Chapter One: Alex Gumberg—Hide in Plain Sight and Admit Nothing: Counter-intelligence analysis of the first Bolshevik influence agent
Book One: Refuting James Libbey’s Gumberg Biography; Chapter One—Introduction and Overview
James K. Libbey's biography, Alexander Gumberg & Soviet-American relations, 1917-1933, published in 1977, is the only full-length reference work on Alexander Semyonovich Gumberg, an important, but astonishingly ignored historical personality. From 1917 until his death in 1939, Alexander Gumberg played a crucial and pivotal role in relations between revolutionary Bolsheviks, and then the Soviet regime, and US business, society, and government. From the early days of the Bolshevik coup/revolution, to the first decades of the Soviet government, Gumberg was a Gump-like figure, popping up at many crucial points in the development of Soviet/American relations.
Alexander Gumberg, Petrograd, Russia, 1918, accompanying Raymond Robins, the head of the American Red Cross Mission as his guide/translator/secretary, at a Bolshevik public event.
Alexander Gumberg, in Brief
Alexander Gumberg was the original Soviet covert influence espionage operator against the USA. He conducted covert influence, under the direction of Trotsky and Lenin, against the government, corporations, and public of the USA, beginning weeks before the Bolsheviks seized power from Kerensky’s Provisional government. He controlled and shaped the information and messages received by American government officials, journalists, and propagandists, throughout the first months of the Revolution. A tireless operator, under the cover of guide/secretary/translator, Gumberg influenced the quasi-official, de facto US government negotiators, the American Red Cross delegation, led by Raymond Robins.
Raymond Robins, 7th from left. American Red Cross Mission to Russia en route to Petrograd via Trans-Siberian Railroad. All are in Red Cross “military" uniform. Summer 1917. Eventually, Robins was the head of the Mission, and a de facto American government representative, negotiating with the Bolsheviks. Gumberg was Robins’ guide/translator/secretary during the Revolution.
In addition, Gumberg ran operations against the handful of American journalists and authors present in Russia as the revolution happened—John Reed, Albert Rhys-Williams, Louise Bryant, and Bessie Beatty, and others. Their contemporary reports, articles and analysis shaped the initial American opinion of the Bolsheviks. Their later books, speeches, and public defenses of the Bolsheviks laid the groundwork for the information warfare strategy American supporters of communism would use for the next 80 years.
John Reed, American journalist, Communist, Bolshevik collaborator. Gumberg was his guide/translator during the Revolution.
Gumberg also ran operations against America’s first propaganda agency, George Creel’s Committee on Public Information, whose Russia division was led by Edgar Sisson. Sisson’s brief adventure in Bolshevik territory ended with his apparently triumphal return to the US with a sheaf of documents in hand—the Sisson Papers—which purported to show the Bolsheviks were German agents. The papers were forgeries (apparently provided by Gumberg). The revelation of the forgeries destroyed polite consideration of the German link to the Bolsheviks (although the Bolsheviks were, in fact, funded and supported by the Germans through an operational cut-out--Dr Helphand, aka Parvus.)
Sisson Papers, Gumberg, while serving as Sisson’s guide/translator, provided the documents to Sisson, the Russia section head of the American propaganda group, Committee on Public Information. Documents were later shown to be forgeries. Gumberg had a major role in the elaborate covert influence operation. The revelation that the documents were fake resulted in terminating discussions that the Bolsheviks were “German agents.”
When Gumberg returned to the US, in the company of Robins and his Wall Street backers, he carried a trove of Bolshevik-provided documents. These documents, and others Gumberg collected in the next years, became the core source for the American academic Soviet Studies discipline. Gumberg donated the documents to the New York Public Library.
