Itzhak Akhmerov
Itzhak Akhmerov was born in Troitsk in 1901. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1919 and received a university education. He graduated from the School of International Relations in 1930 and immediately was recruited into the NKVD.
In 1932 Akhmerov transferred to the foreign intelligence department and served in Turkey. Two years later he moved to China. In April 1934 he was sent to the United States where he posed as a foreign student. Adopting the name Michael Green he became the station chief in New York City. He later recalled: "Switching from the status of a foreign student to the status of an American in such a large city as New York was not difficult."
In 1936 he began living with Helen Lowry, the niece of Earl Browder, the leader of the American Communist Party. According to Allen Weinstein, the author of The Hunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America (1999): "Akhmerov found love and companionship in his new assignment when he met and married Helen Lowry... She worked alongside her husband, serving as a courier between legal and illegal stations while maintaining a Washington residence where Akhmerov met his sources."
In January, 1938, Akhmerov was informed of a new agent, Martha Dodd who had been living in Nazi Germany. "We inform you that our source Liza (Miss Martha Dodd), daughter of the former American Ambassador in Germany Dodd - is currently in your city. You should contact her after receiving a special cable. Her address: Irving Place, New York City. You should come to her early in the morning between 8 and 9 A.M." Akhmerov was told to say to her: "I want to give you regards from Bob Norman."
Akhmerov reported that Martha Dodd had started a relationship with the millionaire Alfred Stern, a supporter of the American Communist Party. "At present she has a fiance.... If Vinogradov reiterates his promise she will wait for him and reject the other man. Her fiance is Alfred Stern, 40 years old, Jew, a man with an independent material status who stayed in Germany a couple of years ago and helped the Communist Party financially.... She doesn't think her marriage would prevent her from working with us, though she doesn't understand completely what she should do."
Martha Dodd married Alfred Stern on 16th June, 1938. She wrote to Boris Vinogradov with the news: "You haven't had time yet to know that I really got married. On June 16, I married an American whom I love very much. I wanted to tell you a lot, but I will wait until our meeting. We are supposed to be in the USSR in late August or early September this year. I hope you'll be there or will let me know where I can meet you. You know, honey, that for me, you meant more in my life than anybody else. You also know that, if I am needed, I will be ready to come when called. Let me know your plan if you get another post. I look into the future and see you in Russia again. Your Martha." Dodd was unaware that Vinogradov had already been arrested and executed as a "traitor to the motherland".
Itzhak Akhmerov reported on 1st December, 1938: "Since Liza (Martha Dodd) became the wife of a millionaire, her everyday life has changed considerably. She lives in a rich apartment on 57th Street, has two servants, a driver, and a personal secretary. She is very keen on her plan to go to Moscow as the wife of the American Ambassador." He pointed out that Stein was willing to contribute $50,000 to the Democratic Party in order to get the post but he considered "his chances are still very weak."
After the Second World War Akhmerov returned to the Soviet Union and became deputy chief of the KGB's "illegal" intelligence section. He attained the rank of colonel.
Itzhak Akhmerov died in 1976.
Primary Sources
(1) Message from NKVD to Itzhak Akhmerov (January, 1938)
We inform you that our source Liza (Miss Martha Dodd), daughter of the former American Ambassador in Germany Dodd - is currently in your city.
You should contact her after receiving a special cable. Her address: Irving Place, New York City. You should come to her early in the morning between 8 and 9 A.M. and say: "I want to give you regards from Bob Norman."
(2) Itzhak Akhmerov, memo (15th June, 1938)
At present she has a fiance.... If Vinogradov reiterates his promise she will wait for him and reject the other man. Her fiance is Alfred Stern, 40 years old, Jew, a man with an independent material status who stayed in Germany a couple of years ago and helped the Communist Party financially.... She doesn't think her marriage would prevent her from working with us, though she doesn't understand completely what she should do.