Leonid Kvasnikov
Leonid Kvasnikov was born in Russia on 2nd June 1905. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Machine-Building in 1934. Kvasnikov worked as an engineer in a chemical plant. In the 1930s Kvasnikov had become interested in the theoretical prospects for creating an atomic weapon. (1)
In 1938 Kvasnikov joined the NKVD and the following year he became the section head of scientific and technical intelligence. During the Second World War he worked very closely with Pavel Fitin, the head of NKVD's foreign intelligence unit, who believed strongly that the Soviet Union needed to develop nuclear weapons. Fitin recruited Klaus Fuchs who was working on the Manhattan Project. Fitin gave the project the codename "Enormoz".
Kvasnikov constructed a group that included Fuchs, Theodore Hall, Harry Gold, Julius Rosenberg, David Greenglass and Ruth Greenglass. Progress was still slow and one report states: "If we work this slowly in future, the Germans and the Russians may be the first to use the bombs while we still don't have them." (2) Kvasnikov reported to Fitin in February 1944: "On 5 February, a meeting took place between (Harry Gold) and (Klaus Fuchs). Beforehand (Gold) was given a detailed briefing by us. (Fuchs) greeted him pleasantly but was rather cautious at first... with discussion (Gold) satisfied himself that (Fuchs) was aware of whom he was working with. (Fuchs) arrived in the (United States) in September (1943) as a member of the British mission on Enormoz. According to him, the work on Enormoz in the United States is being carried out under the direct control of the United States Army.... The whole operation amounts to the working out of the process for the separation of isotopes." (3)
Leonid Kvasnikov and Atomic Spies
On 8th May 1944 the NKVD station in New York City reported: "Fuchs advises that the work of the British in the United States is not meeting with success in view of the unwillingness of workers of the United States to share secrets with the British. It will be proposed to Fuchs that he should either return to England or work in the special laboratory-camp." (4)
Frustrated at the lack of success in the United States in October 1944 Fitin sent Kvasnikov to see if he could improve the situation. In November 1944 Pavel Fitin reported: "Despite participation by a large number of scientific organization and workers on the problem of Enormoz in the U.S., mainly known to us by agent data, their cultivation develops poorly. Therefore, the major part of data on the U.S. comes from the station in England. On the basis of information from London station, Moscow Center more than once sent to the New York station a work orientation and sent a ready agent, too (Klaus Fuchs)." (5)
On 8th January, 1945, Leonid Kvasnikov sent a message to Pavel Fitin about the progress he was making. "(David Greenglass) has arrived in New York City on leave... In addition to the information passed to us through (Ruth Greenglass), he has given us a hand-written plan of the layout of Camp-2 and facts known to him about the work and the personnel. The basic task of the camp is to make the mechanism which is to serve as the detonator. Experimental work is being carried out on the construction of a tube of this kind and experiments are being tried with explosive." (6)
Julius Rosenberg
Kvasnikov suffered a set-back when one of his agents, Julius Rosenberg, was sacked from the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, when they discovered that he had been a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). NKVD headquarters in Moscow sent Kvasnikov a message on 23rd February, 1945: "The latest events with (Julius Rosenberg), his having been fired, are highly serious and demand on our part, first, a correct assessment of what happened, and second, a decision about (Rosenberg's) role in future. Deciding the latter, we should proceed from the fact that, in him, we have a man devoted to us, whom we can trust completely, a man who by his practical activities for several years has shown how strong is his desire to help our country. Besides, in (Rosenberg) we have a capable agent who knows how to work with people and has solid experience in recruiting new agents." (7) Kvasnikov's main concern was that the FBI had discovered that Rosenberg was a spy. To protect the rest of the network, Rosenberg was told not to have any connection with other members of the network. However, the NKVD continued to pay him "maintenance" and was warned not to take any important decisions about his future work without Krasnikov's consent.
Hiroshima
The Soviet government was devastated when the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August, 1945. Allen Weinstein, the author of The Hunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America (1999): "On August 25, Kvasnikov responded that the station had not yet received agent reports on the explosions in Japan. As for Fuchs and Greenglass, their next meetings with Gold were scheduled for mid-September. Moscow found Kvasnikov's excuses unacceptable and reminded him on August 28 of the even greater future importance of information on atomic research, now that the Americans had produced the most destructive weapon known to humankind." (8)
Kvasnikov's boss, Pavel Fitin, wrote to Vsevolod Merkulov: "Practical use of the atomic bomb by the Americans means the completion of the first stage of enormous scientific-research work on the problem of releasing intra-atomic energy. The fact opens a new epoch in science and technology and will undoubtedly result in rapid development of the entire problem of Enormoz - using intra-atomic energy not only for military purposes but in the entire modern economy. All this gives the problem of Enormoz a leading place in our intelligence work and demands immediate measures to strengthen our technical intelligence." (9)
On his return to Moscow after the war Kvasnikov rejoined the scientific and technical intelligence section of the NKVD. In 1947 he was appointed head of the division. He held the post until he retired in 1963.
Leonid Kvasnikov died on 15th October 1993.
Primary Sources
(1) Leonid Kvasnikov report to Pavel Fitin (9th February, 1944)
On 5 February, a meeting took place between (Harry Gold) and (Klaus Fuchs). Beforehand (Gold) was given a detailed briefing by us. (Fuchs) greeted him pleasantly but was rather cautious at first... with discussion (Gold) satisfied himself that (Fuchs) was aware of whom he was working with. (Fuchs) arrived in the (United States) in September (1943) as a member of the British mission on Enormoz. According to him, the work on Enormoz in the United States is being carried out under the direct control of the United States Army.... The whole operation amounts to the working out of the process for the separation of isotopes.
(2) Leonid Kvasnikov report to Pavel Fitin (8th January, 1945)
(David Greenglass) has arrived in New York City on leave... In addition to the information passed to us through (Ruth Greenglass), he has given us a hand-written plan of the layout of Camp-2 and facts known to him about the work and the personnel. The basic task of the camp is to make the mechanism which is to serve as the detonator. Experimental work is being carried out on the construction of a tube of this kind and experiments are being tried with explosive.
(3) NKVD headquarters, message to Leonid Kvasnikov (23rd February, 1945)
The latest events with (Julius Rosenberg), his having been fired, are highly serious and demand on our part, first, a correct assessment of what happened, and second, a decision about (Rosenberg's) role in future. Deciding the latter, we should proceed from the fact that, in him, we have a man devoted to us, whom we can trust completely, a man who by his practical activities for several years has shown how strong is his desire to help our country. Besides, in (Rosenberg) we have a capable agent who knows how to work with people and has solid experience in recruiting new agents."
