Louis D. Horvitz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis D. Horvitz was an American citizen who allegedly served Soviet intelligence during World War II. Horvitz, a longtime member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), supposedly worked with Paul Burns and Bernard Schuster, and like Burns, ran a safe house for Soviet covert operatives. Horvitz and Burns were both International Brigades volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

A message was sent from the New York KGB office on 16 August 1944 to KGB head, General Pavel Fitin in Moscow which read, "In accordance with the task set us Schuster has found in New York two conspirative apartments", and lists Horvitz and Burns with their addresses. Three days later Fitin sent a memorandum to Georgi Dimitrov, General Secretary of the Comintern, asking for information on Horvitz, who is identified as working in a judicial office. Within months, KGB Case Officer Leonid Kvasnikov was using the apartment of a CPUSA member for a recruitment meeting with a source, although it is not clear whether the apartment was Horvitz's or Burns's.

[edit] Venona

Louis Horvitz is referenced in the following Venona decrypt:

• 1166 KGB New York to Moscow, 16 August 1944.

[edit] References

• John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pg. 224.