J. Peters
Encyclopedia
J. Peters was the most commonly known pseudonym
of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was an ethnic Jewish journalist and political activist who was a leading figure of the Hungarian language
section of the Communist Party USA
in the 1920s and 1930s. From the middle 1930s, Peters was actively involved in the espionage
activities of the Soviet Union
in the United States, fabricating passports, recruiting agents, and accumulating and passing along confidential and secret information.
In October 1947, Peters was served with an arrest warrant
for alleged violation of the Immigration Act of 1924
, which required alien immigrants in America to possess a valid visa
. On August 3, 1948, while appearing under subpoena before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), Whittaker Chambers
, identified Peters as a spy. Later that month, Peters appeared under subpoena before HUAC but did not cooperate. He invoked the Fifth Amendment
and refused to answer sensitive questions. On May 8, 1949, Peters left for communist Hungary
to avoid imminent deportation
by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Peters remained in Hungary until his death in 1990.
, Ruthenia
, in the northeastern part of what was then part of the Kingdom of Hungary
. There were about 3,000 people in the town at the time of Sándor's birth, including a substantial number of ethnic Jews like the Goldbergers who had fled from official
and popular repression
in Tsarist Russia.
Many of the Jews of throughout the Kingdom of Hungary attempted to assimilate
into society by the adoption of local language and customs, speaking Hungarian rather than Yiddish and in general attempting to become, in the words of one scholar, "more Magyar than the Magyars themselves." Peters' biographer notes that this seems to have been the case with the Goldberger family, who apparently spoke Hungarian in the home and who gave all three of their sons — Sándor, József, and Imre — ethnic Hungarian names.
Like most Jewish families in Csap, the Goldberger family was poor, with Sándor's father working as a train brakeman
before leaving to join his wife running a restaurant. The family seems to have been secular rather than actively religious members of the Jewish faith
, although it remains possible that they held nominal membership in a local synagogue
.
In 1899 Sándor was sent to the large city of Debrecen
to live with his grandfather, where educational opportunities were brighter than those of Csap. Sándor attended and graduated from primary school and gymnasium
in that city. He apparently developed an affinity for the workers movement at a similarly early age, influenced by his grandfather and an uncle who were active participants in the railroad and machinist
unions
.
Following his graduation from gymnasium in 1912, Sándor decided to become a lawyer, enrolling in the law school at the University of Kolzsvár
in Transylvania
. He did not attend courses in that city, however, instead studying law on his own in Debrecen and returning only to take examinations. In order to support himself, Sándor worked briefly in an office job before taking a position teaching at the gymnasium in Debrecen.
With the coming of World War I
in the summer of 1914, Sándor Goldberger was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army
, receiving training in the infantry
. Sándor was selected for officer training and early in 1915 he received a commission as a Lieutenant
in the infantry reserve. Sándor was assigned to the Italian Front
, where he remained for the duration of the war.
ideas about the imperialist
nature of the war and touting the new social system in the process of being established in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Sándor was won over to the Bolshevik cause and, together with four former prisoners of war
released from Russian captivity in 1918, became one of the founders of the first local group of the Communist Party of Hungary in Csap.
During the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic
headed by Béla Kun
in 1919, Sándor served briefly on the governing council of Ung County. He managed to escape repression during the so-called "White Terror"
which followed the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet regime, apparently benefiting from the 1920 Treaty of Trianon
, which made Ruthenia part of Czechoslovakia
, a nation less inhospitable to radical political activists than the Hungary of Miklós Horthy
.
, concentrating his efforts in the party's Hungarian language section. Peters was a delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in Moscow in 1928 and was appointed head of the party's National Minorities Department in 1929.
By 1929 Peters (using the name "Joseph Peter" with no "s" at the end) was living in New York City and the Secretary of the Communist Party's Hungarian Bureau. He attended the CPUSA's 6th National Convention in March 1929 as the official representative of the party's Hungarian Bureau. He was also an alternate member of the governing Central Executive Committee of the party.
’ defection in 1938. He was sent to Moscow for training with the Comintern in 1931 and was made a senior intern in the Anglo-American Secretariat. Returning to the United States in 1932, the Central Committee assigned him to work in the secret apparatus where he remained until June 1938.
The secret apparatus under Peters carried out surveillance, exposed infiltrators, protected sensitive party records from seizure, and disrupted rival communist and leftist movements such as the Trotskyists. Another of Peters' duties included maintaining contact with the Ware group
in Washington D.C., and he took over direct supervision of that group in 1935. The head of the CPUSA Earl Browder
instructed Peters to cooperate with Soviet intelligence.
About 1936 Peters recognized that some members of the Ware group had potential for advancement within the government, so a decision was made to separate them from the group. Whittaker Chambers
became the courier between the GRU
and this group. The members separated included Alger Hiss
, Henry Collins and Lee Pressman
.
Peters (under the name "Alexander Stevens") was subpoenaed to appear before a congressional investigating committee. He refused to answer any questions and left prior to deportation procedures for Hungary.
