Victor Grayevsky is the man who made it impossible for the Left to deny Stalin's crimes.
he was the person who obtained the advance text of Khrushchev’s Secret Speech, the one delivered in February, 1956, the one that laid out the crimes of Stalin for the leaders of the Soviet Communist Party. That text was a turning point in the Cold War. Grayevsky gave it to the Israeli Embassy, where it was copied and sent to Israel. The Shin Bet intelligence service delivered it by courier to James Jesus Angleton, the head of CIA counterintelligence (and the CIA’s liaison with the Israelis), who gave it to CIA chief Allen Dulles, who gave it to President Eisenhower. The speech made headlines around the world, and Khrushchev’s revelations were vigorously exploited by the United States, shocking the Communist faithful. But even more importantly, the speech provided a clear window into the world of Soviet Communism for American analysts both in and outside the government. Until then, it was possible for intelligence analysts and foreign service officers to believe that the Soviet system wasn’t all that horrible.
He was what is called "a walk-in" --not a recruited spy, but someone who volunteered out of conviction.
It was only after his move to Israel shortly thereafter that Victor Grayevsky become involved in the world of espionage. The KGB recruited him, and for decades thereafter he pretended to be their man in Tel Aviv, while actually working as an Israeli double agent. He did his work so effectively that the Soviets awarded him the Lenin Medal.
But was anyone interested in his memoir? No, reports Michael Ledeen.
the most telling fact about Grayevsky came just a few years ago, after he retired. He decided to tell his story at long last, and wrote a memoir about his amazing life. You might have thought it would become an instant world-wide bestseller, but in fact he couldn’t find a publisher anywhere. By then, no editor was interested, and so far as I know his book didn’t even appear in Hebrew. It’s just one further example of the self-imposed ignorance that so afflicts us in this day and age.
From
The Telegraph we get this juicy tidbit:
His Soviet handlers in Israel were KGB officers working under diplomatic cover or posing as clergy from the so-called Russian Orthodox Red Church in Israel. His meetings with them took place in Russian churches in Jerusalem and in nearby forests. Before these meetings his Israeli handlers would often provide him with "authentic" documents to pass to the Russians.
That's a memoir I'd like to read. Curtsy:
Against the Grain.
