Gorskiy, Anatoli Veniaminovich

(1907–?)

   After a decade of work in internal security, Gorskiy joined foreign intelligence and was sent to London as deputy NKVD rezident in 1936 under the name “Gromov.” With the purge of foreign intelligence, Gorskiy took command of the London rezidentura, which Moscow had briefly closed, and ran British agents within the establishment. He was reassigned to Moscow in 1944. With the recall of Vasily Zarubin from Washington on suspicion of treachery later that year, Gorskiy was dispatched to Washington, where he served as rezident for two years. Intercepted Soviet intelligence messages suggest that Gorskiy ran Lauchlin Currie, a White House aid to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

   Gorskiy had unique access to the American political leadership for an Allied diplomat or intelligence officer. On 24 October 1945, Gorskiy met for breakfast with former U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace. Wallace sought to explain the new Truman presidency to Gorskiy, noting that the Democratic Party was now divided between “Roosevelt Democrats,” favoring entente with Moscow, and the new hawkish advisors of President Harry Truman, whom Wallace characterized as “petty politicos.” The information was sent to Joseph Stalin.

   Gorskiy was not impressive physically. An agent described him as “a short fattish man in his mid-30s with blond hair pushed straight back and glasses that failed to mask a pair of shrewd cold eyes.” Gorskiy was, however, an outstanding agent handler. He ran important agents such as Kim Philby, as well as men and women within the British nuclear weapons program. The Soviet intelligence effort in the United States began to collapse during his tenure as chief, but that was not Gorskiy’s fault. Rather, the defection of Elizabeth Bentley in the United States and Igor Gouzenko in Canada provided critical insights into Soviet tradecraft and agents. Gorskiy returned to Moscow, where he worked in the foreign intelligence directorate. He left, highly decorated, with the rank of colonel.