Gumberg was the consummate covert influence espionage operator. His operational objective was to influence American official, commercial, and public opinion regarding the Bolsheviks and the USSR in a direction that was profitable, useful, and successful for the USSR and its leaders. Gumberg used a variety of operational techniques and practices—personal influence, documentary forgeries, shrewd manipulation of his unique cover, and others. Gumberg’s presence in the center of the USA-USSR relationship, his successful manipulation of American policies, opinions, and business created the framework upon which the Cold War relationship was built. The USSR, a pitifully weak, devastated, starving, and morally bankrupt newly born nation led the only global super-power, the USA, by the nose for its own benefit. And the hand on the leash attached to the American nose was Alexander Gumberg’s.
Gumberg was a hustler. He was a man on the make. He tried to make himself a professional pharmacist, like his foster family's patriarch, Alter Siebel. He spent several miserable years chasing that dream--finally becoming licensed. But soon after achieving that goal, Gumberg transitioned to handling the business end of the socialist Russian language newspaper--Novy Mir—with offices in Greenwich Village, soon to be home to a stellar array of Bolshevik leaders.
Novy Mir (New World), Gumberg worked as Publisher, or Business Manager, for the Socialist/Bolshevik Russian language paper. Along with his brother Josef (aka Zorin), Trotsky, Bukharin, Kollontai, and many other Bolshevik leaders.
Gumberg was born and grew up in the same village in Russia as Trotsky and Zinoviev. Gumberg was seven years younger than Trotsky, and three years younger than Zinoviev. Elizavetgrad, now in Ukraine, but at the time of the revolution part of Russia. Just before Gumberg left for America, the village had a total population of around 30,000. Jewish residents made up around 9,000 of that population.
Gumberg's father did not immigrate to America. Growing up in a small town, dealing with strong anti-Jewish feelings, and actions, in the Russian population, nurtured revolutionary fervor, and forged tight, and lifelong, bonds among Elizavetgrad’s Jewish residents. The connections between the Gumberg family and their townmates, the Radomilsky family (Zinoviev’s true name), and the Bronstein family (Trotsky’s true name) paid off for all the Gumberg brothers. One Gumberg became a high-ranking Bolshevik, one brother did well as a technical expert, and Alex used his connections to build a career at the highest levels of communist covert operations against the USA.
Zinoviev’s high status is reflected in the fact that Elizavetgrad was renamed in his honor by the Bolsheviks. From 1924 to 1934, the Gumberg/Zinoviev/Trotsky hometown was known as Zinoviesk.
Leon Trotsky, Elizavetgrad native, Novy Mir colleague, Bolshevik leader. During the Revolution, Gumberg provided multiple Americans direct access to Trotsky, while translating for them.
Grigory Zinoviev, born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslskiy in Elizavetgrad three years before Gumberg, was another in Gumberg's tight Elizavetgrad circle. Zinoviev became the first head of the Comintern. Gumberg’s brother, Josef, also known as Zorin, became Zinoviev’s right-hand man, and rose to the top ranks of Bolshevik leadership. Analysis of the numerous connections with people from the Elizavetgrad Jewish diaspora that Gumberg maintained shows a deep and strong network--both in America and in revolutionary Russia.
Grigory Zinoviev, Elizavetgrad native, mentor of Zorin, Gumberg’s younger brother, Bolshevik leader, head of the Comintern.
Gumberg's foster family, the Siebels, in New York, were radical socialists from Elizavetgrad. His ethnic and village ties were the keys to Gumberg's later success. Gumberg was raised in, and the product of, a socialist/communist/radical political environment. From the time his ship docked in New York at 17, where he was picked up at the port by his socialist foster family, through his young adulthood, culminating in working at the Russian-language Trotsky/Bukharin-edited communist newspaper, all while assimilating into American culture, the arc of Gumberg's life is a perfect match for covert preparation to infiltrate and influence American society for the good of his communist comrades.
Gumberg’s Overt Role
Gumberg arrived in Russia, accompanied by many of the staff of Novy Mir, in the summer of 1917. He left New York at the same time Trotsky did, but Gumberg took the long route—via a trans-Canadian train, ocean liner to Japan, across to Vladivostok, and then across Siberia to Petrograd.
