George Koval

In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisAbramovichand thefamily nameisKoval.

George Koval
Born	George Abramovich Koval (1913-12-25)December 25, 1913 Sioux City, Iowa,U.S.
Died	January 31, 2006(2006-01-31)(aged 92) Moscow, Russia
Education	D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia(BS) Columbia University City College of New York
Awards	Hero of the Russian Federation
Espionage activity
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service branch	GRU
Codename	Delmar
Operations	Manhattan Projectinfiltration

George Abramovich Koval(Russian:Жорж (Георгий) Абрамович Коваль,IPA:[ˈʐorʐ(ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj)ɐˈbraməvʲɪtɕkɐˈvalʲ],Zhorzh Abramovich Koval; December 25, 1913 – January 31, 2006) was an American engineer who acted as aSoviet intelligenceofficer for theSoviet atomic bomb project.Koval's infiltration of theManhattan Projectas aGRU(Soviet military intelligence) agent reduced the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons.

Koval was born inSioux City, Iowato Jewish emigrants from theRussian Empire(nowBelarus). As an adult, he traveled with his parents to theSoviet Unionto settle in theJewish Autonomous Regionnear the Chinese border. Koval was recruited by the GRU, trained, and assigned the code nameDELMAR.He returned to the United States in 1940 and was drafted into the U.S. Army in early 1943. Koval worked at atomic research laboratories and, according to the Russian government, relayed back to the Soviet Union information about the production processes and volumes of thepolonium,plutonium,anduraniumused in American atomic weaponry, and descriptions of the weapon production sites. In 1948, Koval left on a European vacation but never returned to the United States. In 2007, Russian PresidentVladimir Putinposthumously awarded Koval theHero of the Russian Federationdecoration for his service.

Early life

George Koval's father, Abram Koval, left his home town ofTelekhany,Russian Empire(nowBelarus) to immigrate to the United States in 1910. Abram, a carpenter, settled inSioux City, Iowa,which, at the turn of the 20th century, was home to a sizeable Jewish community of merchants and craftsmen. Many of these settlers emigrated from the Russian Empire, in which Jews had beenruthlessly persecutedunder the czar's anti-Semitic policies andpogroms. Abram and his wife Ethel Shenitsky Koval raised three sons: Isaya, born 1912; George (or Zhorzh), born 1913; and Gabriel, born 1919.

George Koval attended Central High School, a red-brickVictorianbuilding better known as "the Castle on the Hill". Neighbors recalled that Koval spoke openly of hiscommunistbeliefs. While attending Central High he was a member of the Honor Society and the debate team. He graduated in 1929 at age 15. Meanwhile, his parents left Sioux City as theGreat Depressiondeepened. Abram Koval became the secretary for ICOR, theOrganization for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union.Founded by American Jewish communists in 1924, the group helped to finance and publicize the development of the "Jewish Autonomous Region",the Soviet answer toJewish emigrationto theBritish Mandate of Palestinethen being undertaken by theZionistmovement.The Koval family emigrated in 1932, traveling with a United States family passport.They settled inBirobidzhan,near the border of Manchuria.

The Koval family worked on acollective farmand were profiled by an American communist daily newspaper in New York City. The journalistPaul Novickwrote that the family "had exchanged the uncertainty of life as small storekeepers... for a worry-free existence for themselves and their children."While Isaya became a tractor driver, George Koval improved his Russian language skills in the collective and began studies at theMendeleev Institute of Chemical Technologyin 1934. At the university, he met and married fellow student Lyudmila Ivanova. Koval graduated with honors in five years and received Soviet citizenship.

Recruitment and espionage

Later, Koval was recruited by the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (Главное Разведывательное Управление), orGRU.By the time he received his degree he had left Moscow under orders as part of a subterfuge. He was drafted into the Soviet army in 1939 to explain his sudden disappearance from the city. Though his parents had relinquished their US family passport, Koval returned to the US in 1940,replacing a spy recalled duringStalin's purges.His code name was Delmar.Arriving inSan Francisco,he traveled to New York City and enrolled atColumbia University.According to Arnold Kramish, an American colleague he befriended and with whom he re-established contact in 2000, it was there that Koval assumed deputy command of the local GRU cell. This outpost operated under the cover of the Raven Electric Company, a supplier to firms such asGeneral Electric.Koval told coworkers he was a native New Yorker and an only child. He ingratiated himself with everyone he met.While Koval originally worked under a pseudonym, gathering information on toxins for use inchemical weapons,his handlers decided to have him work under his real name.

During the beginning ofWorld War II,Congress had re-introducedthe draft(conscription) in September 1940, and Koval registered for it on January 2, 1941. Raven Electric Company secured him a year's deferment from service until February 1942. According to historianVladimir Lota,Koval's handlers wanted him to steal information about chemical weapons and felt that he would not be able to do so while drafted. When the deferment expired, Koval was inducted into theUnited States Army.He received basic training atFort DixinNew Jerseybefore being sent toThe CitadelinCharleston, South Carolina.There, Koval served as aprivatein the 3410th Specialized Training and Reassignment Unit. On August 11, 1943, he was transferred to theArmy Specialized Training Program,a unit established in December 1942 to provide talented enlistees with an education and technical training.Koval attended theCity College of New York(CCNY) and studied electrical engineering. His CCNY classmates looked up to the older Koval as a role model and father figure who never did homework and was a noted ladies' man, never knowing about his Soviet education and wife.Colleagues recalled that he never discussed politics or the Soviet Union.

