Samuel Krafsur
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Simon Samuel Krafsur (January 10, 1913 – June 1983) was a Boston-born journalist who worked for the Soviet news agency TASS during World War II. He was also known as Bill Krafsur.
Krafsur was mentioned in the Venona intercepts under the codename IDE. He was used by the KGB during the war as a source of information and for recruiting journalists as informants and agents, and is referred to in the NSA archives as a "KGB agent"[1] [1].
In the 1930's Krafsur joined the Communist Party of America. He attended Northeastern University for a year. He lived at 68 Phillips Street in Boston before going to Spain to fight with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, where he was wounded in 1937.
In 1938 Krafsur was a member of the editorial staff of "The Volunteers for Liberty" a newspaper which was an, "organ of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade" organization out of 125 West 45 Street in New York City. In April of 1938 he was in charge of finding veterans to tell their war sories to be made into radio plays written by Irwin Shaw.
He began working for TASS in 1941 after being recruited by the Soviet agent Vladimir Pravdin. Krafsur was considered an important asset to the KGB because of the many contacts he had with other newsmen. He was the deputy TASS bureau chief in Washington, D.C. and the FBI spent a lot of time and effort trying to identify who he was under his codename IDE.
In May 1944, he was described in a KGB cable from New York to Moscow as, "absolutely devoted to the USSR." He provided at least twenty leads of people for possible recruitment including Joseph Berger, a personal aide to the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and I. F. Stone.
In 1949, he left TASS and was later called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities where he chose not to cooperate. Later he worked in a toy store.
In the early 1960's he married the ex-wife of the secretary-treasurer of the Mine, Mill, and Smelters Union. He died, at the age of seventy, in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1983.
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[edit] Venona
Samuel Krafsur is referenced in the following Venona project decryptions:
- KGB Agent Samuel Krafsur reports on potential recruits.
- KGB reports on two journalists.
- Identity of "IDE" and recommendation of his friend Joseph Berger.
- KGB Agent Samuel Krafsur's wife.
- US Diplomatic Policy.
- 847B, 848 KGB New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944, p.1
- 847B, 848 KGB New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944, p.2
- 847B, 848 KGB New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944, p.3
- 847B, 848 KGB New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944, p.4
- KGB agent Sammuel Krafsur receives information.
- Report of Secretary of State Cordell Hull's informal views.
- Baltimore Sun correspondent corroborates Walter Lippman's views of Churchill's relations with Roosevelt.
- 1291 KGB New York to Moscow, 9 September 1944, p.1
- 1291 KGB New York to Moscow, 9 September 1944, p.2
- Resend of newspapers' views of correspondents on pending Roosevelt and Churchill meeting.
- 1312 KGB New York to Moscow, 14 September 1944, p.1
- 1312 KGB New York to Moscow, 14 September 1944, p.2
- 1312 KGB New York to Moscow, 14 September 1944, p.3
- Interest in recruiting I. F. Stone and in deal in Chile.
- 1313 KGB New York to Moscow, 13 September 1944, p.1
- 1313 KGB New York to Moscow, 13 September 1944, p.2
- Operational report by Pravdin
- 1433, 1435 New York to Moscow, 10 October 1944, p.1
- 1433, 1435 New York to Moscow, 10 October 1944, p.2
- 1433, 1435 New York to Moscow, 10 October 1944, p.3
- I. F. Stone' reluctance to help KGB as he fears FBI.
- Ambassador Averell Harriman's comments to US Press Corps on aid to USSR.
- Joseph Berger is assessed by KGB agent Samuel Krafsur.
- 777–779 KGB New York to Moscow, 25 May 1945, p.1
- 777–779 KGB New York to Moscow, 25 May 1945, p.2
- 777–779 KGB New York to Moscow, 25 May 1945, p.3
[edit] Note
- 1 National Security Agency Archives[2], National Cryptological Museum, [3] Custodian of documents for the Army Signals Intelligence Corp
[edit] Sources
- Venona: Decoding Espionage in America, John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Yale University Press, (1999), pgs. 242–244, 248. ISBN 0-300-07150-7
- Mortal Crimes - The Greatest Theft in History: Soviet Penetration of the Manhattan Project, Nigel West, Enigma Books, (2004). ISBN 1-929-63121-9
- Social Security Death Index, USA.