Libbey accepts and repeats Gumberg’s blatantly false cover story that he traveled to Russia as a “businessman”, representing “valve manufacturers.” The Bolsheviks did carefully prepare Gumberg’s “business” cover. The communist lawyer, Louis Boudin, prepared contracts between Gumberg and shady businesses, in case any ever challenged his story. But there is no evidence that Gumberg spent one second selling valves, or anything else in Russia.
From June 1917, through the early days of the Bolshevik coup, until he left Russia in the spring of 1918, Gumberg played the role of a friendly guide/translator/interpreter/secretary/assistant to a dozen or more American diplomats and pseudo-diplomats, professional and amateur intelligence operators, statesmen, journalists and propagandists.
After Gumberg returned to the USA, he continued to work for the Bolsheviks, in a variety of roles. But, until the end of his life, he continued to be the middleman between the Soviet Union and a dazzling array of American VIPs, including Senators and Congressmen, business and financial titans. The driving force behind his lobbying, however, was always about gaining advantages for the USSR.
Gumberg professed to non-socialist, and some socialist, listeners that he was a Russian-American who loved both countries, and only wanted to see his adopted country get along, cooperate, and do business with the “democracy” in Russia.
Missing Counter-intelligence Skeptical Analysis
Missing from Libbey’s exploration and analysis of Gumberg’s energetic operations was the point of view of a counter-intelligence professional. Which is not to denigrate Libbey and his capabilities. However, if a researcher concludes that his subject is not an espionage operator, it would probably be useful if that researcher had some experience with analyzing espionage operations.
Counter-intelligence analysis is the skill and experience required for this task. Even with skills and experience in this field, historical counter-intelligence analysis is problematic. Even experienced counter-intelligence operators and analysts are misled and mistaken in their conclusions, as many examples of missed and misunderstood hostile intelligence operations have demonstrated. However, the techniques of counter-intelligence analysis are powerful and should be applied to Gumberg’s case.
The key to such analysis is to keep a skeptical attitude. Skilled manipulators, as Gumberg was, work their way into the hearts and minds of their targets, and manipulate their marks for their own purposes. Gumberg’s papers are an extension of his manipulative personality and skills. Healthy skepticism, combined with researching other sources, will allow us to untangle the real Gumberg from his cover stories.
Libbey’s research should have included a critical examination and critique of all aspects of Gumberg’s bona fides. Instead, Libbey, and most succeeding analysts, take Gumberg and his supporters at their word regarding Gumberg’s background, intent, attitudes, loyalty, and other important characteristics. This work will not do that.
This work will examine all facts, data, details, associations, alliances, actions, deeds, words, and any other available in an attempt to reach an understanding of the truth of Gumberg’s character. This understanding is crucial to the historical record.
Gumberg was, and is, hugely influential in understanding and interpreting relations between the USA and the USSR. As has been recently recognized (Kain, 2011), Gumberg was the founding father of archives of Soviet documents in the US, in addition to his massive influence operations in American government and business on behalf of the Bolsheviks/Soviets. In effect, the source of the fraudulent Sisson Papers, who was in close proximity to other incidents of documentary and other frauds, provided the data dump of Bolshevik/Soviet documents that became the foundation of Soviet Studies in the US This might be problematic.
Counter-intelligence Vetting
A counter-intelligence-informed analysis of Gumberg requires skeptically reviewing his life, his work, his associations, his words, his deeds, his family, his environment, and any other data that could shed light on his attitudes and intentions. This data gathering and analysis, known as vetting, is the same work that should be done in intelligence agencies when a person is on-boarded as an employee, or as a contracted asset. Counter-intelligence vetting requires the analyst to have a skeptical, but realistic mindset. Statements by anyone cannot be taken at face value, or accepted as the truth. Each fact and piece of data should be examined, tested, and weighed against other facts and data.
Counter-intelligence is an art, not a science.
Soviet communists, the Comintern, and the KGB learned early in their history tactics to defeat Americana counter-intelligence when suspicions against one of their officers or assets were raised. Their tactic is best described as: admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations. A back-up tactic that adds power to the denials is for the spy to have powerful friends who vouch for his integrity, goodness, and humanity, and confirm the spy’s cover story.
