Whittaker Chambers

From Witness, Whittaker Chambers 1952

. . . I began to break with Communism in 1937. I deserted from the Communist Party about the middle of April, 1938.

At that time, I was living with my family in one of the sober old double brick houses that stand above Mount Royal Terrace, in Baltimore, and are reached from the street level by flights of dark stone steps. It was then a somewhat faded street, but we loved it for its spaciousness and its overarching elms. When I deserted from the Communist Party, I took into hiding with me my wife, my five-year-old daughter and my son, who was about two years old.

I use the word �deserted� deliberately. The members of the Communist Party are bound by a seminilitary discipline which each man and woman agrees to submit to when e joins the party. It is a mistake to suppose that this discipline is an arbitrary strait jacket. This discipline is a Communist�s pride. It means that each of his acts is a contribution to the total action of an army. It means that a small group of disciplined men and women, acting as one, can accomplish feats impossible to undisciplined groups many times their numerical strength. Every Communist shares this organic sense of functional solidarity and effectiveness, which is the emotional root of the slogan: �There is no fortress that the Bolsheviks cannot take.� It is misleading, too, to call this discipline the action of a flock of sheep following a leader. The discipline is effective because, in the first instance, it is self-imposed.

I also use the term �deserted� in its simple military sense. At the time I broke with the Communist Party, I was the contact man between a powerful Soviet espionage apparatus in Washington and my superior in New York City. Each of us was a link of unequal size in the invisible chain of Communist command that lades the world.

My superior was Colonel Boris Bykov, a Russian officer of the Fourth Section (military intelligence) of the Red Army. At the time, and for some time after I broke, I did not know whether I was working in the Fourth Section or the Foreign Section (military intelligence) of the Red Army. At that time, and for some time after I broke, I did not know whether he was working in the Fourth Section or the Foreign Section of the G.P.U.* (the Soviet secret police). During the six years that I worked underground, nobody ever told me what service I had been recruited into, and . . . I never asked.   (Etc.)

      * Later the N.K.V.D.. Later still the M.V.B. Throughout this book I use the term B.P.U., the term most familiar to me.

I did not know the identity of the apparatus I was working in. Nor, during all the time that I worked with him, did I know Colonel Bykov by that name. I first learned it from General Walter Krivitsky, the former head of the Fourth Section in Western Europe, when we later met in New York as fugitives from the Communist Party, from which each of us had deserted independently. Krivitsky had worked underground with Bykov in Italy.

In 1937 and 1938, I knew Colonel Bykov as �Peter�—Peter, nothing more.   (Etc.)

By 1938, the Soviet espionage apparatus in Washington had penetrated the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Bureau of Standards and the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. In the State Department, it had two active sources and two contacts that had not yet become active sources. In the Treasury Department, it had one active source and a contact who was used for a short time to watch and report o the active source. This contact later became a member of one of the underground apparatuses headed by Elizabeth Bentley. In the Bureau of Standards, the apparatus had one active course and one inactive contact. In the Aberdeen Proving Ground, it had one active source.

By active source, I mean a man who supplied the soviet espionage apparatus with secret or confidential information, usually in the form of official United States Government documents for microfilming. By an inactive contact, I mean a man who had been recruited into the Soviet apparatus for espionage purposes, but who, for one reason or another, was not transmitting information.

Seven of these Soviet apparatus workers were members of the American Communist Party. Two were fellow travelers.   (Etc.)

. . . the number of productive sources in the Soviet apparatus was small. But their activities were supported by a large number of apparatus people—photographers, couriers, contact men and people who gave the use of their homes for secret photographic workshops. The sources did not know that most of these people existed and very few of the non-sources knew the identity of the sources. None of the active sources knew of one another�s identity. I was the only man in the Washington apparatus who knew all of them and met them regularly or irregularly as the work required. Colonel Bykov knew the identity of all of them and had met all but two of the sources.

