AT THE AIRPORT?
It is a valid question, were they at the airport? One of the commenters on the original post, someone very knowledgeable in the art of photography, suggests otherwise, the thoughts raised were that this was a studio shot or shots that were later superimposed onto the airfield image. Shot or shots simply means that there were two individual images of the men which were then superimposed together onto the main shot. There is maybe a clue to that in what appears to be a second reference date of 6 03 47 shown in one reference on the back of this photograph. (RSE 47603)
The question raised other thoughts about the basis of the story of Fedosimov, the question is best posed by asking, how do we know that the man to the right of this image is Novikov? Think about that for a moment. and here's another question. How do we know that the man to the left of the image is Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov?
Answer 1, NOVIKOV
We know that the man on the right is Novikov not because we have dozens if not hundreds of newspaper articles or mentions in FBI files on the man but because what we have is dozens if not hundreds of photographs that link the name directly to them. It's the photographs that provide the proof.
Answer 1, NOVIKOV
We know that the man on the right is Novikov not because we have dozens if not hundreds of newspaper articles or mentions in FBI files on the man but because what we have is dozens if not hundreds of photographs that link the name directly to them. It's the photographs that provide the proof.
Answer 2, FEDOSIMOV
We know that the man on the left of this picture is Pavel Fedosimov because the good people at Pravda told us so. Full stop. There are no known images of Fedosimov from either before or after the main date shown on the image of April 25th, 1947.
In other words, we don't really know if the man shown is Pavel Fedosimov, we have no collaborative evidence to support that being the case apart from the mention by Pravda.
What we do have is evidence that suggests that Pavel left the USA bound for Russia in August 1948.
No Lightweight
Far from being a lightweight player in the spy game in those times, Pavel was a one-time handler for Klaus Fuchs and regularly mixed with his host country's senior Government officials including Harry Dexter White, code-named JURIST in the Venona files. Harry Dexter White also departed the USA in August 1948 but not for Russia, he died on August 16th. 1948. Apparently, he died of an overdose of Digitalis, the medication he was taking for an ongoing heart condition. His death occurred two days after the HUAC hearings whilst he was preparing to give further evidence to that inquiry.
Followers of the Somerton Man case will know that Digitalis poisoning was long considered to have been the likely cause of death for SM.
So, the bottom line is that it's essential that we find photographs of the man in this image known as Pavel Fedosimov and dated after November 1948 in order to show whether or not he was, in fact, the Somerton Man. Words alone cannot suffice.
Well, it's certainly a puzzle picture, I'm assuming that 25 April 1947 is the date of the photo, that's also assuming that it's a "real" photo. Novikov flew back to Moscow,by SAS, on 13 Mar 1947 and he was in Chicago, giving an address, on 19 June 1947. The question about this photo, one of the questions anyway, is why are the pilots(?),on Novikov's left side, hardly visible, it's true they would not have been in focus, but the light in the photo seems false. And why the remark on the back of the photo, Novikov-full length? Clive
ReplyDeleteFollowing up on Fedosimov and his high-level involvement in the Atom Bomb espionage rings. His name appears in numerous Venona cables of which the first below is possibly the most significant:
ReplyDeleteJune 16th 1944. Pavel Fedosimov wrote in a Venona cable: 'VOGEL has supplied two secret plans of the ENORMOZ plant' ENORMOZ being the code name for the Atom Bomb project mainly housed at Los Alamos but with labs situated in various locations in the US.
VOGEL, later codenamed PERS is thought to have been Sir Rudolf Peierls, a high ranking, German-born British citizen who was a long time friend and colleague of Klaus Fuchs.
VENONA: May 1944 "telegraph a reply to No. 139 and advise about the possibility of a meeting with KANT." Sent by Fedosimov. KANT is thought to have been the code name for Henry Magdoff
Fedosimov replaced Russian Rezident Stepan Apreysan in 1945 as the NKVD rezident.
Fedosimov also handled Donald Maclean when he visited New York He is also believed to have been the handler for an agent code named as SMART.
Found the following on Google: "The Venona Story-NSA.gov". Makes very interesting reading about the Soviets and their agents in the USA in the 1940's. One particular statement, amongst many, was the fact that even on the diplomatic list of Soviets citizens, not all their names were true! Which puts into question the real identity of "Fedosimov" in this photo. Clive
ReplyDeleteThe use of false names was certainly known at the time and the additional information hat you've provided adds greater weight to the the position outlined in this post. We do not have any confirmation that the man shown is Pavel Fedosimov, we do know that a man of that name was a spy and a major player at that.
DeleteIt's more than strange that there is only one known photograph of Pavel at this time. There was nothing found before 1948 and there has been nothing since that we have been able to find. This could change in September when the CIA release the next batch of photos from the period.
Just a follow up on your post, another point I forgot to mention. Fedosimov departed New York on 31 July 1948 on the Soviet ship "Pobeda". A coincidence that White died less than 3 weeks later? Fedosimov was amongst a group of Soviets recalled to Moscow. Clive
ReplyDeleteThanks Clive, By an amazing coincidence, HDW died two weeks to the day after Fedosimov left the US on the Pobeda.
DeleteThe House Un-American Activities Committee was questioning many people who were thought to belong to or be supportive of the communist party in the USA in the post war years. Amongst these were numerous Film Directors ( The Holywood Ten) Whitaker Chambers, Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White.
ReplyDeleteHDW suffered a heart attack part way through his appearance and subsequently suffered a second heart attack and died. The cause of death was an overdose of Digitalis, a drug familiar to followers of the Somerton Man case as it was thought that it could have been the cause of SMs death.
I'm 99.9% certain that the date of 25 April 1947 is indeed, the date that Novikov arrived back in New York via Paris, from Moscow, as per U.S. newspapers. Clive
ReplyDelete