A case study of this tactic at work is the infamous communist spy Alger Hiss. Hiss, whose perfidy was confirmed by the Venona transcripts, as well as by former comrades’ testimony, denied the fact of his work for Soviet intelligence to his grave, and accused his accusers of Red Baiting, Red Scare, McCarthyism, and other obfuscations. Hiss also had friends in high and powerful places who joined in that chorus. His friends, in government and the media, made counter-accusations for decades. The friends also testified to Hiss’s pure goodness and loyalty. Facts and data showed all Hiss’s and his friends’ protestations to be so much chaff and smoke. Hiss was a fully recruited Soviet communist asset. Hiss’s roles as a US diplomat included acting as an aide at the Roosevelt-Stalin meetings in Yalta, and performing duties as the Secretary General of the first meeting of the newly formed United Nations. It’s likely that Hiss’s roles allowed him to influence American policy in favor of his communist masters, which is a much more powerful covert action than just collecting secret papers.
The Hiss case shows us that references and assurances of innocence from high and powerful people, the support of friends and associates, or media protests and support are not necessarily indicators of truth in a counter-intelligence examination.
Identification of Gumberg as an Intelligence Operative
During research for a project examining the use of covert influence against the US by the Comintern and the KGB [Note: All Soviet and Bolshevik intelligence/security services are referred to herein as the KGB, to simplify and clarify terminology. Please see other sources for the historical evolution of the names of the Bolshevik/Soviet security agencies.], I first ran across mentions of Alexander Gumberg. I found records of him and his activities during the Bolshevik coup against the Russian Provisional Government in 1917 in numerous sources. Further research revealed that Gumberg continued working with, and for, KGB and Soviet officials after he returned to the US in 1918.
As I dug into more and more sources, the revelations of the scope, power, and targets of Gumberg's operational activities were breath-taking. Sources revealed that Gumberg ran operations against nearly every official and unofficial American of importance in Russia from late summer 1917 until he returned to the US in late spring 1918. But his operations did not end there. Gumberg continued to run transparently obvious Bolshevik/Soviet intelligence influence operations for another twenty years--many times working directly for Soviet intelligence and other official agencies or persons—until his death in 1939, during the wave of Stalin’s purges and assassinations of Trotskyites around the world.
Received Wisdom at Odds with Facts of Gumberg’s Life
Early in my exploration of Gumberg, I realized that he was an important Soviet intelligence operative who had not been officially recognized as such. In fact, the received wisdom among academic historians, cultural commentators, and others who paid attention to the era and historical happenings was that Gumberg was a Russian-American who loved both countries and only wanted to bring the two together for their mutual benefit.
Covert Influence Operations: Foundation of Bolshevik Foreign Policy
My previous project, which was published as Willing Accomplices (2011), focused on the massive covert influence operations against the US run by Comintern genius Willi Muenzenberg. Gumberg's operations were parallel with, but separate from, Muenzenberg's operations. Each operator had a separate focus and goal, and separate Bolshevik/Soviet sponsors.
Muenzenberg's operations were designed to destroy American self-confidence, denigrate traditional American culture, and undermine the American spirit, in order to hasten the advent of what Marxist theorists viewed as the inevitable communist revolution in the US
In contrast, the goals of Gumberg's influence operations were much more down-to-earth and realistic. Gumberg's entire operational focus was on shaping and manipulating official and public views of the Bolsheviks and the newly-formed socialist Russian government. Through various phases, Gumberg ran operations to shape and control American views during the revolution; to discredit critics of the Bolsheviks; to plant disinformation about the Bolsheviks (as part of the denigration of critics of the Bolsheviks); to establish business, banking, and public affairs operations for the benefit of the Bolsheviks and the Soviets. The main thrust of Gumberg's operational activity focused on winning official diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union from the US government.