But the productive sources, though few in number, occupied unusually high (or strategic) positions in the Government. The No. 1 source in the State Department was Alger Hiss, who was then an assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State (etc). The No.2 source in the same Department was Henry Julian Wadleigh, an expert in the Trade Agreements Division, to which he had managed to have himself transferred from the Agriculture Department. He had done as at the request of the Communist Party (Wadleigh was one of the fellow travelers) for the purpose of espionage. The source in the Treasury Department was the late Harry Dexter White. White was then an assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury (etc). Later White became an assistant secretary of the Treasury, at which time he as known to Elizabeth Bentley. The source in the Aberdeen Proving Ground was Vincent Reno, an able mathematician who was living at the Proving Ground while he worked on a top-secret bombsight. Under the name Lance Clark, Reno had been a Communist organizer in Montana shortly before he went to work on the bombsight. The active source in the Bureau of Standards I shall call Abel Gross.

Thus, the group of active sources included : one assistant to the assistant Secretary of State; one assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury; a mathematician working on one of the top-secret military projects of that time ; an expert in the Trade Agreements Division of the State Department; an employee in the Bureau of Standards. The contacts included : two employees in the State Department and a second man in the Bureau of Standards.

In addition, the apparatus claimed the services of the Research Director of the Railroad Retirement board, Abraham George Silverman, whose chief business, and a very exacting and unthankful one too, was to keep Harry Dexter White in a buoyant and co-operative frame of mind. Silverman also passed on as �economic adviser and chief of analysis and plans, assistant chief of air staff, material and services, air forces,� into Miss Bentley�s apparatuses.   (Etc).

New York : Random House 1952.

Selected bibliographic

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whitaker Chambers ; forewords by William F. Buckley and Robert D. Novak. Publisher Washington, DC : Regnery Pub., 2001. Description xviii, 808 p. ; 21 cm. ISBN 0895267896 Language English Note Includes index.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Notes from the underground : the Whittaker Chambers-- Ralph de Toledano letters : 1949-1960 / edited and annotated by Ralph de Toledano ; introduction by Terry Teachout. Publisher Washington, D.C. : Regnery Pub. ; Lanham, MD : Distributed to the trade by National Book Network, c1997. Description xxiii, 342 p. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0895264250 (alk. paper) Language English Note Includes index.

Chambers, Whittaker Uniform Title [ Selections. 1989] Title Ghosts on the roof : selected journalism of Whittaker Chambers, 1931-1959 / edited and with an introduction by Terry Teachout Publisher Washington, D.C. : Regnery Gateway ; Lanham, MD : Distributed to the trade by National Book Network, c1989 Description xxix, 361 p. ; 24 cm ISBN 0895267659 : Language English

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Odyssey of a friend : Whittaker Chambers' letters to William F. Buckley, Jr., 1954-1961 / edited with notes by William F. Buckley, Jr. ; foreword by Lance Morrow ; epilogue by Ralph de Toledano. Publisher Washington, D.C. : Regnery Books ; New York, NY : Distributed to the trade by Kampmann, c1987. Description 352 p. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0895265672 : 0895267888 (pbk.) : Language English Note Reprint. Originally privately printed by National Review, 1969. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Odyssey of a friend; Whittaker Chambers' letters to William F. Buckley, Jr., 1954-1961. Edited with notes by William F. Buckley, Jr. Foreword by Ralph de Toledano. Publisher New York, Putnam [1970, c1969] Description 303 p. 22 cm. Language English Note Bibliographical footnotes.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whittaker Chambers. Publisher Chicago : Henry Regnery, 1969,c1952 Description 808 p. ; 21 cm. Language English Note Autobiographical. Includes index.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Cold Friday. Publisher New York, Random House [1964] Description xviii, 327 p. 22 cm. Language English Subject Norton-Taylor, Duncan. Format Book Library NRLF UCR SRLF UCLA UCSD CSL UCB

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whittaker Chambers. Publisher London : Andre Deutsch, 1953. Description 629 p. ; 22 cm. Language English Note Includes index.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whittaker Chambers. Publisher New York : Random House, 1952. Description 808 p. ; 22 cm. Language English Note Autobiographical. Includes index.

