Nathan Gregory Silvermaster

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Nathan Gregory Silvermaster bigraphy, stories - Russian-American spy

Nathan Gregory Silvermaster : biography

27 November 1898 – 07 (aged 65) October 1964

Nathan Gregory Silvermaster (November 27, 1898 – October 7, 1964), an economist with the United States War Production Board (WPB) during World War II, was the head of a large ring of Communist spies in the U.S. government.Herken 2002, pg. 88 It is from him that the FBI Silvermaster File , documenting the Bureau’s investigation into Communist penetration of the Federal government during the 1930s and 1940s, takes its name. His wife, Helen and stepson, Anatole Volkov, were members of his ring.

He was identified as a Soviet agent in the WPB operating under the code names Pel, Pal, “Paul” in the Venona decrypts; and as “Robert” both in Venona and independently by defecting Soviet intelligence courier Elizabeth Bentley.FBI Report, , October 21, 1946 (, pg. 12 (PDF, pg. 17)

Sources

  • Christopher M. Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (New York: Basic Books, 1999).
  • Gregg Herken. Brotherhood of the Bomb. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.
  • Data on construction and distribution of U.S. military aircraft.
  • Numerical strength of the United States Army Air Forces.
  • Richard C.S. Trahair and Robert Miller, Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations (New York: Enigma Books, 2008) ISBN 978-1-929631-75-9.

Death

He died on October 7, 1964, aged 65, possibly in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey.

Chronology

  • August 1935 to November 1938 Farm Security Administration
  • November 1938 to July 1940 Maritime Labor Board
  • July 1940 to December 1944 U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • 1942 to 1945 U.S. Department of Treasury
  • mid 1945 Reconstruction Finance Corporation (became the War Assets Corporation)
  • March 1946 resigned from government

==Silvermaster group== The Silvermaster spy ring operated primarily in the Department of the Treasury but also had contacts in the Army Air Force and in the White House. Sixty-one of the Venona cables concern the activities of the Silvermaster spy ring. This represents 1% of the total (approx 6,000 cables) and 3% of the (2,000) translated/partially translated VENONA cables.

  • Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, Chief Planning Technician, Procurement Division, United States Department of the Treasury; Chief Economist, War Assets Administration; Director of the Labor Division, Farm Security Administration; Board of Economic Warfare; Reconstruction Finance Corporation Department of Commerce
  • Helen Silvermaster, wife
  • Anatole Boris Volkov, stepson
  • Solomon Adler aka Schlomer Adler, U.S. Department of the Treasury
  • Norman Chandler Bursler, United States Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division
  • Frank Coe, Assistant Director, Division of Monetary Research, Treasury Department; Special Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador in London; Assistant to the Executive Director, Board of Economic Warfare; Assistant Administrator, Foreign Economic Administration
  • Lauchlin Currie, Administrative Assistant to President Roosevelt; Deputy Administrator of Foreign Economic Administration; Special Representative to China
  • Bela Gold, Assistant Head of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture; Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization; Office of Economic Programs in Foreign Economic Administration
  • Sonia Steinman Gold, Division of Monetary Research U.S. Treasury Department; U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Interstate Migration; U.S. Bureau of Employment Security
  • Irving Kaplan, Foreign Funds Control and Division of Monetary Research, United States Department of the Treasury Foreign Economic Administration; chief advisor to the Military Government of Germany
  • George Silverman, civilian Chief Production Specialist, Material Division, Army Air Force Air Staff, War Department, Pentagon
  • William Henry Taylor, Assistant Director of the Middle East Division of Monetary Research, United States Department of Treasury
  • William "Lud" Ullman, delegate to United Nations Charter meeting and Bretton Woods conference; Division of Monetary Research, Department of Treasury; Material and Services Division, Air Corps Headquarters, Pentagon
  • Harry Dexter White, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; Head of the International Monetary Fund