In Stalin's Secret Service. W/ G. Krivitsky
for Peace and Democracy, the International Labor Defense, the International Workers’ Aid, the Friends of the Soviet Union, and a host of ostensibly non-partisan organizations, which became especially important cogs when Moscow embarked upon the popular front.
For many years, while revolutionary prospects there seemed promising, the Comintern poured the greater part of its money into Germany and Central Europe. But when it became more decisively an appendage of the Soviet government, and revolutionary objectives were sidetracked in favor of Stalinizing public opinion and capturing key positions in the democratic governments, Moscow’s budgets for France, Great Britain and the United States were enormously increased.
At no time has any single Communist Party in the world managed to cover more than a very small percentage of its expenses. Moscow’s own estimate is that it must bear on an average from ninety to ninety-five per cent of the expenditures of foreign Communist Parties. This money is paid from the Soviet treasury through the O.M.S. in sums decided upon by Stalin’s Political Bureau.
The O.M.S. resident agent is the judge, in the first instance, of the wisdom of any new expenditure which a Communist Party wishes to make. In the United States, for example, if the Political Bureau of the American Communist Party contemplates the publication of a new newspaper, the O.M.S. agent is consulted. He considers the suggestion, and if it merits attention he communicates with the O.M.S. headquarters in Moscow. From there, in important cases, it is referred to the Political Bureau of the Russian Bolshevik Party for decision. In minor matters, of course, the O.M.S. representative has wide discretion.
One of the favorite methods of transmitting money and instructions from Moscow to a foreign country for the use of the local Communist Party is through the diplomatic pouches, which are immune from search. For this reason the O.M.S. representative is usually employed in a nominal capacity in the Soviet Embassy. From Moscow he receives, in packages bearing the seal of the Soviet government, rolls of bank notes together with sealed instructions for their distribution. He personally delivers the roll of bills to the Communist leader, with whom he maintains direct contact. Through carelessness, American, British and French bank notes have several times been sent abroad for Comintern use bearing the telltale stamp of the Soviet State Bank.
In the first years of the Comintern the financing was done even more crudely. I recall a time when the procedure was for the Political Bureau to order the Cheka (Ogpu) to deliver sacks of confiscated diamonds and gold to the Comintern for shipment abroad. Still other methods have since been developed. Convenient blinds are the Soviet Trading Corporations, such as the Arcos in London and the Amtorg in the United States, and connected private business firms. The constant displacement of leaders in the foreign Communist Parties presents its own special problem to the O.M.S. in its monetary operations. When Moscow supplanted the leadership of the German Communist Party, after the failure of the 1923 uprising, Mirov-Abramov, the O.M.S. agent in Germany, as well as Piatnitsky in Moscow, spent many anxious hours wondering whom they could now trust with Comintern money. It was a relief to them when Wilhelm Pieck was retained in the new Central Committee, for both Piatnitsky and Mirov-Abramov trusted this veteran labor leader.
Mirov-Abramov, whom I knew for many years, was the O.M.S. representative in Germany from 1921 to 1930. Officially he worked in the press department of the Soviet Embassy in Berlin. Actually he directed the distribution of money and the transmission of Comintern instructions throughout Germany and the greater part of Central Europe. At the height of the Comintern’s German drive, Mirov-Abramov employed a staff of more than twenty-five assistants and couriers. Later he was recalled to Moscow to work as Piatnitsky’s assistant. When the old Bolshevik general staff of the Comintern was liquidated by Stalin, Mirov-Abramov together with Piatnitsky were removed. Because of his exceptional underground contacts in Germany, Mirov-Abramov was then transferred to the Soviet Military Intelligence where he served until 1937, when he was shot in the great purge. Absurdly enough, when Yagoda, the fallen chief of the Ogpu, was tried the following year, he declared on the witness stand that he had sent large sums of money through Mirov-Abramov to Trotsky.
Managing the finances of the Comintern and its foreign section is only a small part of the tasks of the O.M.S. It functions also as the nervous system of the Comintern. Envoys dispatched by Moscow as political commissars to the Communist Parties of foreign countries establish all their contacts through the O.M.S., which furnishes them with passports, directs them to “reliable” addresses, and generally acts as the permanent liaison staff between the home offices in Moscow and these political agents abroad.
A notable Comintern Commissar for the United States some years ago was the Hungarian Communist, Pogany, known in this country as John Pepper. His primary mission here was to remove Lovestone and Gitlow, the leaders of the American Communist Party, after they had won a vote of confidence from the vast majority of the party members. Pogany-Pepper carried out his orders, and installed a new high command for the American Communist Party. Pepper himself was arrested in Moscow in 1936 and shot.
The passport division of the O.M.S., unlike the Ogpu and Military Intelligence, does not actually manufacture passports. It gets genuine documents whenever possible and doctors them according to requirements. In obtaining passports it draws upon the fanatical zeal of Communist members and sympathizers. If the O.M.S. representative in the United States requires two American passports for Comintern agents in China, he communicates with his man in the American Communist Party. This latter obtains genuine United States passports from party members or sympathizers. The O.M.S. staff then removes the photographs, substitutes others and skillfully makes the other necessary changes.
Moscow has always been fond of American passports. In another connection I have described the part they played in the Spanish Civil War. It is not unusual for the O.M.S. representative or Ogpu agents to send batches of American passports to Moscow, where the central O.M.S. office has a staff of about ten people engaged in fixing such documents according to the Comintern’s needs.
In 1924 the Berlin police raided the O.M.S. headquarters there, and seized a batch of German passports, together with files listing the names of their original owners, the true names of the Comintern agents then using them, and the fictitious names with which they were traveling. For such reasons of course a genuine passport is much preferred.
In 1927 the Comintern and the Ogpu sent Earl Browder to China. I do not know why Browder was chosen for the mission, but I believe the main reason was his American passport. I am reminded in this connection of a conversation I had with Piatnitsky. He had a man working for him named Lobonovsky, whose incompetence was always the subject of anecdotes in our circle. I would often run into Lobonovsky in one of the capitals of Europe as he scurried about on seemingly important missions. Later I had occasion to discuss him with Piatnitsky.
“Tell me frankly, Comrade Piatnitsky,” I said, “why do you keep that idiot on your staff?”
The veteran Bolshevik leader smiled tolerantly and replied:
“My dear young Walter, the question here is not Lobonovsky’s capability. What is important is that he has a Canadian passport and I need a Canadian for the missions on which I send him. No one else will do.”
“Canadian!” I exclaimed. “Lobonovsky isn’t a Canadian. He’s a Ukranian born in Shepetovka.”
Piatnitsky bellowed.
“What do you mean, a Ukranian born in Shepetovka! He has a Canadian passport. That’s good enough for me. Do you think it’s so easy to find a real Canadian? We’ve got to make the best of a Canadian born in Shepetovka!”
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