Jacob Golos

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Jake Golos (birth name Jacob Rasin or Jacob Raisen) (1890 - November 27, 1943), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet secret police operative in the USSR. He was also a longtime senior official of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) involved in covert work and cooperation with Soviet intelligence agencies. He changed his name to Golos because of his involvement with a pro-Bolshevik daily newspaper published in New York, Russky Golos or The Russian Voice. During World War II, he developed several large espionage networks of secret Communist party members who worked for the United States Government and linked them to the Soviet intelligence. He inherited at least one spy network from Earl Browder, the CPUSA General Secretary. They are collectively referred to as the "Golos ring" of Soviet espionage agents.

Jacob Golos was the "main pillar" of the NKVD intelligence network. He had worked with Soviet intelligence from the mid 1930s, and probably earlier. He was not merely a CPUSA official assisting the NKVD (an agent or “probationer” in Soviet intelligence parlance) but held official rank in the NKVD, and claimed to be an oldtime Chekist. Golos headed the Central Control Commission which planned the execution of Juliet Poyntz, an American defector from the GRU.

The code name "Sound" appears in the Venona decryptions as a Soviet source and was identified as Jacob Golos. The reference to Golos in the Venona decrypts as an “illegal colleague” corroborates Elizabeth Bentley's testimony. The term “nelegal’ny sotrudnik," can be translated as “illegal colleague,” “illegal associate” or “illegal operative." That was Soviet espionage terminology for a Soviet officer or professional agent who operated without the protection of diplomatic or official status with a Soviet embassy, consulate or agency and usually with false documents. Soviet officers with the latter status were said to be “legal.” Golos worked for the Society for Technical Aid to Soviet Russia. Cover name "Zvuk" ("Sound") is from Latin "Vox", or "Voice".

Golos established a company called World Tourists with money from Earl Browder, General Secretary of the CPUSA. The firm, which posed as a travel agency, was used to facilitate international travel to and from the United States by Soviet agents and CPUSA members. World Tourists was also involved in manufacturing fake passports. Golos frequently met Bernard Schuster at World Tourist. In March 1940, Golos pled guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent and paid a $500 fine and served probation, in lieu of a four month prison sentence.

Soviet intelligence did not like Golos' refusal to allow Soviet contact with his sources. The NKVD suspected Golos of Trotskyism and tried to lure him to Moscow, where he could be arrested. The US government got to him first. But even then, he would not surrender his agents. After Browder went to prison in 1940, Golos took over running Browder's agents.

In 1941, Golos had set up a commercial forwarding enterprise, called the U.S. Shipping and Service Corporation, with Bentley, his lover, as one of its officers.

In the fall of 1942, a Communist cell of engineers was turned over to Golos for Soviet espionage purposes and Julius Rosenberg was the contact between Golos and the group. Golos believed this cell, the XY Line of engineers was capable of development. The XY Line began enormous efforts to penetrate the Manhattan Project, code-named ENORMOUS (ENORMOZ).

Sometime in November of 1943, Golos met in New York with key figures of the Perlo group, a group working in several government departments and agencies in Washington, D.C. The group was already in the service of Browder. Later that same month, after a series of heart attacks over the previous two years, Golos died in bed in Bentley's arms. Bentley then took over his operations (thus the reference in the decrypts to him as a “former” colleague).

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Olmsted, Kathryn S. (2002), Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley, The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-2739-8
Kessler, Lauren (2003), Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era, Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-095973-8
Haynes, John Earl and Klehr, Harvey (2000). Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08462-5.
United States. Subversive Activities Control Board. Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board. Washington. United States Government Printing Office. 1966. Vol. 1, pgs. 211, 275. [1] "...Golos as a resident agent of the Soviet secret police. Elizabeth Bentley, as a member of respondent (CPUSA), was designated by Golos [112] as a trusted go between..."; "Golos, was connected with a Soviet espionage agency during the period 1936-1943, and that Golos acted as the liaison for communication between Elizabeth Bentley, a member of respondent's underground, and the Soviet Secret Police ... ".