Sergey Nikolaevich Kurnakov

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Sergey Nikolaevich Kurnakov or Sergei N. Kournakoff (Russian: Сергей Курнаков), a former tsarist cavalry officer who had immigrated to the U.S. and later became an ardent ideological Communist. Kurnakov was a journalist who wrote on military affairs for the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) paper, the Daily Worker, and other publications. Kurnakov served as a courier to various Soviet intelligence sources, and acted as both a talent-spotter and a vetter of potential recruits. Kurnakov was a highly active liaison agent.

He was the contact for Flora Wovschin's father, Enos Wicher. Kurnakov also took over Mary Jane Keeney who worked for the Board of Economic Warfare and later the United Nations from Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU). Her husband Philip Keeney, who worked for what became the OSS also was taken over by Kurnakov and the KGB.

Kurnakov was the contact between Saville Sax and Theodore Hall. Kurnakov reported Hall to have "an exceptionally keen mind and a broad outlook," and to be "politically developed." At their first meeting Hall gave Kurnakov a report he had prepared on the Los Alamos facility, the progress of the research, and the roles of the chief scientists working on the atomic bomb. Kurnakov immediately reported to KGB Officers Anatoly Yatskov and Stepan Apresyan on his meeting with Hall.

[edit] Venona

Sergey Kurnakov is referenced in the following Venona project decrypts:

833 KGB New York to Moscow, 10 June 1942; 929–930 KGB New York to Moscow, 17 June 1943; 936 KGB New York to Moscow, 17 June 1943; 952 KGB New York to Moscow, 21 June 1943; 985–986 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 June 1943; 1120 KGB New York to Moscow, 10 July 1943; 1251 KGB New York to Moscow, 2 September 1944; 1322 KGB New York to Moscow, 15 September 1944; 1404 KGB New York to Moscow, 5 October 1944; 1438 KGB New York to Moscow, 10 October 1944; 1449 KGB New York to Moscow, 12 October 1944; 1584 KGB New York to Moscow, 12 November 1944; 1585 KGB New York to Moscow, 12 November 1944; 1586 KGB New York to Moscow, 12 November 1944; 1699 KGB New York to Moscow, 2 December 1944; 1714 KGB New York to Moscow, 5 December 1944; 18–19 KGB New York to Moscow, 4 January 1945; 94 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 January 1945; 243 KGB New York to Moscow, 18 March 1945.

[edit] References

Sergei N Kournakoff, Russia's Fighting Forces. New York: International Publishing, 1942.
FBI Silvermaster file, serial 938 and 2661.
John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pgs. 179, 198, 259, 315.
Allen Weinstein, Bombshell, Los Angeles Times (28 September 1997).