Doctor

Pseudonyms, References

A Soviet operational pseudonym for an agent-group leader of an “Omega” group of Soviet military intelligence (GRU) sources in Washington, D.C. from 1940 to 1945, which in 2007 was erroneously identified by American Cold War historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr as Alger Hiss, the US State Department official during WWII, who was convicted for perjury in January, 1950 in what had become known as the Hiss Case. 1

American historians learned about “Doctor” and the “Omega” group in general from some translation of a 2006 article by a Russian military writer, Vladimir Lota, who had an exclusive access to the GRU files. 2 But in that article Lota provided a confusing description of some of the particulars of “Doctor”, which mislead Haynes and Klehr into describing “Doctor” as the “chief source” of the “Omega” group “with access to high-level information about American foreign policy.” 3  

However, Lota’s is not the only account of “Doctor” and the “Omega” group. A much more accurate account (apparently based on the same archival records) was given by a well-known military writer, Mikhail Boltunov, who is editor-in-chief of the official magazine published by the Russian Department of Defense, “Orientir.” In Boltunov’s more detailed and careful account, “Doctor” appears not as a “main source”, but as an agent-group leader, whose function was to maintain contact with the group’s sources of information and perform various organizational tasks. By his background he was a European-educated medical doctor and a long-time agent of the Soviet military intelligence, who was recruited in Europe in 1934 by a well-known military intelligence officer Oskar Stigga and in 1930s performed various intelligence functions in Poland, Rumania and Austria.” In 1939, he moved to the USA, settled in New York and in 1940 became an agent-group leader for the Soviet military intelligence resident, Lev Sergeev (“Moris“), working with the latter’s “Omega” group until late 1945. For this work, “Doctor” was reportedly awarded the highest Soviet award, the Order of Lenin, in February 1945. 4

  1. “Ales” is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring. – 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History, 19 October 2007, The Center for Cryptologic History, by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr. Retrieved from http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html. ↩
  2. Vladimir Lota, “MORIS vykhodit na svjaz,’” Krasnaja Zvezda, 5 maja 2006. (“MORIS Gets on Air,” by Vladimir Lota in Red Star, May 5, 2006). ↩
  3. “Ales” is Still Hiss”, Op. cit. ↩
  4. “Nash chelovek v Vashingtone,” – Mikhail Boltunov, Razvedchiki, izmenivshie mir, Moskva: “Algoritm,” 2009, s. 111-112, 116, 120-122, 128, 131, 135-138. (“Our Man in Washington,” in The Intelligence Officers Who Changed the World, by Mikhail Boltunov, Moscow: “Algorythm,” 2009, pp. 111-112, 116, 120-122, 128, 131, 135-138.) ↩