Nahum Eitingon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006)

Nahum Eitingon, or Naum Isaakovič Ejtington (Russian: Наум Исаакович Эйтингон, 1899 - 1959, in Belorussian town of ShklovBrazil) was a Belarus-born spy of SSSR.

During the 1930s Eitingon, a Jew, was able to create an illegal espionage network in America among Jewish people who had left Russia shortly before the Russian Revolution. This entry into the United States helped the Soviets gain a foothold in the scientific community. During the late 1930's he was able to have agents working at Los Alamos, New Mexico on the Manhattan Project. As many as 40 Soviet agents may have been working at or near Berkeley, CA or Los Alamos trying to gather information. Eitingon worked all over Europe during the 1930's and during World War II, he worked on intelligence against Germany.

[edit] The Murder of Trotsky

Eitingon was working in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. While there, he was able to recruit Spanish agents with connections to Leon Trotsky, who had been banished from the USSR by Stalin. Stalin wanted Trotsky dead and Eitingon was able to use a young Spaniard, Ramon Mercader, to act as his assassin. Trotsky was living in Mexico at the time and soon after Mercader worked his way into Trotsky's group of friends, Eitingon arrived in Mexico. Mercader was sure he could get to Trotsky without being searched by Trotsky's guards and once inside he killed Trotsky with an ice-axe in 1940.

[edit] Doctor's Plot

In October 1951, Major-General of State Security Eitingon, along with 3 other high-ranking members of the government (all Jewish) were accused of a Zionist plot to seize power. Eitingon's sister(Sofia) was also arrested. As a doctor, she was the "link" to the plotting doctors who were planning on poisoning high-ranking Soviet leaders. The officers were all tortured and left in cold, dark cells. The torture led many to falsely confess but Eitingon was steadfast in his denial. Sofia was given 10 years in prison. After Stalin's death in March of 1953, Beria issued an order to close the cases against the "Zionist plotters" and all were released, including Sofia.

Eitingon died in 1981.

[edit] Source used

Loyal Comrade, Ruthless Killers
by Slava Katamidze
pages.........74-85, 91, 99, 103, 115, 126-129, 133, 136, 145-146, 155-156
published in US in 2003 by Lewis International, Inc.