Biography

He graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1926, Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1930 and Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

 in 1936. Shortly thereafter, he found work with the U.S. government's Railroad Retirement Board

Railroad Retirement Board

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board is an independent agency in the executive branch of the United States government created in 1935 to administer a social insurance program providing retirement benefits to the country's railroad workers....

 and the Senate Civil Liberties Committee

LaFollette Committee

The LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee, or more formally, Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee Investigating Violations of Free Speech and the Rights of Labor , began as an inquiry into a National Labor Relations Board investigation of methods used by employers in certain industries to...

 as an attorney and investigator. In April 1937, he was appointed to the National Labor Relations Board

National Labor Relations Board

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...

 (NLRB) and was a legal assistant to Secretary of the NLRB Nathan Witt

Nathan Witt

Nathan Witt was an American lawyer who is best known as being the Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board from 1937 to 1940...

.

Witt had succeeded Harold Ware as leader of the underground Ware group

Harold Ware

Harold Maskell "Hal" Ware was an American Marxist regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture....

 of Soviet spies upon Ware's death in 1935. Witt placed Rosenberg in charge of a group of six to eight attorneys during a Congressional investigation into the questionable activities of the NLRB in 1938 and 1939. Rosenberg had been a member of the National Lawyers Guild

National Lawyers Guild

The National Lawyers Guild is an advocacy group in the United States "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . ....

 up to 1940 and was investigated by the Dies Committee

House Un-American Activities Committee

The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...

.

Rosenberg was a member of the Perlo group

Perlo group

Headed by Victor Perlo, the Perlo group is the name given to a group of Americans who provided information which was given to Soviet intelligence agencies; it was active during the World War II period, until the entire group was exposed to the FBI by the defection of Elizabeth Bentley...

 of Soviet spies during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In November 1943, Earl Browder

Earl Browder

Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...

 turned control of the group over to Jacob Golos

Jacob Golos

Jacob Golos, , was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary of ethnic Jewish heritage who became a secret police operative on behalf of the USSR in the United States...

 two months before his death and it subsequently was taken over by Elizabeth Bentley

Elizabeth Bentley

Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...

. While employed as the Chief of the Economic Institution Staff for the Foreign Economic Administration

Foreign Economic Administration

In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration was formed to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad. As described by the biographer of the FEA's chief, Leo Crowley, the agency was designed and run by "The Nation's #1 Pinch-hitter".S. L...

, Rosenberg allegedly supplied the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 with voluminous observations, recommendations, plans and proposals made by various government officials concerning the handling of postwar Germany. He also worked on the Board of Economic Warfare

Board of Economic Warfare

The Office of Administrator of Export Control was established in the United States by Presidential Proclamation 2413, July 2, 1940, to administer export licensing provisions of the act of July 2, 1940 . Brigadier General Russell Lamont Maxwell, United States Army, headed up this military entity...

 since 1941. Rosenberg's name appears in clear text in a December 1944 Venona decrypt as the source of a State Department memo. Rosenberg appears in the Venona project

Venona project

The VENONA project was a long-running secret collaboration of the United States and United Kingdom intelligence agencies involving cryptanalysis of messages sent by intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union, the majority during World War II...

under his real name.

External links

• Visit the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) for the full text of Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks containing evidence on Rosenberg's involvement in Soviet espionage
• ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE v. McGRATH (1951) Allan R. Rosenberg argued the cause before the U.S. Supreme Court
• 2 Lawyers Balk at Query on Red Cell Affiliations: Accused by Herbert Fuchs, Ex-NLRB Employees Use 5th Amendment at House Probe 21 February, 1956