Gumberg’s Archived Papers
Research also revealed that, after his death, Gumberg's wife had left Gumberg's papers to the University of Wisconsin, where dozens of boxes sat in their archives. Searches revealed only one book devoted to Gumberg had been written, Libbey's biography. Libbey’s description of his research reveals that he used Gumberg’s papers as a major source for his book. Other researchers had dipped into Gumberg’s archived papers, but Libbey’s book, and his conclusions about Gumberg’s life and activities, are the basis of the received view of Gumberg among academics and researchers.
Libbey Accepts Gumberg’s Cover Story at Face Value
Reading Libbey's work during my Willing Accomplices research was a bit disconcerting. Even though I did not yet have a full understanding of Gumberg’s complete profile or his operations, Libbey's book still seemed somehow off to me. At the time, I made a note that I'd revisit Gumberg and Libbey, when time allowed. By relying, for the most part, on Gumberg's own papers to inform his views of Gumberg and his activities, Libbey played into the hands of Gumberg, the master manipulator.
Gumberg, in my analysis, the consummate covert operator, lived his cover for his entire adult life, using a most effective technique: hiding in plain sight. That is, an objective observer, at any time in Gumberg's life, would see who his associates were, and the activities he undertook, and quickly infer that Gumberg was a Bolshevik or communist operator. Hiding in plain sight just requires that the operator deny what observers see, and assert that they are mistaken. Recruiting a cast of supporters is vital in this effort. As Gumberg's life exemplifies, this tactic can be quite successful.
Gumberg had a large group of supporters who denied that Gumberg’s activities and operations were connected to official Bolshevik/Soviet equities in any way. Some observers will always objectively note that the emperor has no clothes, but the mass of people, for varying reasons, is happy to go along with the charade. Gumberg was the master of this highly sophisticated art of espionage operations. Gumberg’s papers are an extension of this tactic. While appearing to provide full disclosure, Gumberg’s papers continue to obfuscate and conceal. Even so, there are many clues in his papers, as I discovered in just one day working in the archives. The final section of this current work will be completed in the future, when I have the chance to fully explore Gumberg’s papers.
Gumberg and the Siebel Correspondence
As an independent researcher, with no financial support for research activities, I do research in my spare time, while still logging billable hours for consulting, or working full-time. Thus, I've never had the luxury of spending months in archives digging into primary sources. My approach in researching Gumberg was to mine secondary sources as much as possible and to use online sources like Ancestry.com to find immigration and other Gumberg documents. I was extremely lucky, in researching Gumberg, to find the Rev. Dr. Ray Cannata, who was searching for information on Gumberg to flesh out his own genealogy research. Cannata revealed that he had a collection of dozens of personal letters between Gumberg and the Siebel family, and among other members of the Elizavetgrad network.
Cannata’s ancestors, the Siebels, immigrated to Manhattan's Lower East side from Elizavetgrad, a small town in the Russian empire in the late 1800s. They maintained numerous and close relations with the Elizavetgrad network, in Russia, and in various places around the globe, including the US With apparently close ties between the Siebel clan and the Gumberg clan in Russia, the Siebels fostered Alex Gumberg when he immigrated to New York. Gumberg lived with various members of the Siebel family for several years. The relationship was made even closer when one of their daughters, Esther, became a romantic interest for Gumberg.
As Gumberg's professional activities took him away from the Siebel household, he kept in touch with Esther by mail. Their correspondence ended in 1917 when Alex sailed to take part in the Russian revolution. Esther shifted her romantic interest to another socialist, who became her husband.
Cannata discovered Esther's stash of correspondence after her death, in a crumbling cottage in a socialist settlement in the hills of New Jersey. Among Esther's letters were about a dozen from Alexander Gumberg, dating from August 1911 to May 1917. Other correspondence in the collection, letters exchanged among the Siebel family, from about 1908, also included family members’ mentions of Gumberg.
The last correspondence from Gumberg to Esther Siebel was a Russian postcard, sent on May 5, 1917, as Gumberg rode a train through Manchuria. Gumberg, in this last known message to the sweetheart he was losing, wrote: Going through Manchuria. All I can say about Russia, so wonderful. Every thing, Al.