Regler, Gustav, 1898-1963. Title The great crusade / by Gustav Regler ; with a preface by Ernest Hemingway ; translated by Whittaker Chambers and Barrows Mussey. Publisher New York ; Toronto : Longmans, Green and co., 1940. Description xiii, 448 p. ; 21 cm. Language English Note Map on lining-papers.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Can you hear their voices? : a short story / by Whittaker Chambers. Publisher New York : International Pamphlets, [1932?] Description 31 p. : ill. ; 19 cm. Language English Note Cover title.

Salten, Felix, 1869-1945 Title The city jungle / by Felix Salten ; translated by Whittaker Chambers ; illustrated by Kurt Wiese Publisher New York : Simon and Schuster, 1932 Description [5] 262 p. : ill. ; 21 cm Language English Note Translated by Whittaker Chambers; illustrated by Kurt Wiese

Flanagan, Hallie, 1890-1969. Title Can you hear their voices? A play of our time, by Hallie Flanagan and Margaret Ellen Clifford, based on a story by Whittaker Chambers, published in the "New masses". Publisher Poughkeepsie, N. Y., The Experimental Theatre of Vassar College [c1931] Description vii, 70 p. front., plates. 20 cm. Series Vassar Experimental Theatre plays.

Salten, Felix, 1869-1945. Uniform Title [ Bambi. English] Title Bambi / by Felix Salten ; illustrated by Kurt Wiese ; [translated by Whittaker Chambers]. Publisher New York : Grosset & Dunlap : by arrangement with Simon and Schuster. c1931. Description 223 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

Salten, Felix, 1869-1945. Title Samson and Delilah, a novel, by Felix Salten; translated by Whittaker Chambers. Publisher New York, Simon and Schuster, 1931. Description 192 p. 21 cm. Language English Note Originally published 1928 as "Simson."

Tralow, Johannes, 1882-1968. Title Cards and kings, by Johannes Tralow; translated by Whitaker Chambers. Publisher New York : R. Long & R. R. Smith, inc., 1931. Description 3 p. L., 388 p. front. (port) 20 cm. Language English Note Translation of König Neuhoff. Subject Neuhof, The�odore Antoine, baron de, 1686?-1756 -- Fiction.

Bonsels, Waldemar, 1881- Title The adventures of Mario, by Waldemar Bonsels, translated by Whittaker Chambers. Publisher New York : A. & C. Boni, 1930. Description 239 p. illus. 24 cm. Language English Note "The illustrations are by Kurt Wiese."

Edschmid, Kasimir, 1890-1966. Uniform Title [ Lord Byron. English] Title The passionate rebel : the life of Lord Byron / by Kasimir Edschmid ; translated by Whittaker Chambers. Publisher New York : A. & C. Boni, 1930. Description 432 p. ; 22 cm. Language English Subject Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824 -- Fiction.

Salten, Felix, 1869-1945 Title Bambi, by Felix Salten, foreword by John Galsworthy Publisher New York, Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1929 Description 293 p. illus. 21 cm Language English Note "Translated by Whittaker Chambers, illustrations by Kurt Wiese." Illustrated lining-papers in colors

Werfel, Franz, 1890-1945. Uniform Title [ Abituriententag. English] Title Class reunion / Franz Werfel. Publisher New York : Simon and Schuster, 1929. Description 204 p. ; 20 cm. Language English Note Translated by Whittaker Chambers.

Mann, Heinrich, 1871-1950 Title Mother Mary, translated by Whittaker Chambers Publisher New York, Simon and Schuster, 1928 Description 335 p. 20 cm Language English Note Translation of: Mutter Marie

Salten, Felix, 1869-1945. Title Bambi : a life in the woods / by Felix Salten ; foreword by John Galsworthy. Publisher New York : Simon and Schuster, 1928. Description 293 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. Language English Note "Translated by Whittaker Chambers, illustrations by Kurt Wiese." "First printing in America, July, 1928"