now closed, but a better book could have been written that would have gained a wider audience.

Things pick up in spite of the writing style where World War II is covered, and the Soviets are pressing hard on recruiting agents in western nuclear weapons programs (code named 'ENORMOZ' by the KGB).

Page 245 - KGB assessment of the OSS: "The OSS owes its existence only to General Donovan's personal popularity and not to its work."

Page 257 - Duncan Lee, an American who spied for the Soviets, traced his lineage back to Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Page 275 - A Soviet handler commenting on discovering an agent was unmarried: "We don't send single people abroad, especially to the U.S. They will immediately find a beautiful blonde or brunette for you- and then a provocation will happen." Basically this undermines every James Bond movie, and most other spy stories...

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, historian Allen Weinstein was offered an unprecedented, and, as it would turn out, singular, chance to rummage through the KGB archives. Out of those archives, he brought this book, which describes the Soviet Union's extensive spying campaign in the United States during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. It's understandable that Weinstein wanted to get as much of this information into print as possible, so parts of this book can read more like a reference, with lists of purloined documents and of dates of meetings. But, at its best, the book offers a near-transparent window into the world of espionage, with tales of good and bad tradecraft (konspiratsia, as the Russians called it), of code names and encrypted telegrams, of moles and honeypots, and all the rest.

One constant in the book is the Soviet operatives' frustrations with their American agents' (known as "probationers," later "masters) amateurish ways. Since many of them were recruited through the above-ground Communist Party USA, and by Party chair Earl Browder, many of them continued to know and work with each other in the "underground." Many of the group preferred to think that they were just getting information for the CPUSA, or the Comintern, not the KGB, but sooner or later most wised up. The Victor Perlo Group of spies, most who worked in mid-level Washington positions, and who made contact with the KGB through the American courier Elizabeth Bentley, would meet regularly at each others' apartments, bringing notes about their findings and having their wives type them together. This violated basic norms of compartmentalization and exposed the whole group to danger. Soviet Operative Joseph Katz reported back to Moscow that "Taking into account the state of konspiratsia, one cannot do much," but he tried to persuade them to work individually as much as possible. Another problem was that Perlo, like many Soviet spies, had personal problems. Perlo was in such a spat with his ex-wife that she sent a letter to President Roosevelt identifying most of the group by name. Yet the Roosevelt administration ignored the letter, as it did many other indications of espionage, until Elizabeth Bentley's defection in November 1945 exposed proved many of the letters' claims to be accurate. Bentley's defection also led to the end of major Soviet espionage in America. Just as the Soviets operatives had warned, the amateurish and collegial American network, which worked more like a "cell" than a series of spies, was liable to crack after just one failure.

Elizabeth Bentley herself is one of the most fascinating characters in the book. Like many others, she provided the KGB with a revealing self-portrait. She said in college "I was shy and a virgin," but then described four affairs before she met the Communist agent Jacob Golos. When a Communist friend tried to convince her to sleep with other people for information, however, she refused, after which the friend called her a Trotskyist and threatened to kill her. Still, many of her Soviet handlers were suspicious of her connection with Golos, who insisted on running his own cohort of agents without direct intervention of the KGB, and who increasingly complained about the Soviets' desire for direct control. Golos's untimely death in 1943 increased their suspicions about Bentley's independence. New York Station Chief Itzhak Akhmerov wrote that Bentley continued sleep with women, even while she complained about her 'lack fo a male friend to satisfy her natural needs." Akhmerov wrote Moscow that "I would like to resolve Bentley's person problem. As I wrote you she is a rather attractive person." He proposed sending a Polish or Baltic refugee. "We'll arrange the rest... It will bring great happiness to our operative." After she defected, however, the station pivoted, and discussed numerous ways of killing her (car crash, fake suicide, shooting), but didn't get approval from Moscow until it was too late.

There's lots of stuff about the atomic spy ring (everyone from Julius Rosenberg to David Greenglass to Klaus Fuchs) and the group run by Whittaker Chambers, including Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White (although less on this front, because that group was run by the GRU, Soviet military intelligence, or "the neighbors" as the KGB called them). The book is too detailed and tedious, but you'll likely never get a comparable look at spycraft, during its peak, and during its most essential moment.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most troubling thing about this book is that it took around 50 years for the truth to come out and had a few people in Russia at that time denied these Americans access we would have never really known the truth about spies like Alger Hiss.

It’s deeply troubling that a person like Joseph McCarthy, who could be so wrong and misguided in so many ways has actually been proven to be at least in the ballpark. The Soviet Union had agents in the treasury department in the state department, they had them in countless other bureaus of the United States government, and in truly high levels. The number two man at treasury actually told the Soviet Union how to frustrate American policy.

These people revealed the atomic bomb. They provided the Soviets with jet technology and technological advances in so many different areas.

What’s interesting is I recently read a biography on McCarthy and there was no mention of the deep penetration of spies in the government to at least somewhat corroborate what McCarthy did. It makes you wonder why as this and other reporting was done in the late 90s.

The other interesting aspect is the way that the Soviet Union and the Russians like to Recruit. The prototypical person was a child of Eastern European or Russian immigrants who had communist sympathies. A majority were part of the communist party and were known to be communist sympathizers.
A cultural combined with an ideological motivation.