In 1949, Hede Massing
testified during Hiss' second trial about meeting Peters and described her involvement in greater detail in her 1951 memoir.
In 1952, Nathaniel Weyl
, another member of the Ware Group, named Peters as head of that spy ring.
Peters is identified as assisting Soviet espionage in deciphered KGB cables and in the KGB documents listed in The Haunted Wood by Allen Weinstein
and Alexander Vassiliev
. Many years later, he was located by Weinstein in Hungary and interviewed for Weinstein's book Perjury.
In the 1980s, Peters wrote a secret Party memoir for the Hungarian party’s secret files, which become available to the public and forming an important basis of Red Conspirator by Thomas Sakmyster.
In Red Conspirator, Sakmyster concludes that, as far as the Ware Group and related secret groups relate to Peters, these were "conducted by largely on his own initiative... No Soviet agent ever served directly as his handler."
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was an ethnic Jewish journalist and political activist who was a leading figure of the Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
section of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
in the 1920s and 1930s. From the middle 1930s, Peters was actively involved in the espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
activities of 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....
in the United States, fabricating passports, recruiting agents, and accumulating and passing along confidential and secret information.
In October 1947, Peters was served with an arrest warrant
Arrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....
for alleged violation of the Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
, which required alien immigrants in America to possess a valid visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
. On August 3, 1948, while appearing under subpoena before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
, identified Peters as a spy. Later that month, Peters appeared under subpoena before HUAC but did not cooperate. He invoked the Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment may refer to:* Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights* Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, a referendum related to the Roman Catholic Church and other religious denominations...
and refused to answer sensitive questions. On May 8, 1949, Peters left for communist Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
to avoid imminent deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Peters remained in Hungary until his death in 1990.
Early years
Sándor Goldberger (or Alexander Goldberger) was born August 11, 1894 in the town of CsapChop, Ukraine
Chop is a city located in the Zakarpattia Oblast of western Ukraine, near the borders of Slovakia and Hungary. It is separated from the Hungarian town of Záhony by the river Tisza, and the city itself is designated as a separate raion within the oblast.-Demography:According to the Ukrainian...
, Ruthenia
Ruthenia
Ruthenia is the Latin word used onwards from the 13th century, describing lands of the Ancient Rus in European manuscripts. Its geographic and culturo-ethnic name at that time was applied to the parts of Eastern Europe. Essentially, the word is a false Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus...
, in the northeastern part of what was then part of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. There were about 3,000 people in the town at the time of Sándor's birth, including a substantial number of ethnic Jews like the Goldbergers who had fled from official
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
and popular repression
Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire
The term pogrom as a reference to large-scale, targeted, and repeated antisemitic rioting saw its first use in the 19th century.The first pogrom is often considered to be the 1821 Odessa pogroms after the death of the Greek Orthodox patriarch Gregory V in Constantinople, in which 14 Jews were killed...
in Tsarist Russia.
Many of the Jews of throughout the Kingdom of Hungary attempted to assimilate
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
into society by the adoption of local language and customs, speaking Hungarian rather than Yiddish and in general attempting to become, in the words of one scholar, "more Magyar than the Magyars themselves." Peters' biographer notes that this seems to have been the case with the Goldberger family, who apparently spoke Hungarian in the home and who gave all three of their sons — Sándor, József, and Imre — ethnic Hungarian names.
Like most Jewish families in Csap, the Goldberger family was poor, with Sándor's father working as a train brakeman
Brakeman
A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job it was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The advent of through brakes on trains made this role redundant, although the name lives on in the United States where brakemen carry out a variety of functions...
before leaving to join his wife running a restaurant. The family seems to have been secular rather than actively religious members of the Jewish faith
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, although it remains possible that they held nominal membership in a local synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
.
In 1899 Sándor was sent to the large city of Debrecen
Debrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
to live with his grandfather, where educational opportunities were brighter than those of Csap. Sándor attended and graduated from primary school and gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in that city. He apparently developed an affinity for the workers movement at a similarly early age, influenced by his grandfather and an uncle who were active participants in the railroad and machinist
Machinist
A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
unions
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
.
Following his graduation from gymnasium in 1912, Sándor decided to become a lawyer, enrolling in the law school at the University of Kolzsvár
Babes-Bolyai University
The Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca is an university in Romania. With almost 50,000 students, the university offers 105 specialisations, of which there are 105 in Romanian, 67 in Hungarian, 17 in German, and 5 in English...
in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. He did not attend courses in that city, however, instead studying law on his own in Debrecen and returning only to take examinations. In order to support himself, Sándor worked briefly in an office job before taking a position teaching at the gymnasium in Debrecen.
With the coming of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in the summer of 1914, Sándor Goldberger was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
, receiving training in the infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
. Sándor was selected for officer training and early in 1915 he received a commission as a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the infantry reserve. Sándor was assigned to the Italian Front
Italian Campaign (World War I)
The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol , the...
, where he remained for the duration of the war.
