Sunday 28 July 2019

SOMERTON MAN: SPIES, HAVOC, DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE ON FEDOSIMOV'S JOURNEY TO THE MOTHERLAND


THE VOYAGE OF THE 

RUSSIAN MOTOR VESSEL 

POBEDA




The POBEDA, the ship that supposedly carried Pavel Fedosimov from New York, departed on 31st July 1948. It was bound, via a number of stops, for Odesa in the Black Sea.

The passengers on that ship included several recalled Russian 'diplomats' and a certain Chinese gentleman, FENG YU XIANG, one time War Minister of the Republic of China. He was en-route to meet with Mao Zedong and formally acknowledge him as the true leader of the People of China thus renouncing Chiang Kai-Shek. Feng had spent many months on a lecture tour in the US telling people of the scorn he felt for his one-time leader. A carefully prepared and stage-managed effort to win the admiration of Mao.

After stopping off in Egypt to collect, according to one report, some 2000 Armenian repatriates which seems a huge number for what was a relatively small ship, the Pobeda resumed on its course to the Black sea eventually dropping off their Armenian passengers in Georgia before the last leg of its journey to Odessa and the mother country. The fate that awaited these passengers is a matter of history, many were tortured by the KGB and many simply disappeared.

It was shortly after that last stop, it was a 30-hour journey in calm conditions, that disaster struck, a fire broke out onboard the Pobeda, it claimed the lives of two crew members and 40 passengers. Amongst the dead was our Chinese friend, Feng.

Whilst the official story was that Russian crew members, the Captain, the Telegrapher and the Dispatcher had been negligent and caused the fire in a media storage room filled with film and other flammable materials. Stalin, though, placed the blame on the Armenian repatriates, he was convinced that there were American spies amongst them and they were planning to set the oil fields of Russia ablaze and generally cause havoc. Havoc certainly describes the events on the Poboda.

What of Fedosimov?

Within the context of the Pavel Fedosimov story, where exactly would this fit?

According to reports, Fedosimov was amongst a number of other Russian diplomats on board the Poboda when it left New York on 31st July 1948. We have no confirmation of that and a future post will discuss another option.

How difficult would it have been for a man to, at the last minute, join 2000 repatriate Armenians and leave the Pobeda at Batumi in Georgia? How difficult would it have been for a man like Pavel to work his way across the continent and head for Australia? Could it be that there were indeed US agents on board and could they have facilitated his escape? And, indeed, why would they? The answer to the latter question requires some further serious digging.

In the view of this writer, Fedosiomov leaving the Pobeda, if he was ever on it, is a distinct possibility there's more to follow on the intriguing story of the man 'Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov code-named STEPAN.

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Saturday 27 July 2019

SOMERTON MAN: KGB; VASSILIEV'S NOTEBOOKS, DOWNLOAD




The Wilson Centre website contains a great deal of valuable and sometimes hard to find information on declassified International History.

Amongst the many documents of interest, you will find 'Vassiliev's Notebooks'. As the name implies, the page has a comprehensive set of notebooks that relate to the activities of the KGB in the early days of the Cold War, it is recommended reading for any researcher or student with a serious interest in the events of the time. As you will read, there are a number of mentions of Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov in the documents, none of which I could find were dated after Agust 1948.

The files and PDFs can be downloaded or read online in a variety of formats.

I suggest that you read the File Guide first followed by the Concordance and then the various notebooks. 

The work that Alexander Vassiliev has put into these documents is astonishing, the detail and perspective will amaze you. I heartily recommend these notes and sincerely congratulate Alexander on these significant documents which are of enormous historical value.
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Friday 26 July 2019

SOMERTON MAN: FEDOSIMOV VIDEOS AND IMAGES COLLECTION



THIS PAGE WILL BE GRADUALLY FILLED WITH VARIOUS IMAGES
AND VIDEO CLIPS RELATED TO
PAVEL FEDOSIMOV





This first video is a close-up tour of the original and only known photograph of Pavel, in this one he is at a NY airport with Novikov.  You will clearly see the heavy application of photo varnish and also Pavel's large hands, gappy teeth and joined ears that appear to be a match to SM. In my view, there is a mask shaped shadow around Pavel's mouth and nose which gives a wrong impression of its shape.

