Usdin - Bureau of Spies: the Secret Connections between Espionage and Journalism in Washington

Reports from the first known spy in Washington's National Press Building started flowing into the Lubyanka, the headquarters of Soviet intelligence, in 1933. There was a symmetry and an invisible connection between the buildings. The elegant Lubyanka, originally built as the headquarters of a Czarist-era insurance company, dominated one side of a square in central Moscow a few blocks from the headquarters of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while the Press Building is four short blocks from the White House. It took five minutes to drive from the Lubyanka to the Kremlin. In the 30s a reporter could pick up a Coke in the lobby of the Press Building, hop into a taxi on 14th Street, and finish it in the Capitol rotunda before it warmed up. The Lubyanka and the Press Building were wired with state-of-the-art telecommunications technology; both buildings buzzed around the clock as their inhabitants struggled to stay on top of news streaming in from around the globe.

The parallels between the headquarters of the Obyedinyonnoye gosudarstvennoye politicheskoye upravleniye (OGPU), as Soviet intelligence was called at the time, and the home base for the Washington press corps echo the real affinities as well as the misleading resemblances between journalism and espionage. A glance inside the two buildings revealed the essential differences. In 1933 there was a newsstand in the lobby of the Press Building, the National Press Club occupied its top floors, and the dozen floors in the middle contained the largest concentration of reporters in the United States, probably the world. In the Lubyanka's basement cells the innocent were starved, beaten, and shot, while above them thousands of employees worked for the world's largest, and arguably most ruthless, intelligence organization.

In contrast to the heavily guarded Lubyanka, the Press Building, designed and built to provide modern offices in the nation's capital for the world's news media, has always been open to the public. This accessibility created a constant flow of humanity that provided excellent cover for espionage. The tens of thousands of journalists who have worked and played in the Press Building over the last nine decades camouflaged a sprinkling of professional spies who pretended to be reporters and of real reporters who, motivated by ideology, patriotism, a longing for adventure, or greed, collaborated with foreign and domestic intelligence agencies.

The OGPU's first known operative in the building was Robert S. Allen, an American reporter who dabbled in espionage but was not a professional spy. He worked from an office on the 12th floor and was identified in an initial report to OGPU headquarters in January 1933 by the codename Sh/147. Subsequent reports used the cover name George Parker. A fixture at the Press Club, at Washington dinner parties, and on the pages of America's most prestigious newspapers, Allen produced a continuous stream of information and gossip that was essential reading for anyone interested in American politics, whether they were in Minneapolis or Moscow. Equally important to the almost infinitely patient Soviet spymasters, he was well positioned both to gain access over time to tightly guarded secrets and to identify other potential agents.

Allen's Soviet handler provided his superiors in Moscow a thumbnail sketch of the new recruit's career, starting with a description of Washington Merry-Go-Round, a book Allen co-wrote in 1931. The OGPU officer penned a summary that would have made a great dust-jacket blurb: The characters he depicts in the book are a reflection of the pettiness and emptiness of many of Washington's current Republican congressmen and Cabinet members.

Allen knows most of the lawmakers and cabinet members, and also has extensive contacts in all of the departments of the US government, the OGPU report noted. It highlighted his friendship with Raymond Moley, the head of Roosevelt's brain trust. Moley coined the term New Deal and served during the transition as FDR's de facto chief of staff. Allen, his Soviet handler stated, also knows Roosevelt himself, as well as the House majority leader and is a valuable contact, especially bearing in mind Roosevelt's future administration.

As in most real spy stories, many of the details of Allen's espionage career are unknown and will probably never be uncovered. The name of his OGPU handler isn't revealed in the fragmentary records about Allen that have leaked out of the KGB's archives. Not clear are how Allen linked up with the OGPU, the full scope of his espionage, and what motivated him to spy for the Soviet Union.