Atomic secrets

Oak Ridge workers operatingcalutrons.Koval's job as a health officer meant he had his own car and access to many sensitive areas of the facility.

The Specialized Training Program was dissolved in early 1944, as the progress of the war tipped in favor of the Allies; many of the CCNY classmates were transferred to the infantry, while Koval and a dozen others were selected for the Special Engineer Detachment. The Detachment was part of the covert project to design, engineer, and fabricate anatomic bomb—an American, Canadian and British initiative known as theManhattan Project.Koval was assigned toOak Ridge, Tennessee;at the time, project scientists were researchingenriched uraniumandplutonium-based bombs, with theOak Ridge laboratoriescentral to the development of both.The project suffered from a lack of human resources and asked the Army for technically qualified men.

Koval enjoyed free access to much of Oak Ridge;he was made a "health physics officer" and monitored radiation levels across the facility. According toFederal Bureau of Investigationrecords, the job gave himtop-secretsecurity clearance. At the time, project scientists discovered reactor-produced plutonium was too unstable for the intended bomb designs, and thatpoloniuminitiators (urchin)were needed for the necessary chain reactions to occur.Koval was charged by his handlers with watching Oak Ridge's polonium supply to transmit information about it through a Soviet contact named "Clyde". His information reached Moscow via coded dispatches, couriers, and the Soviet Embassy. Among the intelligence he sent was that Oak Ridge's polonium was being sent to another project site atLos Alamos National Laboratory.

Koval was transferred from Oak Ridge to atop-secret labinDayton, Ohio,on June 27, 1945, where polonium initiators were fabricated. The world's firstatomic bombwas detonated inNew Mexicoon July 16. Atomic bombs weredropped on Japanon August 6 and 9. The Soviet Union responded by increasing efforts todevelop its own atomic bomb.While the AmericanCentral Intelligence Agencyestimated the Soviets would not succeed until 1950–53, the first Soviet atomic bomb was detonated on August 29, 1949. The initiator for the plutonium bomb was, according to Russian military officials, "prepared to the 'recipe' provided by military intelligence agent Delmar [Koval]".

Later years

After World War II, Koval was discharged from the Army. He returned to New York and CCNY, where he received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering on February 1, 1948. Telling his friends he was thinking about taking a trip toPolandorIsrael,Koval secured a passport for six months' travel to Europe. According to the Russian publicationRossiyskaya Gazeta,he might have left because American counter-intelligence agents had discovered Soviet literature about his parentsafter being tipped off about the leak by a Soviet defector.He left by sea in October 1948 and never returned to his birth country.In Russia, he had left the Soviet military with discharge papers as an untrained rifleman and the rank of private. His foreign background and service record made him "a very suspicious character", he wrote to Kramish. Turned down for education and research positions, Koval turned to his old GRU contact, who secured him a job as a laboratory assistant at theMendeleev Institute.Eventually, Koval managed to obtain a teaching job there; his students often laughed at his foreign pronunciations for technical terms.

While other spies such asJulius and Ethel RosenbergandKlaus Fuchswere caught after the war, Koval apparently went unscrutinized for years. Among the reasons given for his maintained cover was that inter-service politics undermined efforts to perform proper security checks on employees. Another possibility is that the U.S. government chose scientific ability over clear records and political sympathies.In the 1950s, the FBI investigated his wartime activities and interviewed his former colleagues, leaving them with the impression that he might have been a spy.The matter was kept confidential for 60 yearsas the US was afraid of the damage that would result from the exposure of Koval's activities.

In 1999, Koval was living on his small pension in Russia and had heard that U.S. war veterans like himself could apply for Social Security payments. He applied. In 2000, the Social Security Administration's Office of Central Operations, Baltimore, Maryland responded with a one-sentence letter: "We are writing to tell you that you do not qualify for retirement benefits."

Koval described his 57 years of post-spy life living in Russia as "uneventful". His family knew he had done work for the GRU, but the subject was never discussed. He did not receive any high awards upon his return, a fact that bothered him. Bigger awards went to "career men", he told Kramish. However, he ended his correspondence by saying that he was not protesting his treatment; "[I am thankful] that I did not find myself in aGulag,as might well have happened. "Koval died in his Moscow apartment on January 31, 2006.

Koval's activities as a spy began to emerge after the publication of a 2002 book,The GRU and the Atomic Bomb,which mentions Koval by his code name and lists him as one of a handful of spies who evaded counterintelligence groups.On November 3, 2007, he received the posthumous title ofHero of the Russian Federationbestowed by Russian PresidentVladimir Putin.When Koval was honored, the Russian presidential proclamation stated, "Mr Koval, who operated under the pseudonym Delmar, provided information that helped speed up considerably the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop an atomic bomb of its own."HistorianJohn Earl Haynesargues that Delmar's contributions were exaggerated, as part of whatMichael Sulickdescribes as part of boosting Putin's "nationalist agenda".

Further reading

• Hagedorn, Ann (2021).Sleeper Agent: The Atomic Spy in America who Got Away.Simon and Schuster.ISBN978-1501173943.