All in all, this is a good book and a worthy read for a nice summary of the subject.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first rate examination of the Americans (not exclusively but they are the majority of the subjects dealt with) who passed information to the Soviet Union. Of course all such actions were espionage, but not all those who did pass on information saw it that way. The value of this book is the fact it is based on Russia archives that were open and later closed, as well as the American Verona project decripts. Unlike a great many authors who write about the Soviet penetration of Western intelligence services this one is written by a man with who knows much more then the gossip of retired spies. It makes for a fascinating and rewarding read.

[Jay Phipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Must read for any cold war veteran - especially in the intelligence business. Disturbing at times how far the KGB penetrated the US government and enlightening as to how much worse it could have been if Soviet leaders had been less paranoid of their own spies.

[Shaun Richman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a narrative. Well-researched; and perhaps the only glimpse we'll get of Moscow espionage files for some time. The book's value seems more to be for other scholars to figure out the real names of code-named spies. Already, some have figured out that "Leo" was Ludwig Lore.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of detail!

[Paul Bruene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tons of interesting material, but the book reads like an academic paper at times. Way, WAY too many full quotes from documents and cables.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well told, lots of information, fascinating for a Cold War buff.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Haunted Wood finds the convergence between human nature, sovereign statecraft and ideology. The chapters are organized loosely into biographical vignettes which follow players of both great and doubtful value to soviet intelligence. Weinstein grants them agency, and digs up a scant degree of complexity at minimum for each, through painstaking and well-referenced research. The cardboard cutouts of shadowy figures or ideological cartoons we are used to reading have been rigorously excised and replaced with ordinary human beings in extraordinary times. We are offered an oblique glimpse of how their actions were justified to themselves, what misgivings they had and regrets that sometimes followed. At the same time, Weinstein situates them on the world stage, within the context of pivotal historical moments and biographical events of their own lives. He weaves narratives of life, politics and espionage that seem all of a piece with each other. Biographically, the statement of facts therein often runs afoul of a preoccupation with coincidence; he seems greatly amused by the comedy of errors and rank amateurism in various incarnations throughout these vignettes. Its virtues lie more in the ordinary observations of the players' handlers reports back to Moscow. Nonetheless, The Haunted Wood also offers a rarely seen view of Stalin's thoughts-- the worries and boogiemen in the dreams of a tyrant-- hinted at obliquely in garbled and often futile directives to the soviet intelligence apparatus. It is only a shame that there were not more primary sources translated from the Russian within the text, as having already done the work to produce the narratives, providing them would be a short trip and would have demonstrated an even greater value to the reader. Well worth two afternoons and a cup of coffee.

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "Haunted Wood" is often cited by defenders of the Red Scares as demonstrating that Soviet spying was, indeed, a major threat. After reading it, the conclusion I come off with is a little different: that while there were spies in the 1930s and during World War II, Russian espionage operations were nearly totally disabled by the 1950s when McCarthyism occurred. From the book:

"As for the entire effort to penetrate key American institutions by Moscow's intelligence operatives in the 1930s and war years, 'by the onset of the Cold War [as Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote recently] the Soviet attack in the area of espionage and subversion had been blunted and turned back': 'There would be episodic successes in the years to come, but none equal to earlier feats. New York of the 1930s. Los Alamos. Some unions. The State Department. The Treasury Department. By the close of the 1940s, Communism was a defeated ideology in the United States, with its influence in steep and steady decline, and the KGB reduced to recruiting thieves as spies.'"

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The American and Russian authors, Weinstein and Vassiliev, pieced this together from an exhaustive review of documents released in the late 90s by the KGB, CIA and NSA, including thousands of translated intercepts sent by Soviet agents in the US and USSR during WWII. It provides a fascinating glimpse at the espionage activities of Alger Hiss, the Rosenburgs, the daughter of a US Ambassador to Nazi Germany and many, many others. It is quite humorous in spots, especially when comparing the spy-trade discipline of the Russians against their nonchalant, highly sociable and naive American counterparts.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any one who thinks that Alger Hiss wasn't a Soviet spy needs to read this. It also illuminates the involvement of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who where as part of an elaborate spy ring demonstrates how the much bigger fish - Harry Gold and David Greenglass - should have been executed and not them.

[Pat Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tales are fact. I didn't find them that interesting though. It is history but it isn't an easy flowing read. Also the stories lack Hollywood pizzazz. Not that it's necessary, but it won't please someone looking for James Bond.

[aksnowbunny Proden · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love spies. and history. this was an intrigueing book that i couldn't put down about the secret communications between our country, the kgb and the rest of the world.

[Jack]

Dry reading - but very eerie.

[Rod Zemke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but written in a boorish style

[Phillip Tigue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could be shortened by 100 pages and it wouldn't harm this book. A tad slow at times, but riveting nonetheless.

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read the whole thing but did spend some time in Chap 3 about the case on Martha Dodd. A lot of detail here but maybe overkill for those who don't need minute by minute reports.

[Jennifer]

I only read the first three chapters, to learn more about Martha Dodd, as a follow up to In the Garden of Beasts.

[Jason Slemons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mainly written from some archived and temporarily declassified russian kgb documents, this is super interesting from a cold war spy perspective. 'nightmover' is nowhere near as interesting.

[Mark Levandoski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dry.Unable to get into it.Stopped around page 100.

[JenRaye · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Gustaf Erikson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather dry, factual account of Soviet espionage in the US around the Second World War.

Many interesting stories, presented in a workmanlike style. Spying as a not very exciting vocation. Non-judgemental, though. The Soviet operatives were just doing their jobs, so to speak. But the price paid by the agents was sometimes very heavy.