Einhorn, Abram Ossipovich (1899-1955)

A Soviet revolutionary and a prominent Soviet intelligence operative and leader in the 1920s and 1930s; Major of GB (1935).

Abram Einhorn was born in Odessa, a cosmopolitan Black Sea port of the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine) on August 20, 1899 in the family of a Jewish locksmith Ossip Einhorn. At the age of 14, after graduating from a 4-grade city school, he joined his father’s trade, but after a few years joined the Russian revolutionary movement. In 1916, Einhorn joined the Russian Social-Democratic Party (RSDRP – internationalists) and soon after the Russian democratic revolution of February 1917, he joined the Bolsheviks. Einhorn was one of the organizers of the Alliance of Socialist Labor Youth in his native Odessa, and in January 1918, he took part in the armed uprising, which resulted in the victory of the Bolsheviks. After the Red Army was driven out of Odessa, Einhorn took part in the Russian civil war in the Ukraine and in the Volga region. For some time he was fighting as part of a Red Army armored train team, when his comrades-in-arms gave him a nickname, “Taras.” Einhorn returned to Odessa with the Red Army in the spring of 1919 and soon became head of department of operations of Odessa city Cheka. However, the Red Army was soon driven out of Odessa once again. Einhorn stayed back in Odessa under the White Army and managed to organize an underground intelligence network. After the Red Army final return to Odessa, Einhorn became deputy head of the secret operations department of the regional Cheka. However, in 1920 he was dispatched to Turkestan in Central Asia, where for two years he served as Cheka authorized representative.

In 1921, Einhorn shifted to the Intelligence Office of the Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea. In 1921-1922, he briefly travelled to Rumania and Poland with intelligence missions and then came to Moscow to study at the oriental department of the Military Academy of the RKKA, from which he graduated in 1924. After his graduation Einhorn briefly worked as a functionary at the Comintern’s youth arm – The Communist Youth International, but soon shifted to the INO – the foreign intelligence arm of Cheka successor agency, OGPU. His revolutionary nickname, “Taras“, became his operational pseudonym.  In 1925-1926, Einhorn was posted as a clandestine (“illegal”) operative in Turkey, France, Germany and Palestine. In 1926-1927, he was posted in Italy under an official cover of a diplomat. After his return to Moscow in 1927, he worked at the INO OGPU oriental section, where he supervised operations in Iran and India. In 1928-1929, he was an “illegal” INO station chief in Iran. ¹

In early 1930, Einhorn arrived in New York, where he became part of an “illegal”station under the cover of a businessman engaged in market surveys with a view of purchasing tools and equipment for his trade mission in Iran or in the Middle East. But his real mission was to obtain American industrial secrets. In the semi-official history of the Russian foreign intelligence Einhorn is credited with laying the basis for OGPU industrial espionage operations in the United States. In particular, he is credited with obtaining a complete set of drafts of one of the military aircrafts designed by Sikorsky. One of the INO’s reports written in 1931 recognized Einhorn’s successes as “enormous.” Among his achievements the report listed “materials on chemical industry (evaluated as a $1 mln. saving for the Soviet industry); a complete set of materials on a Packard diesel engine and establishment of “regular communication line with America,” which was described as “live, illegal.” ² 

Among Einhorn’s achievements the above cited account listed “obtaining letterheads of American and Canadian documents… for the Soviet illegal intelligence.” Soon after his arrival in the USA Einhorn established contact with American Communist, Jacob Golos, through whom he would ensure a continuous supply of authentic US documentation for the needs of the Soviet foreign intelligence. In 1931, Einhorn recruited Catherine (Kitty) Harris, a Comintern functionary and a former common-law wife of the leader of the CPUSA, Earl Browder. Harris would become a long-time special courier of the OGPU-NKVD foreign intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s. ³ In the same year Einhorn married an American Communist Leonora Sarney, who would soon become his intelligence associate. ⁴ While working in the USA, Einhorn travelled to China and Japan with intelligence missions. ⁵

Einhorn returned to Moscow in the spring of 1934 or late 1933 ⁶ and briefly worked as an operative of the Special department of GUGB NKVD before he was sent to Vladivostok in the Soviet Far East in March 1935. In the Far East, Einhorn supervised intelligence operations targeted at Japan, China and the USA. However, in August 1936 he was suddenly summoned back to Moscow. ⁷ According to available accounts, since August 1936 Einhorn worked as head of inspection in the Moscow regional NKVD office, which was an apparent demotion. In February, 1937 he was further demoted to a position of an employee for special assignments at the counterintelligence department of GUGB NKVD.

Einhorn was arrested on March 21, 1937 on standard charges of Trotskyism, German espionage and contacts with the “enemies of the people,” the list of which included his brother, who was a prominent official in the Young Communist League. After a two-year detention in NKVD inner jail, Butyrka and one more prison, he was sentenced to eight-year prison term on June 21, 1939, which he served in prison labor camps in the Russian Far East. Having served his term, he was set free in the summer of 1945, but was deprived of the right to live in Moscow and other large cities. For a few years Einhorn worked in low managerial jobs in small regional towns until in 1949 he was arrested again by MGB and sentenced to “a perpetual banishment for free settlement” in the far eastern Krasnoyarsk region. Einhorn was rehabilitated in late 1954 and returned to Moscow in December, 1954 suffering from a spontaneous leg gangrene and died on January 14, 1955. ⁸