April, 1917: Alexander Gumberg in Canada. Transcontinental train trip to catch a ship for the Bolshevik revolution. Sent in a letter to E. Siebel. Courtesy of Ray Cannata.
Libbey’s Flawed Conclusions
My research has compiled further sources on Gumberg and his operations. The more sources and bits of information I've discovered, the more I realize that the historical record of Gumberg, exemplified by Libbey's 1977 book, is horribly flawed. Libbey begins with a flawed thesis: that Gumberg was a Russian-American businessman who loved both countries. It appears that Libbey's book consistently ignores any evidence that might conflict with his foregone conclusion.
Gumberg: Original Bolshevik Covert Influence Operator
My conclusion, after compiling and analyzing extensive primary and secondary sources, applying counter-intelligence analytical methods, is that Alexander Gumberg was the original Bolshevik covert influence operator. Alex Gumberg applied his unique personality and interpersonal skills to manipulate American human targets in ways that benefited his Bolshevik/Soviet masters.
This paper is the first of a planned series of papers, which together will become a book, to present evidence of Gumberg’s life and operations in an attempt to capture the true essence of the man’s life work. Libbey’s book is the only comprehensive published work in the historical record that deals with Gumberg as its subject.
Because of the need to correct errors of omission and commission in Libbey’s research and conclusions, some parts of the present series will be direct refutations of Libbey’s work. During earlier research in 2011, I did reach out to Libbey. Libbey indicated that he had no interest in discussing Gumberg, or his work on Gumberg. I also emailed Libbey in early December, 2021, but as of publication, have not yet received a response.
Because of the importance of Libbey’s foundational work on Gumberg, and its prominence, combined with my analysis that his conclusions about Gumberg are wrong, much of the early sections of this paper will be devoted to refuting specific assertions and assumptions in Libbey’s book.
Willfully Blind and Ignorant
In publishing his biased, uncritical biography, Libbey acts as Gumberg's transcriptionist and co-conspirator. His work relies heavily on Gumberg's own papers, as well as those of Gumberg's contemporary co-conspirators--chiefly Raymond Robins, who was, as we'll show, a de facto recruited asset of Gumberg, spouting whatever line the Bolsheviks/Soviets needed at any given time.
Libbey fails to lend credence to, or to even consider, the points of view of other contemporaries, and later sources, who assessed Gumberg as a Bolshevik/Soviet agent. This bias allows Libbey to take Gumberg's papers at face value--ignoring the fact that the papers were left by a dedicated covert influence agent whose life was built on living under cover—hiding in plain sight, and never leaving a smoking gun at the scene of any crime. That is, the smoking guns were there, but ignoring them was facilitated by Gumberg and his supporters' all-purpose cover story: Oh, he was an apolitical businessman who loved both countries and wanted the best for both.
Communist Denialism
Libbey's comments and point of view are consistent with communist denialism, that is, the reaction of the camp of observers and commentators who excuse any fact, event, or observation that demonstrates communist/Bolshevik/Soviet malfeasance with a pat accusation of McCarthyism, or Red Scare. This attitude allows Libbey to neatly sidestep any evidence of Gumberg's deep connections to, loyalty to, and work for the Bolsheviks and later the Soviets. Regardless of the mountain of evidence of Gumberg's actions carried out for the benefit of the Bolsheviks/USSR, Libbey's communist denial point of view allows him to simply cite the Red Scare, and ignore the facts.
There are excellent case studies of this affliction: decades of denial of the facts of the Rosenberg espionage case. Decades of denial of the facts of the Alger Hiss espionage case. Even since the Venona messages (decryptions of intercepted operational messages between KGB headquarters and their operators in the US, which revealed the identities of recruited agents in the US) were published and identities of American agents of the KGB were confirmed, denialists continue to deny these crimes and misdeeds.