PAVEL'S NOSE:
The image below shows the shadow shape in more detail, the 3rd, negative image actually shows it up quite well. This shadowing is not seen on Novikov's face at all. The gappy teeth are quite pronounced.




In the example below, we can see how lighting/shadows can make an attached ear look as though it is lobed. The images to the left and right show attached ears whilst the central image appears otherwise. This is the same effect that we see in the Fedosimov image in my view.

In the left-hand side image, you can also see that the nose appears to be bulbous yet in both of the other images, that is not the case:



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Sunday 21 July 2019

THE SOMERTON MAN: FEDOSIMOV WAS BRANDED A TRAITOR TO RUSSIA, THE KGB FILES



FEDOSIMOV RECALLED TO RUSSIA TO FACE CHARGES OF PLANNING TO BETRAY HIS HOMELAND

FEDOSIMOV, CODE NAME STEPAN

(On Left above)

THE RECALL

Why was Pavel recalled to Russia on 31st. July 1948? (Apparently on the POBEDA) According to KGB files, 'Stepan' //Fedosimov was recalled because he was suspected of planning to betray his Homeland. Another one of Stalin's Purges was underway and few who were recalled survived it.

There are a number of references and details to follow but for now, the emergence of this information clearly confirms Fedosimov as a prime candidate for being SM.

Background

Fedosimov was Acting Chief of New York Station (KGB) in the year leading up to his return to Russia.

Recently accessed KGB files show his involvement with a range of Espionage activities in the US including the smuggling of a pen-pistol, poisons, and explosives.

This man was clearly a trained KGB agent, he held a senior position which included tasks undertaken on the ENORMOZ project and the coordination of espionage activities for some of the World's most notorious Atom spies. He was also a close friend and ally/handler to Harry Dexter White. Those who follow this case will know that HDW died shortly after Fedosimov's departure, it was an overdose of Digitalis. The exact the same drug that is believed to have killed the Somerton Man.

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Tuesday 9 July 2019

SOMERTON MAN: A HIGH RES CODE PAGE?

                                                

FOUND ON STOCK PHOTO WEBSITE



Thought there might be some interest in this, Clive and I were discussing a book he had found that contained a copy of the code page on its center pages. The publishers kindly indicated that their code page had come from a stock photo website. So, I dutifully set about researching some of the stock photo sites and low and behold, on the ALAMY site there it was.

Some quick notes, the claim is made that its hi-resolution, it is actually 400 DPI. The dimensions differ to the dimensions found on the wiki page and so does the aspect ratio but not by much.

Interestingly, this was uploaded in 2009 according to the available details and it is claimed to be a Police Scan? This, I believe, predates the version found on the wiki page by almost a year. That suggests that the contrast and brightness on this page are correct and from the original image.

I am not about to 'strongly recommend' that everyone should use this code page for examination, it seems to me that that approach is best left to others less informed and skilled. I do think that this should be closely examined and compared to the original Wiki version which itself came from The Adelaide Advertiser as did another version made available by ex-Detective Sergeant Gerry Feltus, author of the book The Unknown Man.


Here's the actual code page as downloaded from the ALAMY stock photo website:


And here's the link to the page on ALAMY...  There are one or two differences between the page displayed on the site and the page downloaded, the first letter M, in particular, stands out on the website image and a few other bits worth closer examination. For example, above the first line, second letter 'A' slightly to the left there appears to be a letter X with a string of tiny numbers just above it.

I am about to run a comparison between this code page and the Wiki version. Interesting isn't it?




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