Europe
With the war coming to a close, Sándor returned to his hometown of Csap, where he came into contact with radicalized friends espousing MarxistMarxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
ideas about the imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
nature of the war and touting the new social system in the process of being established in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Sándor was won over to the Bolshevik cause and, together with four former prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
released from Russian captivity in 1918, became one of the founders of the first local group of the Communist Party of Hungary in Csap.
During the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
headed by Béla Kun
Béla Kun
Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...
in 1919, Sándor served briefly on the governing council of Ung County. He managed to escape repression during the so-called "White Terror"
White Terror (Hungary)
The White Terror in Hungary was a two-year period of repressive violence by counter-revolutionary soldiers, with the intent of crushing any vestige of Hungary’s brief Communist revolution. Many of its victims were Jewish.-Background:...
which followed the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet regime, apparently benefiting from the 1920 Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
, which made Ruthenia part of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, a nation less inhospitable to radical political activists than the Hungary of Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
.
America
Peters emigrated to the United States in 1924 and became an organizer for the Communist Party USACommunist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
, concentrating his efforts in the party's Hungarian language section. Peters was a delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in Moscow in 1928 and was appointed head of the party's National Minorities Department in 1929.
By 1929 Peters (using the name "Joseph Peter" with no "s" at the end) was living in New York City and the Secretary of the Communist Party's Hungarian Bureau. He attended the CPUSA's 6th National Convention in March 1929 as the official representative of the party's Hungarian Bureau. He was also an alternate member of the governing Central Executive Committee of the party.
Espionage
As organizational secretary for the Communist Party in New York state in 1930, Peters was put in charge of building an illegal apparatus, or network designed to support Soviet foreign policy. CPUSA and Comintern documents at the RGASPI archive in Moscow show that he headed the CPUSA underground apparatus from the early 1930s until Whittaker ChambersWhittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
’ defection in 1938. He was sent to Moscow for training with the Comintern in 1931 and was made a senior intern in the Anglo-American Secretariat. Returning to the United States in 1932, the Central Committee assigned him to work in the secret apparatus where he remained until June 1938.
The secret apparatus under Peters carried out surveillance, exposed infiltrators, protected sensitive party records from seizure, and disrupted rival communist and leftist movements such as the Trotskyists. Another of Peters' duties included maintaining contact with the Ware group
Harold Ware
Harold Maskell "Hal" Ware was an American Marxist regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture....
in Washington D.C., and he took over direct supervision of that group in 1935. The head of the CPUSA 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 :...
instructed Peters to cooperate with Soviet intelligence.
About 1936 Peters recognized that some members of the Ware group had potential for advancement within the government, so a decision was made to separate them from the group. Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
became the courier between the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
and this group. The members separated included Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
, Henry Collins and Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman was a labor attorney and a US government functionary publicly exposed in 1948 for having been a spy for the Soviet foreign intelligence network during the middle 1930s...
.
Peters (under the name "Alexander Stevens") was subpoenaed to appear before a congressional investigating committee. He refused to answer any questions and left prior to deportation procedures for Hungary.
In 1949, Hede Massing
Hede Massing
Hede Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. After the World War II, she defected from the Soviet underground...
testified during Hiss' second trial about meeting Peters and described her involvement in greater detail in her 1951 memoir.
In 1952, Nathaniel Weyl
Nathaniel Weyl
Nathaniel Weyl was an American economist and author who wrote on a variety of social issues. A member of the Communist Party of the United States from 1933 until 1939, after leaving the party he became a conservative and avowed anti-communist...
, another member of the Ware Group, named Peters as head of that spy ring.
Peters is identified as assisting Soviet espionage in deciphered KGB cables and in the KGB documents listed in The Haunted Wood by Allen Weinstein
Allen Weinstein
Allen Weinstein is an American historian, educator, and federal official who has served in several different offices. He served as the Archivist of the United States from February 16, 2005 until his resignation on December 19, 2008...
and Alexander Vassiliev
Alexander Vassiliev
Alexander Vassiliev is a Russian journalist, writer, and espionage historian living in London. A former officer in the Soviet Committee for State Security , Vassiliev is known for his two books based upon KGB archival documents: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, co-authored with John...
. Many years later, he was located by Weinstein in Hungary and interviewed for Weinstein's book Perjury.
Later years
After his return to Hungary in 1949, Peters served in official Party capacities without prominence.In the 1980s, Peters wrote a secret Party memoir for the Hungarian party’s secret files, which become available to the public and forming an important basis of Red Conspirator by Thomas Sakmyster.
Death and legacy
Peters died in Budapest in 1990, "barely noticed in Hungarian newspapers."In Red Conspirator, Sakmyster concludes that, as far as the Ware Group and related secret groups relate to Peters, these were "conducted by largely on his own initiative... No Soviet agent ever served directly as his handler."
Images
- "Photograph of J. Peters," by Martha Holmes, LIFE magazine, September 1, 1948.
Further reading
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
- Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era, Modern Library, 1999.
- Allen Weinstein, Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case. New York: Random House, 1997.