Sometimes, the denialism is manifested as justification, or excuse-making, or minimization of the actions of American agents of the KGB. A recent case study in this affliction is a book-length biography with a focus on Ernest Hemingway’s recruitment as a KGB asset (Reynolds, 2017). The book excuses, justifies, and minimizes Hemingway’s traitorous actions. As with many willing accomplices involved in writing or journalism, Hemingway’s betrayal of his country was not measured in secrets stolen, but rather in influence. He took part in a few Comintern influence operations, participated on the side of the KGB in the Spanish Civil War, and worse. This denialism is a potent force opposing efforts to discover and record the truth of Bolshevik/Soviet historical intelligence operations against the US
Aggressive Disinterest in Seminal Events of Gumberg’s Life
In his introductory biographical sketch of Gumberg, Libbey pronounces that little is known of Gumberg's personal life before he appeared on the scene in Revolutionary Russia in the summer of 1917. Libbey further asserts that this knowledge will never be available. Libbey's work is thus based on Libbey's self-professed and self-satisfied ignorance. That blind spot, and Libbey's lack of curiosity about the seminal events in Gumberg's early professional and personal life, dooms Libbey's efforts before he even begins.
In fact, there are many connections, events, and persons that flash warnings about Gumberg's early beliefs, and provide clues to his actual motivations. Some of these details were available when Libbey did his research and writing. Libbey studiously ignores and avoids any details that clash with his thesis that Gumberg was a loyal American citizen who just happened to have roots in Russia. Such details and indications abound, as we'll see in this paper.
New Sources: Gumberg's Roots and Personal Letters
Since Libbey published his work, a cache of personal letters written by and to Gumberg have been discovered. Gumberg's early life, family history and connections, beliefs, loves and hates, personal and professional timelines and details, personality quirks, his deep indoctrination and interaction with socialist/revolutionary milieu and mindsets, deep involvement in socialist and revolutionary activities in the USA and abroad, a suspicious trip back to revolutionary Europe and Russia in 1910, and much more are revealed in the letters between Gumberg, his foster family, and his romantic target, the young daughter of his foster family.
Gumberg Revealed: Issue-specific Series of Papers
To better explore the truth of Alex Gumberg, the current work is planned to be a series of papers, with each focused on a specific counter-intelligence issue that has been previously ignored, mis-interpreted, or otherwise mishandled.
Although there are numerous such issues, probably the most important of these is Gumberg’s brother, Josef Gumberg, also known by his Bolshevik alias, Sergei Zorin. Libbey mischaracterized and minimized Zorin’s true background and status in the highest levels of the Bolshevik/Soviet ruling class. It appears that this minimization of Zorin’s status empowered Libbey’s assessment that Alex Gumberg was just a concerned Russian-American businessman who cared for his family. Part Two of this series focuses on Zorin.
Following parts of this series will examine the truth of Gumberg’s cover for status for his appearance in revolutionary Petrograd—a neutral Russian-American businessman contracted to represent industrial valve marketers. This examination of Gumberg’s cover stories will include explorations of his past professional positions, his travel in the US and abroad before he appeared in Petrograd, and his post-revolution professional roles and activities.
This series will continue with additional exploration of other facets of Gumberg’s life and activities that provide counter-intelligence clues to the truth of his life and work. These include, but are not limited to:
· FBI analysis and conclusions on Gumberg’s true role and status;
· Analysis and conclusions on Gumberg’s true role and status of other contemporary observers—including Russians and Americans;
· Gumberg’s overt relationships with Bolshevik/Soviet intelligence and security professionals;
· Gumberg’s work for Soviet organizations, both overt and covert; Gumberg’s overt and public intra-Bolshevik squabbles as an indication of his true status in the Soviet communist party;
· Gumberg’s life-long focus on obtaining the holy grail of Soviet interests—diplomatic recognition of the USSR by the US;
· Gumberg’s American targets, and agents, of influence working for the interests of the USSR;
· Gumberg’s Zinovievite/Trotskyite connections; and finally,
· Gumberg’s death by heart attack at fifty years of age at the crest of the wave of Stalinist assassinations, executions, and purges of Trotskyites.